The student racing series shaping motorsport's future

Finally, FS-AI is an autonomous class that allows teams to develop either their own self-driving vehicle or a technology stack that is mounted to a shared chassis. These are then tested in similar fashion to those in the FS class.

It’s not all about speed, though. First, teams must pass scrutineering and a series of static tests, plus Dragons’ Den-style business presentations covering the design and cost of their cars – and, in FS-AI, ethical considerations. There are safety tests, too.

This stage alone is brutal. Of the 59 universities in the main competition, just 22 will attempt any of the weekend’s dynamic events, comprising tests for acceleration, endurance and energy efficiency, in addition to timed runs on a skidpan and an autotest route on the Silverstone circuit.

Students get to choose whether to develop internal combustion or electric powertrains, although, as one judge tells me, most teams are now ‘encouraged’ to use the latter by their universities’ bigwigs.

There are Balance of Performance measures for the two powertrains to ensure a fair contest across all aspects of the competition, but the most competitive teams tend towards electric vehicles, whose instant power delivery favours the low speeds involved (they usually top out at around 70-80mph).

The rulebook allows a lot of flexibility on chassis and body development, mandating basic structures and safety measures. The biggest split in the paddock is whether to develop aerodynamic packages. The tight, snaking layout of the sprint circuit means it’s hard to generate much downforce without fitting absurd spoilers and splitters, and there’s a limited window within which any benefit can be gained anyway.

One judge jokes that the easiest way to determine the financial backing behind a team is to see how much carbonfibre it has used and the size of its rear wing – plus the number of sponsors plastered onto it. The big European universities can summon budgets of €1 million, while some of the smaller British outfits are left to raid the back of the sofa.

Even the most polished teams still require a bit of Great British Bodgery, though. The University of Bath – one of the best-established teams here – have a can of Guinness Zero strapped to the back of their machine, functioning as a fluid reservoir.

So renowned is Formula Student’s demand for technical excellence, quick thinking and soft skills that this is where big firms are now coming to discover their future engineering stars. Some manufacturers will even outright decline to hire anyone who hasn’t been through the Formula Student programme.

JLR isn’t among those, but it does have a significant presence at the event. “For students to turn up here with their car already prepped, some of them are having struggles, some of them are flying through scrutineering, all of that builds into their determination, their ethos and showing that they are made for industry,” Dan Hammond, an engineering manager at the company, says.

He adds: “It’s that level where you are getting involved outside of the curriculum on an engineering subject. The technical skills can absolutely take you a long way, but those core soft skills, those business behaviours and how they’re able to apply themselves to the engineering and business presentations, all of that builds the kind of engineers of the future that we really want to have. That’s why we come here and canvass them, but also share our experiences.”

Emma Stopps, JLR’s early careers recruitment manager, says a key objective of the firm’s attendance at Formula Student is also to raise awareness of opportunities outside motorsport. “They’re asking about what they can get involved with in engineering, and it’s about filling that awareness gap,” she says. “I’ve already noticed a few gold-star candidates.”

Kyle Hey, a mechanical design engineer for Oxfordshire e-motor powerhouse Yasa and an alumnus of Formula Student with Oxford Brookes, says the competition helped him to develop the attitude required for a job in automotive. “Teamwork is very important, especially on late nights when things aren’t going so well,” he tells me. It’s all about building resilience but, he adds, “there are a lot of entertaining challenges”.

For teams, that opportunity to meet new people and figure out how to get the best out of each other is vital. Mark Byers, a second-year mechanical engineering student at the University of Sheffield and the marketing and comms director for Sheffield Formula Racing, says: “It’s about having those technical skills and also intra-team skills: project management, working with other people and how to deal with stuff when it goes wrong. Sometimes you’re putting them in the hot seat to make decisions and you’ve got to sort things out really quickly.

“Some people might struggle to have a really strong team bond, but we’re like one big family. It’s a small team of about 60 to 70 members, and we all know each other, which I don’t think many other teams can say. We all go out to the pub together, and being able to work in a team of people across many different years, in different degrees and cultures, there’s quite a strong sense that we’ve done the best job we can.”

It’s a view that’s echoed by Elliott Atkinson and Varad Kulkarni, head of driverless and head software engineer respectively for the University of Glasgow’s autonomous racing team. Atkinson explains she never planned to pursue a career in automotive, yet still loves “coming out here”.

She says: “The thing that drew me to Formula Student was the teamwork and collaboration behind it. The people you meet are some of the most amazing people ever, and we would never have met if it wasn’t for this society. I’ve met most of my best friends on this team.”

Ultimately, it’s this collaborative spirit that makes Formula Student so special. As I walk past the judging tent for the business briefings, I hear a group of English students bantering with a delegation from one of the several Egyptian universities competing in the Concept class.