Brookes students hit top gear
By Nela Riessova
A group of Oxford Brookes engineers have been named the top British team at Formula Student 2012, the world’s largest student motorsport contest.
The engineering team from Oxford Brookes beat 50 UK universities and came in 7th place overall out of more than 100 entries at Silverstone. The team presented the best lightweight single seat car with the best handling, weighing in at only 159.5 kg.
The Formula Student, run by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers since 1998, is the largest educational motorsport competition and encourages young students from all over the world to build, design and race an F1 style racing car within the space of one year.
All competing cars were judged on acceleration, speed, handling and endurance and students are tested on design, costing and their business presentation skills.
Jon Hilton, Chairman of Formula Student, said: “Formula Student not only acts as one of the best testing grounds for young engineers, but it is also one of the most exciting competitions on the motorsport calendar. No other international competition sees so many cars from so many countries go head to head.”
The team leader of the Oxford Brookes Racing, Giuseppe Naselli said: “The entire team really feel good especially because being the best UK team was on top of our goals list for the 2012 season.”
Naselli, who has been part of the Brookes Racing team since 2009, admitted: “ I do not think you can have a better vision of an entire car in any other placement opportunity than being a team leader in FS team where every single bit of the car, especially at Brookes, is designed and manufactured in house.”
In the overall competition, Chalmers University clinched victory in the tightest finish in the competition’s history. The Swedish students beat the electric car from Delft University of Technology by just 2.4 points, while The Monash University from Australia took third place.
There were high placed finishes for other UK teams including Liverpool John Moores and the University of Hertfordshire which came 12th and 15th respectively. The Hertfordshire students were denied a stronger placing thanks to an engine failure during the final endurance event.
Formula Student Top 10:
- Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden): 850.5 points (out of a maximum 1,000)
- Delft University of Technology (Netherlands): 848.1 points
- Monash University (Australia): 840.7 points
- TU Munich (Germany): 784.2 points
- University of Stuttgart (Germany): 778.6 points
- Tallinn University of Applied Sciences (Estonia) – 745.5 points
- Oxford Brookes University (UK) – 718.6 points
- UAS Amberg-Weiden (Germany) – 665.4 points
- UAS Zwickau (Germany) – 661.5 points
- TU Graz (Austria) – 590.5 points
