Formula One is the pinnacle of motorsport. And if you're reading this post, there's a decent chance that you're dreaming of working in legendary F1 someday.
If you haven't heard anything of Formula Student before, you're not alone. This project is something you can't miss out on if you're attracted to high-tech vehicles, speed, and cutting-edge driving technologies. So, let's take a closer look at what Formula Student is, why it is so important for a career in motorsport, and how you can get involved.
What is Formula Student?
Formula Student is a student-led motorsport engineering competition where the universities around the world compete against each other to take the crown for the best Formula Student team on the planet. Engineering students or anyone who wants to get involved need to design and build a car, manage the finances, infrastructure, and team growth. In essence, it's a small-scale operation replicating that of a proper race team. Towards the end of the academic year, the period when you normally need to cope with your exams and get paytowriteessays.com to help you, the teams come together and participate in yearly competitions all around the world. So, let's take a deeper look at what the competition actually involves because it's quite different to the conventional motorsport competitions of Formula One, Formula E, etc.
How Does the Competition Work?
Instead of a racing calendar format spread over the year with races taking place at various different tracks, it's a selection of events around the world every year where cars are judged on a point basis. And the judging is split into two different categories: static events and dynamic events. Static events are essentially where the technical build of the car and business operations are judged, and it's formatted as follows: the engineering design of a car, cost and manufacturing, the business plan presentation, and finally, a technical inspection involving tests on the safety, chassis, tilt, brake, etc. There are also dynamic events where your car is actually put onto a track and tested across various different events. Firstly, there's the skidpad event where the cars undergo a series of figure eights, the autocross sprint event, the 75-meter acceleration test, and most importantly, the longer distance endurance test. These are all designed to test and assess how each car performs.
Managing Formula Student Team
Of course, a racing team is way more than just the car and the mechanics who build it. For any team's success, one needs to organize logistics, find reliable sponsors, sources of finance, and handle other non-racing-related tasks. And Formula Student is no different. In term of how teams are funded, money may come from a variety of places. Firstly, one can receive funding from their university, which can come as a basic cash payment, as well as in the form of components and materials, sponsorships, and technical partners that supply the team with car parts and accessories.
Why is Formula Student Important?
Formula Student is an extremely valuable project for both Formula One teams and current college students aspiring to work in the motorsport industry. This project provides auto racing teams with a pool of enthusiastic, skillful, highly motivated, and experienced analysts, engineers, managers, and mechanics to scout out and hire. If you look at the current employees in a Formula One team, a common theme among them will be that they took part in Formula Student one way or another. So, for someone looking to work in Formula One or motorsport, Formula Student can be the best bet.
How to Get Involved?
Now you might be wondering how you can become part of a vibrant, ingenious, and so promising Formula Student community. Well, if you're currently studying at a university and eager to get involved, look whether your educational institutions compete and dive straight in. If you haven't got into a uni yet, make sure to take into consideration whether your preferred school offers Formula Student to make the right decision. Among the best options to choose from are University of Bath, University of Southampton, University of Toronto, Hunan University (Changsha), Qingdao Technological University, Czech Technical University in Prague, University of Southern Denmark (Odense), Berlin School of Economics, Northern Illinois University, California State University, and others.
So, take advantage of the opportunities presented by Formula Student and move ahead towards your successful career in F1. Per aspera ad astra!
