The competition

What is Formula Student?

Formula Student is the world's largest engineering design competition. University teams design, build, and race formula style vehicles, judged on engineering excellence, cost efficiency, and performance.

It runs as a season, not a weekend. Teams spend a full academic year taking a car from a blank sheet through design, manufacturing and testing, then bring it to an international event to be measured against universities from across the world. The competition deliberately rewards more than lap time, which is why teams are built from every discipline: mechanical, electrical, software, business and design.

How the competition works

A competition is split into static events, judged off the track, and dynamic events, driven on it. Every car must first pass technical scrutineering, a full safety inspection, before it is allowed to run. Points from both halves are added together to decide the standings.

Static events

325 pts

Judged by industry engineers. Won in the workshop and the spreadsheet, long before the car turns a wheel.

  • Engineering DesignJudges interrogate every design decision and the reasoning behind it.150
  • Cost ReportA full bill of materials and manufacturing plan for the car.100
  • Business Plan PresentationPitch the car as a commercial product to a panel of investors.75

Dynamic events

675 pts

Driven over several days. Endurance alone is worth roughly a third of the entire competition, finishing it is the first real goal for any new team.

  • Acceleration75 m from a standing start.75
  • SkidpadA figure of eight measuring steady state cornering grip.75
  • AutocrossA single flying lap that also sets the Endurance starting order.100
  • EnduranceTimed long distance race. The event that decides most competitions.325
  • EfficiencyEnergy consumed over Endurance, scored against your pace.100

Total available

1000

Scoring shown follows the Formula Student Germany electric ruleset. Individual competitions weight events slightly differently, this is an example of how a real ruleset can look like.