Oxford Brookes Racing Prepares for Formula Student Competition
At the Oxford Brookes Headington campus, over 100 students are actively engaged in constructing the fastest and most well-designed race car for this year’s Formula Student competition.
Oxford Brookes Racing (OBR) is recognised as the UK’s leading Formula Student team. They have secured more design awards than any other UK university and consistently rank among the top competitors internationally.
Beyond Competition: Industry Recognition and Career Opportunities
The competition, held annually at Silverstone, carries significance beyond winning trophies. Many alumni from Oxford Brookes Racing have secured positions within Formula One teams. Success in Formula Student is critical for gaining industry attention, as engineering roles in motorsport often attract over 10,000 applicants.
“A lot of the coverage on TV is based around the drivers, but not really the actual engineers,” said Thomas Cawdery, team manager and third-year motorsports technology student. “This is what you don’t see in Formula One. The engineers who make it happen.”
Student-Run Team and Engineering Excellence
The team is entirely student-run. Within their two buildings, numerous students are diligently working—some are hand-cutting and shaping a carbon fibre chassis, while others run simulations on computers that generate significant heat. Students of various ages collaborate, sharing knowledge and skills.
While the power output of these student-built cars is limited for safety reasons compared to actual Formula One cars, the complexity is comparable. Cawdery explained,
“They’re the same if not more complex than Formula One cars.”
Moreover, the student cars incorporate technologies not permitted in Formula One, such as torque vectoring, which involves powering each wheel with its own motor to enhance cornering, traction, and performance in wet conditions.
Gender Balance and Leadership in Engineering
OBR’s engineering team demonstrates a better gender balance than the wider motorsport industry, where women constitute just over 10% of engineers in most teams.
Emma Deery, a first-year mechanical engineering student, was observed sanding components alongside other engineers while motorsports played on a nearby television.
“In the industry, a lot of women find themselves the only woman on their team,” she said. “Here it’s different. We have a lot more women and a lot of women in leadership roles. It’s really encouraging.”
Innovation and Industry Attention
Despite operating with a fraction of the size and budget of a Formula One team, OBR’s achievements attract attention from major industry figures. Ross Brawn, former Formula One managing director, has remarked,
“There are two really innovative forms of motorsport left. One of them is Formula One and the other one is Formula Student.”
This summer, the OBR team will compete for the top position among 103 teams representing 27 countries.
Robin Bailes, now an engineer at Mercedes and a former Oxford Brookes Formula Student competitor, highlighted the competition’s value as a recruitment tool, stating,
“What some teams create in terms of engineering is very high level. And generally speaking, Formula Student has very open rules, so innovation comes through from students that you might not see in traditional motorsport.”
Strategic Location in Motorsport Valley
The team benefits from being located in an area known as Motorsport Valley, approximately an hour’s drive from the headquarters of multiple Formula One teams including Red Bull, Lotus, McLaren, Alpine, Mercedes-AMG, Cadillac, TGR Haas, and Williams.
Proximity to Silverstone allows students to conduct tests conveniently, as some did recently during a lunch break. Additionally, being near parts suppliers who serve both student teams and professional Formula One teams is advantageous.
International Team and Personal Experiences
Sébastien Cavedon, OBR’s operations manager, relocated from Switzerland to the UK to pursue a master’s degree in motorsports engineering and join the team.
“Honestly,” he said, “being from a country where motorsport isn’t that big of a deal, then coming here where motorsports is huge … it’s really life changing.”
