The Italian team from University of Modena and Reggio Emilia become two-time winners at the Formula Student UK Competition during the MathWorks closing ceremony.

For 25 years, the UK Formula Student competition has challenged student teams to produce a working prototype of a single-seat race car for autocross or sprint racing, with a combination of formal presentations and on-track dynamic events used to test their engineering skills.

Despite conditions going from damp to wet at Silverstone during the Saturday, teams braved the rain and slippy conditions to post their best times across multiple events. The rain lessened by Sunday and the track eventually dried, leading to an exciting Endurance event at Copse corner that also featured a parade with previous entrants from Glasgow, Aberdeen and Birmingham to celebrate the competition’s anniversary.

Although having been absent from the competition since their last outing and maiden win in 2019, the Italian team from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia returned to the UK in fine form, with their combustion entry scoring several other awards this year. Staffordshire University were equally delighted with their runner up position and Oxford Brookes University clinched third place while retaining the coveted Engineering Design for a second year running. Egypt’s Ain Shams University also showed excellent development year on year by securing the Concept Class Overall Winner for 2023.

Modena’s sister team MoRe Modena Racing Hybrid also had success this year, claiming the title of the first hybrid combustion/electric vehicle to get through scrutineering and out on to the track at Silverstone Copse corner.

In another first in the competition’s history, teams running petrol engines had the chance to run new biofuels offered by Coryton and Motorsport UK, in a bid towards running a more sustainable competition. These were used by a number of combustion entries this year, including overall winners from Modena who were running an E85 fuel.

David Richardson, business development director at Coryton, said: “It’s been fantastic to see sustainable fuel in action for the first time at Formula Student this year, and we were delighted how many teams decided to take up the option of running on second generation advanced biofuel. It’s important that people see in practice that sustainable fuel is a drop in solution, with no modifications to engines required – and as clearly shown by the competitors at this event, no drop in performance. Well done to everyone who took part in Formula Student – it’s great to see the industry is in safe hands going forward!”

Ian Smith, Technical Director for Motorsport UK said: “Congratulations to all the teams on their professional submissions to the 2023 edition of Formula Student. A particular compliment to the team from Modena, winners of the 2023 Motorsport UK Sustainable Fuels Award for their incredibly successful incorporation of sustainable fuels in their design.”

2023 was the first year that the competition’s Sim Racing finals were held in tandem with the main competition’s events at Williams Esports’ headquarters at Grove. With over 45 teams taking part in the finals event that was streamed live, it marked the culmination of eight rounds of race events interspersed with engineering challenges designed to test the capabilities of teams to adapt and overcome racing scenarios. Across the series, the University of Glasgow presented a serious challenge to all competitors, claiming both Engineering Challenge Winner and Overall Winner titles this year.

Steven English, Director of Williams Esports: “We’ve been collaborating for some time, as we have shared interests in this space, so it’s great to formalise the relationship and allow us to build more mutual value together in future.“

Meanwhile the FS-AI competition continues to gather interest, with a record 20 entrants this year filling out the garages as they developed their autonomous driving systems. While first year entrants Edinburgh Napier and Glasgow posted strong fourth and third results respectively alongside Coventry, the FS-AI dynamic events were dominated by The University of Edinburgh, who went on to claim the overall win.

The Formula Student Organising committee is grateful for the support of partners MathWorks, Ansys, Bentley Motors and Red Bull Engineering Academy, FS-AI Partner Babcock International, and sponsors RS Grass Roots, MAHLE Powertrain, Polestar, The Faraday Institution, Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains, Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team, IPG Automotive, McLaren Applied, Newton Europe, AB Dynamics, Multimatic and Embed UK.

The full list of award winners and scores will be available on the Formula Student website.