A record number of electric and autonomous vehicles are set to do battle in this year’s Formula Student competition, which will see thousands of engineering students from over 30 countries travelling to Silverstone in July to take part in the event.

The competition, organised by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, challenges the students to use their creativity and technical skills to design, build and race single-seat cars.

Mirroring real-world trends of vehicle electrification, this year’s line-up features 33 electric-vehicle entries (compared with 24 last year).

Similarly, FS-AI has more than doubled in size after its inaugural competition last year, with teams from Egypt and Australia as well as UK universities joining 2019 winners Edinburgh University in the challenge to develop the
best autonomous-vehicle systems.

Lucy Killington, Formula Student project manager, said: “FS-AI has really taken off, with 12 teams from all over the world participating.

"This is a huge increase on last year’s five teams and a real testament to the UK’s competition model, which offers the opportunity for budding CAV (connected and autonomous vehicles) engineers to use the IMechE’s ADS-DV (automated driving system — dedicated vehicle), if they don’t have the resources to build their own.”

Formula Student chairman Andrew Deakin said: “The expansion of the FS-AI competition this year is really exciting, and we are very grateful for the support of all our partners to keep this side of the competition growing.

"Formula Student has always been proud of the work it does to prepare students for the real world of industry, and FS-AI will help us achieve that in the ever-expanding area of autonomous vehicles.”

The electric and FS-AI competitions are in addition to the traditional event for internal-combustion vehicles. Over 130 teams will be lining up on the grid this year, including ‘first timers’ from Russia, Nigeria, Hong Kong and Cyprus. Further details can be found at the Web site (www.formulastudent.com).