Student Electric Car Racers Compete at Silverstone

A group of Trinity College students building electric race cars have recently competed in a racing competition at Silverstone against teams from around the world.

Trinity students Codrutza-Maria Dragu, Jay Shah and Thomas Seabourne all took part in the Formula Student competition, which gives students from around the world a platform to hone their motorsport engineering skills under the guidance of experts in the field.

Held at the start of August, the students were part of a team of around 70 students based in the Department of Engineering Science who entered the competition with a car for the second year running.

Formula Student is one of the most established educational motorsport competitions and has been running more than 20 years. The competition aims to give students from around the world a platform to hone their motorsport engineering skills under the guidance of experts in the field.

Competing against 120 universities from across the globe, the Formula Student team were up against a strong line-up. The team successfully passed all primary scrutineering and safety tests with the car, which was the first challenge of the competition, being one of very few entrants to do so. While adverse weather conditions on the day of the event prevented the team from giving the car a serious run and very few cars successfully completed all stages of the competition, the Oxford team placed 55^th overall from around 120 entrants.

Codrutza-Maria Dragu, the team's Electrical Technical Manager, has recently completed her MEng degree in Engineering Science; she says: ‘As a team made of individuals from all years, colleges, subjects, and with different backgrounds, this has been an amazing opportunity to work together and apply the knowledge we learn at university to a physical project. I am grateful for all I have learned and for the friends I have made throughout my Oxford University Racing journey. Given the tremendous progress we made this year, I have no doubt that Oxford University Racing will be a team to watch out for on the track at next year's Formula Student competition!’