Organised by the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, with Ross Brawn Mercedes GP as its patron, Formula Student is an international competition for university students in which teams design and build a single-seater racing car, and then compete against each other in a variety of static and dynamic events designed to thoroughly test the quality and design of the students’ entries. The event has grown each year since its creation as Formula SAE in the US in 1980, and now involves over 400 universities worldwide, competing in 7 countries.

The aim of the competition is to “develop excellence in engineering” by giving young engineers the opportunity to put theory learned in lectures into practice, and to develop their skills working as part of a high performance team in a competitive environment.

The competition also contains a marketing and business element; the design is presented as a product for a model business designing and building race-cars for the weekend motor-racing market. Students are required to consider company structure, management, marketing and finances, and in doing so develop a more complete understanding of the commercial side of engineering.