Formula Student at the University of Bath was founded by Nick Vaughan (now a competition judge) back in 2000 under the name BURT01 (Bath University Racing Team 2001). The team entered the Class 3 – now Class 2 – category in 2001 and subsequently Class 1 in 2001.

Vaughan left the University in 2002 and stewardship of the team was taken on by Dr Geraint “Speed” Owen and Dr Kevin Robinson. The University continued to enter vehicles into Formula Student that focussed on technically advanced designs including 2 with turbochargers (BURT03 and BURT04) one with a supercharger (BURT05) and 2 with carbon composite chassis’ (BURT04 and BURT05). Despite their excellent and ambitious designs these cars had mixed results, ranging from a 6^th place finish at Silverstone for BURT03 to a disappointing 36^th with BURT04. Indeed there were some technical triumphs with BURT05’s carbon composite chassis being the stiffest chassis ever to be produced by the team. This car won the Class 3 event the previous year and went on to win the Acceleration event in Class 1 before a technical failure ended its Endurance run and hopes of a top 10 finish – BURT05 finished 18^th overall that year.

Unfortunately, this mix of results did not meet the high standards set by the University of Bath and so in 2006 the team was rebranded as Team Bath Racing (TBR) bringing a shift in focus to designing more competitive and reliable cars. TBR06 won the Class 3 event in 2005 and went finish a respectable 13^th overall in Class 1. Whilst this was still below where TBR wanted to be, TBR06 was to be the foundation for all future builds.

TBR07 was a huge success, not only finishing 6^th overall but taking the title of the top UK team for the first time. Not to be outdone, TBR08 went one better and not only retained that title but finished an astonishing 4^th overall the following year. TBR finally cemented their place at the top of the UK rankings with retaining the title of top UK team for a 3^rd consecutive year and finishing 4^th overall yet again with TBR09.

Unfortunately this success has been interrupted for the past couple of seasons. Despite some brilliant design changes TBR10 fell to 8^th place overall and lost out on the title of the top ranked UK team. Despite this still being an excellent achievement, it was not taken lightly and the following year TBR vowed to make up for this.

Last year saw Relentless provide title sponsorship and saw RTBR11 travel to the USA for the first time in the team’s history. A 5^th placed finish overall at the Auto Club Speedway in California announced their intentions before travelling to Silverstone later the following month. Unfortunately the initial achievements did not continue and a combination of horrendous luck and even worse weather ended RTBR11’s endurance event prematurely, leaving the team in 16^th overall. If the team had maintained the pace set early in the endurance RTBR11 would have become the first ever winner of Formula Student UK, but it was not to be. Equal measures of bad luck followed in Germany as only 4 laps from the end a simple washer broke, slamming the throttle shut and ending the dream once again.

Despite this, RTBR11 ended their campaign with the highest tally of awards ever achieved by the University of Bath in Formula Student. TBR12 have learned from the setbacks of RTBR11 and are ready to challenge for the title at Silverstone and in Austria once again. This year will see a return to the top for the UK’s Leading Formula Student Team!