Taking charge
Electric racecars competed at FSUK way back in 2007 – four years before Formula E was even conceived
Formula Student may be an engineering competition for universities, but the innovations showcased by these racecars are often a step ahead of the motorsport industry. For example, autonomous cars are now fully integrated into the competition and the first electric racecars competed at FSUK way back in 2007 – four years before Formula E was even conceived.
In fact, in 2016 the electric FS car from AMZ racing set a world record for the fastest-accelerating electric vehicle, achieving 0-100km/h in just 1.513s, which still stands today. In comparison the new generation of Formula E cars accelerate from 0-100km/h in 2.8s. Although this is not an entirely fair comparison as Formula E and electric FS are designed to a completely different rule set, it does highlight the incredible standard of engineering within these FS cars.
Today, over 32 per cent of FSUK teams are now electric, with 39 teams also competing in the electric category of Formula Student Germany. It is no longer just the well-resourced outfits that are taking on the electric challenge, but the smaller teams are too.
Plugging in
As with any racecar, the first port of call is the rulebook, and for electric Formula Student cars complying with the rules is extremely tough. ‘One of the most important things to realise when competing in electric FS is that you have to go through two sets of entirely different scrutineering at competition,’ says Ben Carretta, technical manager at Team Bath Racing Electric. ‘As well as the standard scrutineering you also have to go through an accumulator [battery] scrutineering and a full electrical scrutineering. It feels like the rules are trying to make you jump through a lot of unnecessary hoops, but when you start building the car, the rules are actually quite a sensible guidebook on how to design a safe electric racecar.
‘For an electric FS team starting up I would say that the most fundamental thing is to have a simple and reliable system, one that you know is going to work, and then pay close attention to the rules,’ Carretta adds.
With this in mind, most