Oxford Brookes Racing take home 7 awards from Silverstone

The team won the prestigious Formula Student Engineering Design and the Lap Time Simulation (Formula Student Class) awards for their all-electric racing car which was unveiled at Oxford Brookes University’s Headington Campus last month. 

OBR also took part in the FS-AI competition which challenges University teams to build and develop driving systems for a fully autonomous vehicle. The team came away holding the awards for the Business Plan, Autonomous Design, Simulation Development categories, and the overall award for Static Events in their category

Student Taichi Yoshida from Japan who is studying BEng Motorsport Engineering, was awarded the Craig Dawson Most Valuable Team Member award. Taichi had a serious accident and was hospitalised during the year but he continued with his contribution and leadership as Chief Mechanical Engineer on the OBR team during his recovery. He also has a very hands-on approach to managing his group of students, always with a smile. The award was created in memory of former Oxford Brookes student Craig Dawson, who sadly passed away in 2011. Craig’s passion for motorsport was insatiable and as a student of Oxford Brookes he got involved in FS with an early car in 2000. 

OBR Team Leader, Ole Ramming, a Masters student in Motorsport Engineering, said:

“It was fantastic to bring the team back to Silverstone in full strength after the seasons impeded by COVID-19, and it was great to meet so many teams in person. 

“Bringing back some silverware is a great reward for all the work our team members have invested in the past nine months and winning the Engineering Design Award in particular gives us a brilliant foundation to work on for the coming seasons.”

Formula Student at Silverstone, launched in 1981, is the largest student motorsport competition in the world. Teams from across the globe compete by designing and building their own single-seat race cars. The cars are judged across the weekend on speed, acceleration and endurance. Competing teams can enter all-electric or combustion cars, and each year sees over 100 teams across 30 countries enter.

This year, over 60 Oxford Brookes students competed in OBR and over the last 20 years, more than 1,500 students at Oxford Brookes University have contributed to the team.

Gordana Collier, Head of the School of Engineering at Oxford Brookes, and the Principal Academic Adviser for OBR, who celebrates 10 year of involvement with FS, said: “I’m delighted with OBR’s results at  Formula Student this weekend, which has continued our strong history at the competition.

“This challenging project is producing exceptional graduates, with participants securing sought-after jobs at companies such as Williams Advanced engineering, Mercedes HPP and Formula One. I can safely say that Oxford Brookes is producing the engineering leaders of the future and the top level motorsport and automotive electrification will be carried out by our graduates.”

More information on Engineering at Oxford Brookes University can be found on the School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics webpage.