As you are all well aware I’m a bit of a motor racing fan and a visit to the British Grand Prix with my brother and nephew is an annual event. I’ve taken my nine-year-old son to a few events at Silverstone over the years and we were all looking forward to enjoying a day at Formula Student when we were recently asked if we’d like to attend. Having spent the previous weekend there for the Grand Prix, it was a very different experience, but really interesting.
I’d not heard of the five-day event before, which is celebrating its twenty-first birthday this year, so was interested to find out more about it. One hundred and thirty teams from across the world take part in this educational engineering competition and I wanted to show my young son what opportunities are possible to young adults interested in motorsport. Having followed the sport since I was a very small child, I’m more than well aware that you can have the best racing driver in the world, but without the engineering team behind them, there is no car to race.
The event showcases the young motorsport engineers of the future as well as offering youngsters with an interest in engineering the chance to see what opportunities are available.
University students take part in the event, often as part of their degree project and this year the winning team came from the University of Modena with Oxford Brookes University coming second for the second year running.
The general public can spend time enjoying a day at Formula Student for three days of the event – Friday through to Sunday.
We got to enjoy looking around the various garages which my son loved. It’s always been my belief that the way to engage the future generation in my favourite sport is to give them access to the teams, drivers and cars. It’s where I think F1 fails these days, but that’s a whole different post. My son got to see the students at work prepping their cars and then putting them through their passes in break tests, engine tests and on the endurance track.
There was a good variation to keep him entertained and it was all held between Brooklands and Copse, so very little walking was involved compared to the previous Grand Prix weekend.
Ticket prices start at £10 for adults, with a three-day weekend ticket costing £25 and with children under the age of fifteen entering for free, enjoying a day at Formula Student is a different way to enjoy motorsport and one we’ve enjoyed experiencing.
disclosure: we received complimentary tickets for the event in exchange for an honest review
