Engineering students test their skills with open-wheel electric racing cars
For those who haven’t heard of Formula SAE – it’s a set of design criteria created for engineering students to develop their practical engineering skills by building an open-wheel racing car. It started with fossil fuels, but now mostly focuses on electric drives.
The completed cars are then judged (and raced) at the annual event. Now running worldwide, FSAE began in the USA around 1980 and expanded to an international program in 1982. The inaugural event in the Australian region (managed by the Society of Automotive Engineers-Australasia) was held in 2000.
It’s worth noting here that the FSAE is designed to be more of an engineering competition than a driver competition.
Teams are given a competition scenario of a fictitious manufacturing company that contracts a student design team to develop a small formula-style racing car. “Winning” is therefore based on more than just outright placings in track events, and a team can take a number of paths to claim overall victory.
Points to determine the overall winner of the competition are scored for the so-called “static” and “dynamic” phases. The first and second days are dedicated to static events.
These include business case presentations and reports on costs and more on vehicle design. Days three and four comprise a dynamic stage that includes four races on the track, culminating in an ‘endurance’ race where vehicles must complete a set number of laps around the Calder Raceway. (Located on the western edge of Melbourne).
Days one and two also involve a rigorous series of voting steps. Vehicles must pass through them to be considered safe (and compliant) before proceeding to dynamic events.
Another significant part of the FSAE experience is the presence of international teams. These not only enable the sharing of engineering ideas from around the world, but also pave the way for potential future cross-border partnerships.
International participants this year include Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember from Indonesia, Tokyo Denki University from Japan, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, as well as several teams from New Zealand.
FSAE is also an evolving microcosm of the automotive industry. At first it was exclusively an internal combustion (IC) engine, but this engine has all but disappeared from the FSAE arena. Only 5 of the 30 competing vehicles this year are ICs, with two of them powered by ethanol (biofuel) and not fossil fuels!
This year’s event starts on Thursday 11 December and runs until Sunday 14 December at the Calder Park Motorsport Complex, Calder Park, Victoria. (Enter from the Calder Freeway). The best day to watch the action is Sunday the 14thThursday when an endurance event is in progress.
More information on the competing teams and their vehicles can be found at: https://www.saea.com.au/fsaea-2025-teams
Full disclosure: Bryce has been involved with a number of University FSAE EV teams over the years – both as a safety instructor and as an industry consultant. This year he worked with the University of Melbourne and Monash University motoring teams.
Bryce Gaton is an electric vehicle expert and contributor to The Driven and Renew Economy. He has been working in the electric vehicle sector since 2008 and is currently working as a trainer/supervisor of electrical safety in electric vehicles at the University of Melbourne. It also provides EV Transition support to business, government and the public through its EV Transition consultancy EVoption.