Sheffield Formula Racing, SFR, is The University of Sheffield’s Formula Student team. We are comprised of around 70 Engineering undergraduates who each year design and manufacture a single-seater race car to compete at the FSUK competition at Silverstone, hosted by the iMechE.
At the start of every academic year, over 400 applicants from their 1st year of study apply to the team. It is a rigorous and challenging process through which the most dedicated and passionate 17 will join the team.
On the 4th of July, the team was invited to Aston Martin’s Technology Campus in Silverstone. The event was a fantastic insight into the routes into F1 through their placement and graduate schemes. The team thoroughly enjoyed the tour of the factory, from the carbon fibre layup rooms to the race control suite.
On the 21st of October, our team visited the AMRC to discuss and collaborate on our new design and manufacturing plan for our next generation of carbon fibre wheels.
We were shown around the composites centre and the industry leading research they are working on at their factory of the future. The day offered a fascinating insight into their state of the art tailored fibre placement capabilities and how it will help us optimise our carbon fibre wheel design.
On the 2nd of Feb the team was invited by charity Racing Pride to their first 'Accelerating Pride' event held at The British Motor Museum.
This involved various panel talks and discussions with all levels of the motorsport and automotive industry, from Aston Martin F1 to Lotus Cars about improving diversity and inclusion within the industry.
As winners of last years diversity and inclusions award, the team was honoured to be invited and strongly emphasise the message that increasing diversity within such a longstanding industry requires change at all levels of the ladder, from student groups to multi-national companies.
Each year, just after F1 has visited in July, we travel to Silverstone along with over 60 teams worldwide and compete in the Formula Student U.K. competition, hosted by the iMechE. The car and team are put through a range of static and dynamic events, focussed on Costing, Business plans, design reviews as well as Acceleration, Sprint, Endurance and Skidpan events for the Car.
The most recent car we built was SFR15, which unfortunately didn’t run at the competition. It was our first full carbon monocoque car. A key focus was to improve the volume of the exhaust due to previous issues passing the noise test. Another focus was to maintain being the lightest car at the competition, redesigning many parts to be made out of composite material, lowering our weight and improving our chances on track.
This year, with SFR16, we are refining our previous car, decreasing the weight and lowering the volume of the exhaust even further to pass scrutineering immediately, so we can redeem ourselves in the dynamic events. We are also looking to introduce new-to-SFR technologies such as a drag reduction system and a double muffler exhaust system.
In the background, we are hard at work designing SFR17, next year’s EV car. With SFR17 we are replacing the internal combustion engine with a high power 600V electric powertrain to make the move to a more sustainable car and future. This provides the current team and all future members with an invaluable learning experience and hands on access to innovative technology.
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Currently, we only take on students in their first year at the University of Sheffield. If this applies to you, and you’re interested in joining, please contact Mark Byers via email at Formula.Student@sheffield.ac.uk