Formula Student Competition

Formula Student is the world’s largest engineering competition for students, founded in 1981 by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) in the United States. The competition bridges the gap between the “theoretical knowledge” taught at colleges and universities and practical experience both on and off the racetrack. The challenge is to develop, design, and build a regulation-compliant formula race car over the course of a year. Today, over 500 teams worldwide compete against each other with their race cars in a series of competitions. However, it’s not just about the fastest car, but about the team with the best overall package, consisting of design, cost calculation, sales planning, and performance on the racetrack.

Formula Student Team Weingarten

The Formula Students team at Ravensburg-Weingarten University of Applied Sciences is a group of dedicated students who have been working on building a Formula Student race car since March 2008. Since 2018, the team has been designing and building two Formula vehicles: a CV (Combustion Vehicle) and a DV (Driverless Vehicle), i.e., an autonomous vehicle.

Figure 1: Stinger25E at Formula Student Czech

Starting with the 2021 season, we were developing an EV (Electric Vehicle) for the first time. In this year, we present our fifth electric race car, building upon the successes of our previous EV generations. Despite the transition to electric vehicles, our team achieved an impressive second place in the "Acceleration event" two years in a row.

We have also consistently excelled in static disciplines such as the Cost Report, securing top-three finishes in recent years — including first place at FS Spain 2022 and FSCzech 2023, as well as second place at FS East 2024.

Our motivation lies in tackling challenging projects that confront us with the day-to-day challenges of the development process. In doing so, we learn to work in a team, coordinate teams, and select the optimal solution from various implementation options. Both technical and economic considerations are taken into account. This fosters interdisciplinary collaboration across all faculties at Ravensburg-Weingarten University of Applied Sciences.

Figure 2: FSTW team photo

Our challenges

Figure 3:The Steering Gearbox Housing of the Stinger26E

The steering gearbox housing shown above is a mission-critical component of our latest electric race car. As the heart of our steering system, it fulfills two vital roles:

Power Transmission:

It houses the pinion that translates the driver’s steering input with high precision to the rack and, ultimately, the wheels. Maintaining tight tolerances for the bearing seats and the pinion interface is essential to ensure a direct, play-free steering feel.

Structural Integration:

The housing serves as the primary connection point for bonded carbon fiber tubes, which guide and protect the steering rack. This requires good surface quality and dimensional accuracy to ensure a secure adhesive bond and perfect alignment of the entire assembly.

Figure 4: The Upper Pullrod Link

The component shown is the upper attachment of our suspension’s pullrod system. It serves as the critical interface that redirects impact forces from the tires into the dampers.

Technical Challenge: Due to the low-slung packaging of our suspension, this part is subjected to high tensile loads whenever the vehicle compresses. To handle these forces while maintaining our strict weight targets, the part features a highly optimized, organic geometry. This design ensures that every gram of material is placed exactly where it is needed to withstand the stress of high-speed cornering and track irregularities.

Why we need you as a partner

The performance of our race car depends on high-precision CNC components, like our steering housing that must balance extreme stiffness with minimal weight. As an agile manufacturer, your fast turnaround times and digital manufacturability feedback are the catalysts we need to shorten our development cycles and get prototypes onto the track faster.

By partnering with us, you do more than just supply parts; you enable the realization of complex 5-axis engineering projects under real-world racing conditions. In return, you gain international visibility in an innovation-driven environment and direct access to a pool of highly-trained engineering talent, showcasing how your cutting-edge processes are driving the future of mobility.

formula-student@rwu.de

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