Cardiff Racing Formula Student Team

After competitive results from FSUK 2021, Cardiff Racing are back for their 19th year at Formula Student and bringing their strongest car yet. CR18 represents a blend of innovation and improvement over the team’s past successes, building on areas of strength and ironing out areas of weakness.

Established in 2002 by then undergraduate student Richard Elliot, Cardiff Racing has a rich history as a part of Formula Student. The team welcomes students from many disciplines, both from within the field of engineering and outside of it. Our first car was fielded in 2004, and the team was quick to achieve results, placing 2nd in the UK competition in our second year of competing. From here we continued to progress steadily, with the highlight being the 2017 season. The car from this year – CR13 – placed 1st in FSUK, making us the first UK team to win the UK event.

This year, the car retains the team’s staple hybrid aluminium honeycomb monocoque/steel spaceframe chassis construction, playing to the properties of each material, but with greater emphasis on optimising serviceability and structural stiffness. The team again makes use of the powerful Triumph 675 Street Triple engine, this time packing a 102 BHP punch controlled via electronic throttle body, while CR18’s aerodynamics package has been optimised for both durability and performance. Cardiff Racing are going into the competition with clear goals and the car to match them and are eager to get back on track.

Looking to the future, Cardiff Racing is branching out from combustion vehicles. Current third- and fourth-year students are undertaking research projects to supply Cardiff Racing with an electric solution to ease the transition into an electric powertrain car in the near future. We also have a driverless team, who are developing the necessary systems to enable a driverless entry. We will soon be looking to secure the funding to build a full-scale autonomous prototype.

We are incredibly grateful to have been selected for the Formula Student + UAS Build Fund and to all of our sponsors. Without their support and expertise, it would be much harder to build and race a competitive car each year.

TEAM!