Oxford Brookes Racing teams celebrate success at Formula Student UK 2025
Oxford Brookes University’s Formula Student teams enjoyed another successful weekend at Silverstone in the flagship motorsport competition for student engineers.
Held from 17 to 21 July at Silverstone, the home of the British Grand Prix, Formula Student UK 2025 brought together more than 80 teams from universities around the world to showcase engineering innovation, technical skill and teamwork.
Oxford Brookes entered two teams in this year’s event: its Electric Vehicle (EV) team, competing in the main Formula Student class, and OBRA (Oxford Brookes Racing Autonomous), which develops and races fully self-driving cars.
Both teams started the weekend in style, winning first place in the acceleration challenge – a test of how quickly cars can launch from a standing start. These wins marked the first two trophies of the weekend and were a highlight for the student engineers.
The Electric Vehicle team finished third overall out of 59 entries, taking home three trophies:
- Multimatic Vehicle Dynamics Excellence Award (recognising outstanding vehicle dynamics including handling, suspension design and overall drivability)
- Faraday Institution Best EV Powertrain Award (recognising the most innovative and efficient electric powertrain, the system that generates and delivers power to the wheels)
- Avonside Formula Student Acceleration Winner (awarded for the fastest time in the acceleration event – a test of how quickly the car can launch from a standing start)
Meanwhile, the Autonomous team placed second overall out of 26 international competitors, taking home two trophies:
- FS-AI Acceleration Award (awarded for the fastest time in the acceleration event – a test of how quickly the car can launch from a standing start)
- Second overall place in the competition
Dr Andrew Bradley, Faculty Adviser for Oxford Brookes Racing Autonomous and Head of the University’s Autonomous Driving and Intelligent Transport group, said: “I am immensely proud of the students. They have worked incredibly hard all year, and to see their efforts pay off makes all their late nights so much more worthwhile. There's a lot of cutting-edge technology in the vehicle, meaning that the students are learning skills that set them up to be the Autonomous Vehicle engineers, software developers and business people of tomorrow.”
The Electric Vehicle team competed in the main Formula Student class, designing and building an electric racing car from scratch. The team also completed the gruelling endurance event, one of the toughest challenges of the competition, made even harder by the weekend’s wet conditions.
Gordana Collier, Head of the School of Engineering and Principal Academic Adviser for Oxford Brookes Racing, said: “I am very proud and impressed with the EV team’s performance. The car they designed and built was the most advanced on the track.
“More immediately, we’ve already seen a record number of industrial placements due to this experience and are watching our graduates win their dream jobs in the motorsport industry this summer.” Students have gone on to complete placements and secure jobs in companies including Atlassian Williams F1, Redbull F1 and Redbull Technologies, McLaren Automotive, Mercedes F1 and many more.
The Autonomous team now takes a well-earned break to plan how to challenge this year’s winner, the University of Edinburgh. Meanwhile the Electric Vehicle team is preparing for its next international test at Formula Student Czech Republic, taking place from 4 to 9 August.
Learn more about the motorsport engineering degrees offered at Oxford Brookes University.
Photo: the OBRA team with their car. Photo: Formula Student UK IMechE.