Team Bath Racing 2017 is made up of final year undergraduate engineering students from the University of Bath, who compete annually at the Formula Student (FS) competition. This is Europe's most established educational motorsport competition, run by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE).

Today (Wednesday 31 May) the team unveiled the racing car they have spent 18 months designing and building, marking the beginning of the FS season where they will race in three events in three countries across Europe.

The University of Bath first started competing in the FS competition in 2000 as Bath University Racing Team, re-branding to Team Bath Racing in 2006. The team has been the UK’s top ranked team for three consecutive years and last season became the first British team to win an FS event anywhere in the world. As a result, they have risen to 5th out of 630 competing teams from universities across the globe.

The FS competition challenges student engineers to design, build and race a single seater formula race car. Each FS race event scrutinises a variety of aspects of each team’s racing car, ranging from manufacturing cost and vehicle design, to on-track performance metrics such as vehicle acceleration and fuel efficiency, and ultimately race pace.

Following today's launch event, the Bath student engineers will be working hard to finalise preparations ahead of the first FS event on 20-23 July, to be held at the home of British motor car racing, Silverstone. Following the UK event, the Bath team will compete in the Czech Republic & Germany.

Looking ahead to FS season, Team Bath Racing Business Manager, Sam Bunday, said: “After the success of last year’s team, we aren’t letting ourselves get complacent. The pressure is on to go one better, so we’re targeting to win at Silverstone. It’s the UK event’s 20th anniversary this year which coincides with the University’s 50th anniversary, so it seems like the perfect time to make history!

“We’ve innovated in every aspect of the car’s design this year and we couldn’t wait to share it with everyone at our launch. Now we’ll set our sights on the top step of the Silverstone podium.”

Academic lead and Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Dr Kevin Robinson added: “The past few years have been very successful for the team, and attracted a lot of very positive attention. The car designed for this year raises the bar even further in several key technical areas and presents the students with a huge challenge to get it finished and working properly in a very tight timeframe. Despite this, I am confident that they will succeed, and be competing at the front of the grid against the best teams in Europe.”

The unveiling of the car formed part of the University’s annual Design Exhibition where engineering and design students display their final degree projects to over 400 guests including peers, course tutors and industry contacts.

This event also coincided with the presentation of an honorary degree to Lotus Group Chief Operating Officer Aslam Farikullah. Mr Farikullah completed a degree in Aeronautical Engineering at Bath in 1984 and was honoured in recognition of his distinguished career in the automotive industry.

Find out more about Team Bath Racing 2017 by:

An overview video of the Formula Student competition can also be viewed below.