Formula Student team set to unveil racing car

Student racing enthusiasts from Leicester University are set to unveil their designs for a racing car that will compete at Silverstone later this year.

The event takes place on 11 February prior to the University’s 18^th Annual Industry Lecture.

Paddy Lowe, FREng, British motor racing engineer and executive director of Mercedes-Benz Formula One will be delivering a free public talk on ‘Formula One: More Than A Sport’ in the Peter Williams Lecture Theatre following the unveiling.

The Formula Student Team is presenting a design review where they will unveil their new designs.  When the car is finished, they will be competing in Formula Student UK competition held at Silverstone in July 2016.

Each design team will showcase their work primarily through poster displays, where the audience can discuss the team’s progress and plans for the rest of the car’s development.

Formula Student is an international university competition which sees students design, build and test a Formula One style race car at Silverstone.

The students hope to gain some inspiration for their car’s design from Paddy, whose career is said to have been characterised by many innovative technical developments both on- and off-car, winning eight World Championships.

Goergeous Gobrial, representative of the UOL’s Formula Student team said: “This is a very exciting event for us where we are given the unique opportunity to display our current designs and get feedback from an undoubtedly knowledgeable audience.

“It will be great to meet guest speaker Paddy Lowe, who will be able to share invaluable advice from his wealth of experience. The team and I are extremely excited!”

Prof Helen Atkinson, Head of the University of Leicester’s Department of Engineering, said: “We are really thrilled that Paddy Lowe FREng is coming to do the Annual Industry Lecture in Engineering this year.

“He has been right at the centre of the engineering which has underpinned Lewis Hamilton’s outstanding record in the Formula One World Championships.

“He joins a stellar cast of engineers who have given this lecture including Dame Ann Dowling FREng FRS, the President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, last year and Bob Joyce FREng, Main Board Director at Jaguar Land Rover (and an alumnus) the year before.”

The Annual Industry Lecture 2016: 'Formula One: More Than A Sport' is in the Peter Williams Lecture Theatre at the University of Leicester on Thursday 11 February at 6.30pm. The event is free and open to the public. To register for tickets, contact Nancy Holland: 0116 252 2547 or nh21@le.ac.uk