The seventh edition of Formula Bharat, India’s Formula Student competition, was held at Kari Motor Speedway in Coimbatore from January 19 to 24, with a total of 53 teams from across India registering for the competition, bringing the footfall to more than 1500 students.
Formula Bharat is an engineering design competition where each time is required to design and fabricate a life-size Formula-style vehicle. The logic behind this is to put the theoretical lessons of engineering to the test in a practical environment, and there are few better ways to put an engineered prototype through its paces than the cut and thrust of a motorsport event. The vehicles that the teams would design had to best meet the goals and objectives outlined in the rules, depending on whether they were competing in the combustion or EV categories.
The competition would span over six days, with a jury of representatives from motorsport, automotive and supplier industries assessing the teams and their vehicles based on the engineering design, overall cost of the project, marketability and the performance of the vehicle. The judging of the static events has been taking place virtually since October 2022, and it ends with presentations delivered by finalists on site. Presently, Formula Bharat is the only Formula Student competition in South Asia that is recognized in the FS World Rankings.
This was the seventh edition of Formula Bharat, making a comeback after a last year’s hiatus, and it was hosted at full capacity with a range of activities on track, along with a number of technical and recruitment-driven presentations delivered by the sponsors during the course of the event. Guided tours were also present, allowing visitors to learn about the history of Formula Student and the concept behind the competition. This year, a group of students had traveled from Bangladesh to attend Formula Bharat 2023, with the intent of participating in the competition next year. The competition was also supported by 250 volunteers from all over the world, many who were Formula Student alumni themselves. Formula Bharat also featured recruitment drives on sites, as it has proved itself to be a good platform for hiring graduates with practical engineering skills.
The winners of the competition were announced during the awards ceremony on January 24, with Veloce Racing from Vishwakarma Institute of Technology being crowned the overall event winner of the combustion category this season, with Team Stallions from the Institute of Technology of Nirma University taking second place, Team Maverick of the PVG’s College of Engineering and Technology & G. K. Pate (Wani) Institute of Management bagging third place and STES Racing of Sinhgad College of Engineering finishing in fourth place.
In the electric category, STES Stallion Motorsport Electric from Smt. Kashibai Navale College of Engineering won the overall category, followed by Team Kratos Racing Electric from Pimpri Chinchwad College of Engineering finishing in second place, Raftar Formula Racing Electric from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras bagging third place and Team Octane Racing Electric of the College of Engineering Pune finishing fourth place.