Podium finish for Monash Motorsport at Silverstone

4 August 2010

The Monash Motorsport team has achieved a podium finish at the international Formula Student event at Silverstone Raceway in the UK, confirming their status as Australia's number one team.

The team finished third overall against 100 of the world's best Formula Student (also called F-SAE, Formula Society of Automotive Engineers) teams.

The Monash team was guaranteed entry into the prestigious event, held 15 - 18 July, after taking out the F-SAE Australasian Championship in 2009.

Formula Student events are regarded as a proving ground for elite Formula One engineers of the future and challenge students to research, design, manufacture, test and ultimately race, an innovative single-seater Formula One style car.

F-SAE competitions comprise eight separate events, which test the car's design, acceleration, cornering, endurance and fuel economy.

Against teams from 26 countries, Monash Motorsport achieved excellent results in several of the categories.

Team Leader Daniel Andjelic says the win in December gave the team the belief they could compete on the world stage.

"We worked tirelessly right up until the car was shipped off in May to ensure we maximised our chances of success. Two weeks of further testing and development in the UK gave us the edge over many teams whose cars were being run for the first time," Daniel said.

The team placed second in the endurance event, with driver Ashan Perera passing last year's world champions Stuttgart University on track. Ashan's performance later won him the award for Best Driver of the competition, which is a considerable honour given that he was up against many professional drivers.

The team won the Skid Pan event in world-record time, helped along by their aerodynamics package which was developed in the Monash Wind Tunnel. Monash also finished third in the sprint event and set a personal best in acceleration.

Monash Motorsport's unique aerodynamics package, developed in the full scale Monash Wind Tunnel proved to be the major talking point at the event, as none of the European teams currently have wings. This may change next year though, as many teams were impressed by how fast the Monash car was able to corner and brake using the extra down force.

Team member Rachel Mace was appreciative of the University's support for the team.

"We are extremely proud of our success internationally and are so grateful for the support we have received. We could not have done this without the support of Monash and the Mechanical Engineering Department. Thank you for giving us this opportunity to show the talent of young Australian engineers," Rachael said.

Professor Mark Thompson, Head, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering said his sentiments were echoed throughout the Faculty of Engineering.

"We're incredibly pleased with the team's success. It was a fantastic result and reflects the astounding amount of work they all put in. We are really proud of them all," Professor Thompson said.

Team Member Simon Bicknell spoke of his experience with the project, "The benefits of Formula SAE are countless, but above all the program sees us graduate as engineers with the experience of working on a massive project that will equip us with skills to make an immediate impact in the engineering industry."

The team would also like to thank its many industry sponsors, including Chisholm Institute of TAFE, Marand Precision, Laser3D, Gurit, Unior and PLM Australia.

For further information visit the Monash Motorsport website.