We live in a world that demands a lot from students entering the job market. Students need more than a degree; they need real-world, hands-on experience that pushes them and prepares them for their future, and Formula Student supplies that critical opportunity. And if a student has a chance to join an established, world-class group like Delft, the opportunity to succeed as a professional is even greater.

DUT Racing has been for many years a team we have watched with interest, because the program continues to push the limits of Formula Student. Delft is the type of team we rely on to help us grow. Our students see Delft’s lightweight car and ask, “How can we do that?” Our students see Delft’s success and say, “We want that.” Their success pushes us to become a better organization. They are a contributing reason why we are trying to enter the world of electric-powered racing.

The relationship between our teams is growing, and I’m happy knowing my students maintain a spirited connection with the talented young professionals at Delft.

Since I am passionate about cars and motorsport especially, I decided to join the DUT Racing Formula Student Team during my study of Aerospace Engineering at the TU Delft. During my first year with the team I was responsible for the design of the crash nose of the DUT08. This means not only designing and producing the nose yourself, but actually doing crash tests to comply with the rules of the Formula Student competition. With the DUT08 we won the Formula Student competition in Germany! In the following two years I decided to focus on the aerodynamics of the car by doing wind tunnel tests and the design of the sidepods of the DUT10.

In my period with DUT Racing I not only learned how to work in a team, but also that the design of a race car is very multidisciplinary and that it is often limited by time, budget or the fact that you have to be able to produce your design yourself. Being a part of the team is also a lot of fun. Often we go for drinks together or the famous unlimited spare ribs sessions. We attend two races per year in England and Germany which are very exciting events, where loads of students from all around the world attend.

My experience with the DUT Racing Team did help me getting a job in Formula 1 and gave me a much better understanding of designing, producing and eventually racing a car against other teams of all around the world. I would definitely recommend anybody that is passionate about motor sports and had a dream like me to work in F1, to take the first step towards victory by joining the DUT Racing Formula Student Team.

I work for the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, who organise Formula Student (FS) in the UK, and every year the competition gets bigger and better. The teams that enter are extremely impressive and it’s fantastic to keep in touch with so many of the team members after they graduate and come back to volunteer – seeing so many of them get great jobs in industry is fantastic. I really believe that FS helps to develop vital skills that employers are looking for, so participating whilst at university really gives those engineers a head-start. It’s hard work but a lot of fun – I wish I’d got involved when I was at university!

The DUT Racing team have been a pleasure to work with over the years. As a large team with lots of enthusiastic (and fun!) students, they have made a name for themselves as not only a very competitive team, but also as a team that is always happy to get involved and help others. They have picked up plenty of awards along the way, which proves their high ability, and have provided many memorable moments; both on-track and on the campsite! Good luck for future years…

As a second-year Aerospace Engineering student, I got pretty demotivated by the nearly complete lack of practical education in our study programme. I started at DUT Racing as a suspension component engineer to revive my lust for engineering. The first year was a special experience: learning how to combine the theoretical knowledge and, more importantly, practical skills, gave me a good insight of what engineering is actually about. At the competitions, yet another new world opened up for me, witnessing how teams from all over the world tackled problems in a completely different way.

Fully motivated, I started the second year as the technical leader of the suspension department. It was a huge challenge to conceive a top-level technical philosophy and planning together with the entire management team, and of course to realize this together with the engineers in a real working product.

Those two years at Formula Student really helped my urge to study. For every new course I took, I could immediately place the theory in the overall picture – you start seeing practical connections. Also, the improved understanding of how different disciplines can be organized and combined, was really useful in achieving a top performance with my group in the final project of the BSc at Aerospace Engineering.

Now I am graduating at Audi, with full passion for my profession. My project concerns the application of high-performance composite materials in the automotive industry. The work is rather theoretical, but thanks to my earlier experience at Formula Student I can easily assess the practical implications of my designs, which helps to stay target-driven. The management experience is still invaluable; I can understand my supervisors on their thinking level and give them the best that can be achieved in this project.

To this day, I still regularly act as a mentor for new team members. It is fun to motivate young people and every time again I learn something new from their fresh way of dealing with things. Brilliant.