We are keeping everything crossed for a talented and determined group of students this weekend as Salford Racing  – The University of Salford’s Formula Student Team – gears up to compete in the annual IMechE Formula Student competition at the UK’s home of motorsport, Silverstone.

Taking place on 21st – 23rd July at Silverstone, Formula Student is Europe’s most established educational engineering competition, which sees university teams from all over the world produce a prototype for a single-seat race car. The cars are put through their paces on the Silverstone Circuit and this year more than 130 teams have registered for the competition, which is celebrating its 25th year.

Driving success in our Year of STEM

Morson is proud to support the Salford Racing team, which includes students from a variety of disciplines, who all work together to plan, design, and build the car, using the facilities at the University of Salford’s Maker Space; a state-of-the-art facility funded by the Morson Group. Morson Group has also invested £10K to sponsor the car, and provided additional industry training, supporting the talent and ambition of these young people as they explore opportunities in STEM and collaborate to develop their team-working and knowledge sharing skills.

The Maker Space is part of the Morson Group STEM Foundation, which builds on our extensive efforts to encourage young people into STEM education and careers, in partnership with the University of Salford, Into University and other stakeholders. We are very proud to support young people from across all social demographics, including those from disadvantaged, underrepresented or marginalised backgrounds, to develop the confidence and technical skills they need to build a career in STEM.

2023 is our Year of STEM at Morson Group, as we explore innovative ways of raising the profile of STEM careers for young people, along with career changers and career returners. Salford Racing is just one of the projects we are supporting to encourage young talent to discover the wealth of opportunities available to them in STEM roles and develop their skills, as we focus on inspiring them to achieve, aspire, and further their ambitions.

A Maker Space of Opportunity

Being able to work in the Maker Space provides a competitive edge in the jobs market for the students involved in the Salford Racing project. For example, Corin Williams, a former mechanical engineering student at the University of Salford, who also took part in Formula Student, credits the experience with helping him get a job in the motorsport industry after graduation. 

“Not only did I benefit from dedicated support from Morson Projects, but I was able to practice my technical skills using the state-of-the art kit provided at the Morson Maker Space; skills and experience I now use every day.”

Hubert Kasinski who is leading the team this year adds:

“We are excited as a team to represent the University at the competition and with our strongest presentations to date, we aim to achieve higher scores in the static events than in previous years, before the car finally gets on track and scores even more points.”

Dr. Maria Stukoff, Maker Space Director, commented:

“The Maker Space is fantastic for giving students hands-on experience of the types of equipment they can expect to use when they move from education into the workplace.

“The hard work Salford Racing has put into Formula Student this year is a great example. Whatever happens on the track, they will have gained valuable real-world engineering skills that won’t go unnoticed when it comes to building a career.”

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