The Disciplines
Formula Student Austria is an engineering competition consisting of the following static and dynamic disciplines.
Most sophisticated overall construction
An engineering design report is handed in.to the jury before the event starts and defended at a design presentation in front of expert judges. Evaluated are not only the use of new materials and creative assembly technologies, but also the overall construction and weight of the vehicle.
Most promising business plan
With a clever business plan and a convincing sales talk, the students are supposed to sell a short run order of their race car to a fictional investment group, represented by the jury.
Best lateral acceleration
Two circles with a diameter of 15,25 meters each, forming an eight have to be passed twice. Two drivers of each team have two tries to get through the so called skid pad as quickly as possible. The fastest lap time of all four trials is taken for judgement.
Best acceleration
The car is accelerated from a standing position across a distance of 75 meters. Again two drivers of each team get two chances to master the challenge and the fastest time counts.
Qualifying
At the autocross event a distance of about 800 meters has to be driven through in a handling course of straights, hair pin bends and slaloms. No training laps are permitted and the best lap time is taken to determine the start position in the endurance race. All teams supply two drivers who have have two tries. The fastest lap time of the four runs counts.
The endurance race
On a track similar to the autocross, a race is driven across 22 kilometers. After eleven kilometers the teams have to do a compulsory driver change which can last three minutes at most. There are several cars on track at any time during the race, but they race against the clock only. For safety reasons, slower cars have to pass through an overtaking lane if a faster car wants to pass by.
The least fuel consumption
The endurance race is used to measure the fuel consumption of the race cars. The team which builds the car with the least fuel consumption gets the highest score.