All the cars and teams gathered on the Silverstone grid

Formula Student UK

One week to play for everything

Scrutineering, three juries of engineers and performance events on track: in one week, a whole season of work is judged.

1000Points at stake
9Scored events
400Points in static events
22 kmOf endurance

The schedule

The week, in order

Nothing is decided on a single day. Each stage conditions the next, and the first of them can end a whole season.

01
Arrival and set-up
The truck is unloaded, the stand set up, the car put back into configuration after transport.
02
Scrutineering
The technical inspection: more than one hundred and fifty rules checked on the car. Until it is passed, the car does not leave the garage.
03
Static events
Three juries in two days: design, costs, business plan. 400 points are decided here, standing still.
04
Dynamic events
Acceleration, skidpad, autocross: the car finally runs, and its track performance is scored.
05
Endurance
Twenty-two kilometres and a driver change. A quarter of the points in a single run, and half the teams never reach the end.

Step 02 · Technical inspection

Scrutineering

No car runs without passing this inspection.

Technical scrutineers examine the car point by point: more than one hundred and fifty rules are checked on the car itself (structure, harness, extinguishers, braking, emergency shutdown, exhaust, driver protection). None is negotiable: a single non-compliance, and the car goes back to the garage.

On top of this come physical tests: the tilt test, which checks for leaks and stability, locking all four wheels under braking, and the driver getting out, harness buckled, in five seconds or less.

The entrance to scrutineering, before the car goes through, in 2026.

Scrutineering · Silverstone, July 2026

No points to win. 600 to lose

Scrutineering earns nothing in the rankings: it is a technical inspection, passed or not. But until it is passed, the car cannot start any track event, which is 600 of the 1,000 points on offer. The scrutineers check more than 150 rules on the car, from the chassis to the harness: it is the highest step of the competition, and the first one a team faces.

0Points scored at scrutineering

600Track points it unlocks, out of 1,000

6Checks, from the chassis to braking

150Rules checked by the scrutineers, at least

4Points raised on the #17, over two checks

≈ 60%Of cars get through, each year

A team is not built in one season

Scrutineering opens on the Wednesday and runs over several days: each check is taken in order, and a car that fails comes back to queue once it has been fixed.

In 2026, out of 64 cars in the FS class, only 29 passed all the mechanical checks, up to the brake test. Passing scrutineering is not a given at the start: it is something a team takes several seasons to achieve, correcting each year what the scrutineers raised the year before. The #17 presented for its first FS class inspection in July 2026.

Cars that passed each check, out of 64

Chassis47

Safety45

Engineering43

Tilt31

Noise31

Braking29

The six scrutineering checks

A check is an inspection stage the car must pass before it is allowed to run. At Silverstone there are six, taken one after another. A car that fails one fixes its fault, then queues up again.

01
Chassis
The scrutineers examine the structure: tubes, roll hoops, bracing and their mountings, driver protection and cockpit templates. Everything must comply with the rules.
02
Safety
Helmets, suits and drivers' equipment, and the two fire extinguishers: everything that protects the driver in an accident is checked.
03
Engineering
The rest of the car, system by system: harness, steering, brakes, electrical circuit, fuel. The driver must also be able to get out of the car in five seconds or less.
04
Tilt
Fully fuelled and with the tallest driver on board, the car is tilted to 60 degrees on a table: no leaks are tolerated, and all wheels must stay on the table.
05
Noise
A sound meter measures the exhaust: 110 dB(C) maximum, 103 dB(C) at idle. The scrutineers then check that every kill switch does stop the engine.
06
Braking
The driver brakes hard on a straight: all four wheels must lock and the car must stop straight. The brake light is checked at the same time.

What the #17 was pulled up on this year

At its first inspection, the #17 received four correction requests, on two of the six checks: Chassis and Technical. All of them concern workmanship: a mounting, a bond, the routing of a strap and a brake light. None calls into question the design of the chassis or of the powertrain.

Points raised on the #17 at scrutineering, Silverstone 2026
Date	Inspection	Point raised	To rework
19/07/2026	Chassis	Critical mountings: main hoop bracingThe plenum is rigidly mounted on the main hoop bracing.	FittingRework the plenum mounting on the hoop bracing.
19/07/2026	Chassis	Driver protection: anti-intrusion plateFailed the compression check: a better bond of the plate is required.	ProcessRedo the plate bonding, then repeat the compression test.
18/07/2026	Engineering	Harness: lap belt anchorageThe strap touches the seat between the driver and the anchorage point.	FittingReroute the strap so that it no longer touches the seat.
18/07/2026	Engineering	Low-voltage circuit: brake lightThe brake light does not come on.	ElectricalGet the brake light working again.

Sources: Formula Student 2026 rules (IMechE), section IN (technical inspections) and scoring A1.2.5, table 1; FSUK Stats, scrutineering status at Formula Student UK 2026; IMechE, “10 top tips to pass scrutineering”. The number of rules checked (more than 150) is the figure noted by the team, which went through the inspection; FSUK does not publish its sheet, and the closest public sheet, Formula Student Germany's for a combustion car, lists 138.

Step 03 · Static event

La Design Presentation

It is not enough for the car to work: you have to prove you know why it is made the way it is.

Engineers from the automotive and motorsport industries question the team on every system. They ask for the assumptions, the calculations, the tests, and above all want to know whether the choices are justified or carried over from the previous season.

Preparation involves technical posters: the overall architecture, then one board per area. It is an exercise in synthesis as much as in design.

A team member defending the overall design poster before a judge who is taking notes — Defending the overall design poster before a judge, in 2026.

Step 03 · Static event

Le Cost & Manufacturing

The jury does not only judge what the car costs: it wants to know how each part is obtained, and why.

Throughout the season, the Cost Report Team builds the car's file: the cost of each part, the manufacturing processes associated with it, and the complete carbon footprint of the materials and of building the car.

Before the jury, the point is not to justify the part itself, as in the Design Presentation, but how it is obtained: why one process rather than another, and why the part is made or bought. The event is worth 115 points out of 1,000.

How we trace every part

01CostMaterial, process, labour: every part is costed.
02Manufacturing processesFor each part, the sequence of operations, from raw material to finished part.
03Carbon footprintEmissions from the materials and from building the car.
04JustificationWhy one process rather than another, and why the part is made or bought.

Step 03 · Static event

Le Business Plan

A fictional company, presented to a jury playing the role of investors.

The Business Plan Team builds a fictional commercial and financial strategy around a product derived from our prototype or from one of its key components. This company must make a profit. The students play its managers: ten minutes of presentation, five minutes of questions.

Each year, the competition also imposes a special condition. In 2026, the task was to show how the product could be used safely in motorsport. The event is worth 115 points out of 1,000.