The Engineering Department has backtracked on its decision to let KCL Racing build a racing car and compete in the nationwide Formula Student racing competition this July.
The Engineering Department of King’s College London (KCL) has refused to support the KCL’s Racing society in building the car despite students’ success in the competition’s initial stages and the ready availability of sponsors. The deadline for paying the entry fee to Formula Student is today.
Seventeen of the 100 members of KCL Racing involved in the project chose to make it their third-year project or their master’s project. If the project does not go forward as planned, they will have to submit a simulation instead of building the car in practice.
“It feels like no one wants to help us,” said Amy McCullough, President of KCL Racing and third-year Physics student. The group has been working on this project since September 2024.
The Engineering Department stated that a lack of sufficient spacing has been the primary reason for the decision to quit the project. Roar can confirm that a room the size of a small garage would be enough to build the car.
The students have asked the department to use a free space on Floor -2 of the King’s Building. However, they were told that other projects may need it instead. “The communication from the department has been extremely poor with the amount of people we have working on this project,” said Amy.
The project would cost between £25,000–£35,000 in total, with anywhere between £7,500 and £15,000 coming from the department as part of the allocated funding for 3rd and 4th-year projects. The rest of the agreed funding was to be provided by sponsors, including the British Council and Fusion Motorsports.
Roar has enquired if funding, unclear responsibility and delayed safety checks due to bureaucracy, could have contributed to the decision to pause activities, however, no official statement has been provided by the Engineering department.
KCL’s Absence at Formula Student
Formula Student is a prestigious competition where student engineering teams from across the UK compete in designing, manufacturing and racing a single-seat race car. It will be held in Silverstone between the 16 and 20 July.
Prior to the society’s establishment, KCL was the only Russell Group university without a racing team, with the exception of LSE. “I’ve heard of students not choosing King’s for the sole reason that we don’t have a racing team,” said Amy.
Until now, KCL Racing has only participated in the concept class competition – a version of the contest that is mostly limited to the design stage of the project. Following a successful run last year – in which the society even won a diversity award for its majority-female team – KCL Racing are hoping to enter the full-scale Formula Student competition.
“We want to be heard. Because it’s not just a society. People of all kinds of backgrounds are involved in the project. We have business students, law students — it’s extremely interdisciplinary,” said Amy.
Experience with Formula Student is highly esteemed by future employers. According to the Institution of Mechanical Engineers’ website, “It is a kite-mark for real-world engineering experience, combining practical engineering experience with soft skills including business planning and project management.”
Still, Amy sees the project as much more than that: “For me, it’s not my degree, it’s my passion.”
Roar has reached out to the Head of the Engineering Department and the Vice Dean (Education) in the Faculty of Natural, Mathematical and Engineering Sciences for comment.
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