The lifting of Covid restrictions has brought the return of Formula racing to Victoria – not Formula 1 in Melbourne but Formula SAE-A university motorsport at Winton Motor Raceway.
The Society of Automotive Engineers – Australasia (SAE-A), the Asia Pacific professional body for automotive and mobility engineering, will stage Formula SAE-A 2021 at Winton from 10-13 February 2022.
CEO and President Adrian Feeney said the easing of travel restrictions meant the event, originally planned for December, could now go ahead with teams from five states competing.
“Just as the 2020 Olympics happened in 2021, our 2021 Formula SAE-A event has moved to 2022, and our teams are raring to go,” he said.
“It’s one of two big automotive events we are staging in Victoria next year, the second being the APAC21 autonomous vehicle conference in Melbourne, 3-5 October.
“Both of these events highlight the strength of Australia’s automotive engineering sector on the international stage, and we couldn’t be happier to be back in post-Covid business.”
Electric vehicles will dominate the first “Covid normal” Formula SAE-A for 2021, with all but two of the 13 teams bringing EVs to Winton.
Reinforcing the future-focussed field will be two autonomous cars to be demonstrated by Monash Motorsport and the University of Queensland in addition to their “conventional” electric car entries.
EV teams this year are from: Griffith University, Monash Motorsport, Queensland University of Technology, RMIT University, The University of Melbourne, University of Adelaide, University of Queensland, University of South Australia, University of Tasmania, University of Technology Sydney and University of Wollongong.
The University of Sydney is bringing its internal combustion car, while RMIT University is including an internal combustion car in its three-car entry.
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