Words by Charlie Batten
As one of the lesser-known teams on campus, you’d be forgiven for not knowing who Sussex Racing are but believe me when I say they’ve been fighting hard to prove that Sussex can race as well as any other uni. I was lucky enough to sit down with Faaris Sheikh, Laurie Corbel, Stacey Clark, Jake Choules and Joshua Louis who make up the key team and talk to them all about this year’s electric car and their chances at victory.
So, for starters, what is Sussex Racing? The team is a masters project for engineering students at Sussex which allows them to hone in the skills that they learnt in their degree in a more practical environment. The project runs incredibly similar to an F1 team as they have to design the car, construct it, and even find sponsorships to provide funding for the team. At the end of the year, the team compete at Silverstone in the Formula Student competition where they go head-to-head with other universities from all over Europe and even America in challenges and trials in order to find out who’s made the best car.
Last year the team finished at a university best 15th out of seventy-seven teams and describe it similar to Racing Point’s success last year in Formula 1. This year the team hope to break into the top ten and in order to do so, they have made a big change by focusing solely on its electric car.
Normally the team has split its focus between two cars, one with an internal combustion engine and the other with an electric engine. By now focusing on an electric car, they feel that they can improve it substantially as well as be able to devote much more time and energy on making sure it’s one of the best on the grid.
The team wanted to do this to also follow the growing trend of green cars that provide a better alternative to cars previously that relied on fossil fuels. It also means that all those involved have first-hand experience with electric cars which provides invaluable experience when moving into the engineering industry.
The team however, cannot do this alone. If you’re someone that has always wanted to be in motorsport garage or has wanted to help build a car from scratch then Sussex Racing want you. You don’t have to be an engineering student, just someone that’s enthusiastic and wants the help the team as much as you can. Not only will it allow you to help build a race car but you’ll be able to meet new people within the team and get the chance to go to Silverstone and compete against other cars. For all those interested in joining the team you can email gek22@sussex.ac.uk if you are a 3rd year plus student and ha417@sussex.ac.uk if you are a first or second year student.
