Raftar Formula Racing is the official formula student team representing IIT Madras in the Formula Student community. Driven by a common passion for Automotive Engineering, the team of 40+, branched across various disciplines, come together to design, simulate, build and race a swift formula-style single-seater race car, which goes on to compete in various formula student competitions nationally and internationally. Working at the Centre For Innovation, IIT Madras, Raftar Formula Racing aims to become a globally competitive team and promote the Formula Student culture in India. With a flair for technical finesse and great coordination within the team, we strive for competitive glory year after year.
Formula Student, organised by Formula SAE, is the world’s biggest engineering design competition for university students. Every year, several competitions are held across the globe and more than 600 teams from all over the world compete with their self-fabricated race-car. The event is broadly split into Static events and Dynamic events. The engineering design, cost understanding and a business plan presentation comes under Static events, whereas the on-track performance of the car such as acceleration and endurance come under Dynamic events. Please find a video explaining more about the competition and the team here.
Raftar Formula Racing is the only Indian team to have won a dynamic event in an international competition when our car was also declared the most fuel efficient, in Formula Student Italy 2017. We won the overall championship at Formula Bharat 2020 and successfully defended it by becoming back to back champions in Formula Bharat 2021. We are also the only team to have placed 1st in the Engineering Design event 3 times in a row, making us one of the most successful teams in the country. A detailed list of all our results can be found here.
One of the prospective next steps towards future mobility is the electric car. Formula student offers equal opportunity in the conceptualization of such e-race cars. Having defended the combustion championship, thereby proving our expertise over the combustion class in the Formula Student landscape, we wish to take the team to the next level. As globally teams and competitions are shifting to electric vehicles completely, Raftar Formula Racing aspires to achieve excellence in electric race cars in India, and become a key player in the international Formula Student scenario. The electrical venture requires significant technical and monetary investment in order to master its design of the motor, accumulator and control systems. A lot of safety and standards are important in ensuring safe engineering while dealing with high capacities of energy. With your support, Raftar Formula Racing wishes to realize such a conceptualization. Raftar Formula Racing wishes to be one of the best teams to envisage this sphere of Formula Student. This is a long term goal that the team wishes to achieve with the support and help of IIT Madras Alumni Association. Considering the experiences of electric teams, an estimated INR 42L would be invested in this venture. A fine split up of the same can be found here.
The design process of the electric car is currently in progress. This car will be the foundation for the future cars to come, so extensive testing will be done on this car to collect data which can be used in the development of future cars. Majority of any funding we receive right now will be used to procure the most important components required for building an electric powertrain, namely the motor, motor controller, battery pack (cells) and the battery management system. Since we are making our first ever electric car, we require a large initial investment. The overall budget of the future cars to come will be much lesser.
