Monash Motorsport defends its title at FSAE-A 2022

Earlier this month, Monash Motorsport (MMS) unveiled their new high-tech electric vehicle, M22, at the Formula SAE Australasia (FSAE-A) Competition in Benalla.

FSAE-A is one of many competitions around the world where university student teams design, build, test, and compete in their very own formula-style open-wheeled race cars.

This year’s competition was the first to run since 2019, with MMS competing to defend not only its past titles in this competition, but also its world ranking of third place in the electric class against over 1000 universities internationally.

After battling technical issues all weekend, MMS brought home 5th place overall in the electric class, whilst also winning the event for engineering design and achieving the fastest lap in the endurance event.

Now set on preparing for the 2023 season, the team believes that M22’s full potential can be realised with additional testing and tuning, especially given the wealth of new features and complexity incorporated into this vehicle.

Since its conception in early 2020, M22 was designed from the ground up to include MMS’s first AWD-capable outboard powertrain, its highest performing aerodynamics package to date, an integrated suite of autonomous systems, and an improved carbon fibre monocoque chassis.

Chhavi Kathuria, CEO of MMS says, “The team capitalised on the extended design period in lockdown to design the beginning of Monash Motorsport’s next generation of vehicles.”

“These key changes not only mark the next phase of the team’s technical development, but come together to form Monash Motorsport’s lightest, fastest, and most tuneable vehicle in its 20 year history.

“Additionally, with a management team that completely refreshes yearly and the sustained external investment from stakeholders over this financially difficult time, M22 pays homage to their invaluable contributions and also represents the team’s unwavering strength and resilience.” she continues.

Alongside M22, Monash Motorsport also dynamically demonstrated its driverless vehicle, M19-D, on track at the FSAE-A competition.

After passing a rigorous scrutineering process, M19-D performed a driverless emergency braking test, before autonomously completing a 4 laps of a previously unknown track with flying colours - the first ever vehicle to do so in the FSAE-A competition.

This demonstration aims to put MMS, and the FSAE-A competition, on par with similar teams and events overseas, placing the team well to take on the world in future years.

To make this possible, a custom autonomous pipeline has been created by the team on M19-D, which will ultimately be transferred onto M22 - making it capable of both driven and driverless racing.

This pipeline enables M19-D to independently perceive its surroundings, place itself in that environment, plan a path, and take that path autonomously - utilising on-board sensors and computing units that interact with the existing electric vehicle.

Since its first debut in 2019, M19-D has seen some key hardware and software upgrades, including the implementation of a state-of-the-art solid state LiDAR system, and improvements across the pipeline which has pushed the car to achieve on-track speeds in excess of 50 km/h in 2022.

Significant support has led Monash Motorsport to these achievements in 2022, best illustrated by its platinum sponsors which include Monash University, Baraja, Clenergy, Calm Aluminium, FormASign, HiTech Metrology, GoProto, Leap Australia, Marand, MCAM, PhoenxPLM, SMC, Vacuumschmelze, and Wirawaji.

Additionally, high profile donors include Dr Alan Finkel AC and Motorsport Australia, who actively support the team’s future development and growth.

About the Formula SAE-Australasia (FSAE-A)

Formula SAE has proven to be an exceptional program to develop capable and experienced industry professionals, largely due to the way in which it mimics industry. Most notably, the recent decisions made to drive the development of electric and autonomous vehicles.

The reputation of this competition and the graduates it produces is reflected by the event’s sponsors which include Ford Australia, Toyota Australia, SEA Electric, PACCAR, and Transport for NSW. These sponsors, alongside partners such as Defence Force Recruiting, often have a large presence at the competition, which serves as a recruiting ground for their next generation of engineers.

Find out more about Monash Motorsport via their website or  Facebook 

Watch MM’s FSAE-A day 4 recap