International future engineers met at the Hockenheimring from August 5th to August 9th to find out the best teams at the Formula Student Germany event, which was organized by the Verein Deutscher Ingenieure (VDI). This year, eleven universities were able to benefit from Continental’s technology and experience.

It was already the forth time that the Formula Student Germany took place at the Hockenheimring. Future engineers from international universities had had one year to design and build their very own a one-seater prototype, which were then judged regarding three static categories and five dynamic disciplines by experts from the automotive industry.

The VDI is supporting a specialist committee from the automobile industry which evaluates the performances of all the university teams. Frank Steinmeier, Winfried Moell, Simon Metz, Regina Walzer, Martin Herth and Romain Morel were active this year as Cost Jury members. Erhard Beck, Christian Missler and Dr. Bernward Bayer were jury members responsible for the field of design. “In the Formula Student competition, the teams have to meet the highest standards in all the disciplines. The Continental staff is happy to help them by sharing their experiences and expertise with the upcoming engineers,” explained Dr. Bernward Bayer, deputy head of Future Development in the Chassis & Safety division.

Continental is an official sponsor of Formula Student Germany. At the event, the company displayed a number of products including a tire service truck. The Formula Student tires were manufactured at the Continental tire plant in Korbach. The future engineers also integrated components like ABS and sensor technology in their racing cars. “We are happy that components of all our six divisions are used by the Conti sponsored teams and that we could allocate the whole package of components”, Sehnaz Özden Head of Corporate Employer Branding & Recruiting, said. 

The performance of the Continental sponsored teams was as good as last year. The team of TU Vienna won the fight for the prestigious style award. Another Continental sponsored team, FH Wiesbaden, won the third price in this category.

Continental invited the ten most successful teams to an after race at the Contidrom test track near Celle. In September, the future engineers from the Continental-sponsored teams will have a chance to test their race cars on the top-notch track, The event also provides the opportunity for the participants to share their experience with other teams and the engineers from Continental. In addition, initial ideas and plans for the Formula Student Race 2010 are to be developed at the event.