Hello all,

I am Soumya Kanti Bose. I was the convener for 'Delta Shootout 2014', a BAJA competition which was held between 24-26th Jan,2014 in Jamshedpur, India. Claude Rouelle, Steve Fox & Pat Clarke were present at the event as advisors and they also mentored us since September 2013 to organise this event.

This event was just a 'shakedown' for us ( Indian Alumnis of FS/Baja competitions) to assess where we stand to organise a event on our own. There has been thousands of emails and forum posts for a long time regarding the need of a proper event in India. An event which is safe, open and fair for all participants and where the focus is on engineering education, not wheel-to-wheel racing or job placements. This discussion was fuelled after Claude's exclusion from Buddh International Circuit in September 2012, during a event which is supposed to be the Indian edition of FSAE/Formula Student.

Claude, Steve & Pat have tried a lot to improve the situation and help out the Indian students, however, they can only help till a certain point. It is upto us ( the Indian student community). For sure we have experienced a lot of things in events organised by a certain organisation in India since 2007 and we did moan about it. However, did we act on it?

There have been instances where the alumni of certain competitions were not happy and they went on to host their own competition. A competition which is 'by the students, for the students'. To improve the Indian scenario we needed something like that.

The point that there are 12 registered teams in India in FSG triggered a discussion regarding whether there should be an Indian event for the new teams to compete at first or not?

I am not going to comment on whether these teams can be any good or not, however, the fact that they beat much more experienced teams in the selection process which has been accepted as fair and square by the whole FS community all across the world, shows that these teams were atleast better in that area. The fact is these 12 teams represent a miniscule part of the student community in India who are involved in FS/FSAE/BAJA.

There are 327 known teams in BAJA and 174 Supra ( Indian edition of FSAE - albeit very different ) teams all across India.

Are all these teams good? NO

Correct me if am wrong gentlemen ( and ladies) the spirit of FS/FSAE/BAJA competitions is to help young engineers learn. Is it not?

We cannot say that just because a team does not know their polar moment of inertia or Drag/lift co-efficient they cannot come and compete. If we do not help them in learning then why we are doing this? Sure we all love to see a good car and a team of brilliant engineers, but all teams are not equal , neither are all team members.

There were 12 cars at 'Delta Shootout 2014'. Some of the cars were REAL bad. It was evident that the teams did not read the rulebook AT ALL. However, the tech inspectors ( most of them were alumnis from FS/BAJA competitions all over the world) did not have an approach of " Your car is non-compliant- you are not going to run". The tech inspectors talked to the teams and made them realise that what they have done is wrong and not acceptable. No plea bargain is going to get them through.

The TI team also helped the teams with their assessments on the situation and how the car can be made scrutiny legal. The TI process went on for 3 days and inspectors were working for 18-20 hours DAILY. At last 8 cars made it through TI. 2 cars were disqualified due to violation of safety rules and 2 cars failed tech scrutiny. Ofcourse the level of the cars were quite disappointing , but the students were made to realise that they need to stick to the rules.

For people outside India who are reading this, you must be thinking that 'following the rules' is a given. It is, however, since 2007 the Indian students have been shown otherwise. Rules are violated and prizes are awarded without any results classification. That was ( and still is) the practice.

However, now we have proved that it is possible to hold a event "for the students by the students'.


Now, the alumni are working together to make 'Formula Student India' happen. The tentative competition dates are 3rd weekend of January, 2015.

We will accept 32 entries based on a rules quiz and there will be 5 reserved spots for team which have won any FSAE/FS or similar competition in the year of 2014.

All information related to the competition can be found on www.formulastudent.in starting from 23rd March,2014.

We are looking for volunteers from among the Indian alumni/ Industry professionals to help us run this event.