Back in the Fight: Formula Buckeyes look ahead to Competition in 2027

For Formula Buckeyes, competition is where months of work come together. 

Today, Oct. 1, the Ohio State University Formula SAE team was announced as one of 100 teams that secured their spot at the FSAE Michigan competition in June. For a team with new leadership and many new eager members, the moment represents more than a chance to put a car on track. It is an opportunity to see how the team's design, preparation and teamwork hold up when put to the test.

Formula SAE competitions challenge students to build more than a race car. Teams are evaluated on the vehicle, the business decisions behind it and their ability to explain those decisions.

Together, the static, dynamic, and technical evaluation events not only test the strength of the car but the entire team. The car has to work, but the students behind it also have to understand every aspect of the car and be able to defend the decisions that got them there.

The Next Chapter

In 2024, the team made program history, placing first in Formula SAE Michigan, beating 107 other universities to secure first place overall, the highest achievement in its 36-year history. Formula Buckeyes also won the Oakland Grand Prix and Pittsburgh Shootout that season.

That history now becomes part of the foundation for a new group of students as Formula Buckeyes have spent the past two years taking on a new challenge: developing an electric race car. While the team's previous competition success came with internal-combustion (IC) cars, the transition to electric has pushed the team into a new phase of design, manufacturing and problem-solving.

Now, the goal is to take that work one step further.

After two years of developing the electric car, this season's team is working toward creating its first competitive EV car. For a team with new leadership and many new, eager members, that goal brings a different kind of challenge and a new opportunity to build on the work of the students who came before them.

That willingness to take on something new has become part of Formula Buckeyes' story. The team has continued to search for the next challenge, whether that means competing at the highest level with its IC cars or committing years of work to developing an electric system.

The goal now is to meet that challenge head-on.

For Formula Buckeyes, momentum is not simply measured by competition results. It is built by setting a new goal, learning from the work that came before and challenging the next group of students to take the program further. 

And that is what this competition ultimately represents: not just a chance to see how the car performs, but an opportunity to see how far the team has come and how much further it can go.

The Formula Buckeyes will compete at FSAE Michigan June 1-5, 2027.