The student engineers of the VUB Racing team, representing Vrije Universiteit Brussel, are once again redefining what student motorsport can look like. In an arena dominated by carbon fibre, the VUB Racing team drives innovation in a new direction, one driven by sustainability, self-reliance, and forward-thinking engineering.
Formula Student competitions are engineering events which gather some 500 teams across the world. VUB Racing was set up at VUB in 2018. In the past year, the VUB Racing team doubled down on sustainability with the construction of an electric race car built largely from flax-based bio-composites.
Anton Haes, Zoë Allen & Yorick Vandam, team members from the 2024-2025 season, explain more about their work this past year.
Flax fibres rather than carbon fibres?
“Unlike carbon fibre, which is very energy-intensive to produce and nearly impossible to recycle, flax fibres are fully biodegradable and emit 37 times less CO₂ during production than traditional carbon fibre. Flax fibres are fully biodegradable at 300 °C. By using flax, we promote a culture of innovation within our team”, Anton, the team manager, says.
The innovation extends beyond material substitution: flax is being integrated into the car’s aerodynamic package, as well as into other enclosures where possible. For a project that must balance weight, strength, and safety, VUB Racing’s use of natural fibres is both technically daring and environmentally meaningful.
“Built, not bought” philosophy
“We try to manufacture as many parts as possible ourselves instead of buying them. This year, we are also building our own gearboxes from scratch; it’s one of our research projects this year. This research will allow us to integrate a more compact and performant drivetrain in our future race cars”, Anton explains.
This do-it-yourself ethos extends throughout the car: the chassis, aerodynamics, and electronics for instance are all designed and built in-house. Working out of the FabLab at VUB, the students use 3D printing, laser cutting, welding, water jetting, milling and soldering to bring their designs to life.
More than just engineering
What makes the VUB Racing project remarkable is how it transforms students into leaders. The project is run entirely by about 41 students from engineering, linguistics, computer science, and business programmes. They are divided into sub-teams for mechanical, electrical, aerodynamic, autonomous and communication tasks. In addition, it’s a multinational team, with students from Belgium, Greece, Germany, India, Malaysia, etc.
Zoë Allen is one of those non-engineers. She’s doing communications studies at VUB and managing the VUB Racing socials: “I joined because F1 interests me. I grew up watching it with my dad, and when I heard about VUB Racing, it seemed like a great opportunity to learn and get experience on a topic I love.”
Anton expands: “As a member of the VUB Racing team, you take on leadership roles, such as managing sub-teams and coordinating projects. It’s helped me develop essential skills like decision-making, time management, and motivating others towards a shared goal.”
This emphasis on autonomy and teamwork reflects the university’s broader philosophy: education as a hands-on, collaborative process that extends beyond the classroom.
This year’s challenges and surprises
The team participated at new competitions in the UK and Italy, where each event not only tested the car’s limits, but the students’ adaptability and endurance.
Budget constraints and tight academic schedules remain hurdles, but there were surprises too – Yorick Vandam explains: “The Silverstone competition in the UK was a major hit; it’s the first time in VUB Racing history that we got through the inspection round and could actually participate in the dynamic event: the endurance. This was our main goal for this season so we’re very proud!”
What is the endurance event?
“The car needs to drive 22 laps on a 1km track marked with cones. The goal is to complete the entire event as fast as possible, while not knocking over the cones, or at least as few as possible. There’s also an efficiency aspect where they assign points based on energy usage. To put it into perspective, 23 out of 59 cars passed the UK inspection. And we were one of them!”
Why VUB Racing Matters
The team’s work serves as an incubator for young engineers who will soon enter the automotive, energy, and aerospace industries with not just theoretical knowledge, but practical expertise and leadership experience. For this young multinational team, the race is not only toward the finish line, but toward a more sustainable future for motorsport itself.
VUB Racing isn’t just about building cars. They’re building a generation of engineers and leaders who are ready to reshape the world with courage, creativity, and a little bit of flax.
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