At the start of the engineering design competition, the students must hand in an eight-page technical description of their car. It must show both their design and how the design will be applied to their chosen construction. On the basis of this document, the members of the jury will evaluate the layout, technical design, construction and implementation of the production of the actual vehicle. Then, there will be a discussion where the teams are questioned by the judges. These discussions focus on clarifying technical details, exploring the thinking behind the chosen design, as well as the corresponding technical understanding of the students. The evaluation will not only assess the quality of the technical solution in question but also the reasons behind it.

Cost is a decisive factor in the design of any product. In the cost analysis event, the teams must grapple with the calculative size of the vehicle, its components, and the necessary manufacturing steps and record all of this in a written cost report. The students must then answer questions from the judges relating to the cost report on their prototype. In addition to considering the thoroughness of the written report, the students’ understanding of the manufacturing process and the total cost calculation will be assessed.

Each team presents their business plan for the constructed prototype to a fictitious manufacturing company represented by judges. During a ten-minute presentation, the team must demonstrate why their design best fulfils the demands of their target group of amateur weekend racers and show how their design can be successfully marketed. The presentation will be followed by a five-minute discussion and question round with the judges. In this event the content, structure, and editing of the presentation, as well as the team‘s performance in delivering it, will be evaluated alongside their answers to the panel‘s questions.

The vehicle‘s acceleration from a standing start is measured over a 75 metre straight. In addition to traction, the correct engine design is especially important, either in terms of greater power or for the highest possible torque. The fastest cars cross the line in less than four seconds and can reach speeds of over 100 km/h by the end of the stretch.

During the Skid Pad event, the cars must drive a figure of 8 circuit lined with track cones, performing two laps of each circle. In each case, the second lap will be measured. The lap time gives a comparative value for the maximum possible lateral acceleration of the car. Most of the cars use aerodynamics to raise the contact pressure and thus, increase lateral acceleration. As with all the dynamic events, knocking over any of the cones results in a time penalty.

In the autocross event, the cars traverse a kilometre-long track with straights, curves, and chicanes. A fast lap time is a sign of high driving dynamics, precise handling and good acceleration and braking ability. Once again, time penalties occur for those who knock over any cones. The autocross rankings decide the starting positions for the endurance competition that follows.

The endurance race represents almost a third of all available points and is consequently the most important event of the Formula Student Germany competition.The cars must demonstrate their capacity for endurance over a gruelling track distance of 22 km and all of the prototypes’ features are crucial for this event, from acceleration and handling to driving dynamics. The skill of the driver is also tested here, as they may only familiarise themselves with the track before the race by walking the length of the course (Course Walk). Each team gets just a single try and the drivers must be swapped at the halfway point. There can be up to four cars on the circuit at any given time and so overtaking manoeuvres must be performed frequently. Overtaking is signalled by a blue flag and is only permitted at specially marked sections of the track. A team will receive no points at the end if they are more than a third slower than the fastest team overall.

During the endurance race, fuel consumption (FSC cars) or energy consumption (FSE cars) is precisely recorded. However, the absolute fuel and energy consumption is not what is used to calculate the efficiency score, but rather the consumption relative to speed. This is to prevent teams from driving particularly slowly in the endurance competition in order to score as highly as possible in the efficiency category.