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Cornell University · Formula SAE

Designed, built, and raced by students.

Every year, Cornell Racing takes a blank sheet and turns it into a full electric formula car — chassis, powertrain, and controls engineered from scratch by a student team, then driven wheel to wheel against 100+ schools at competition.

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38
Years Competing
1
Car Built From Scratch, Every Year
100+
Rival Schools at Competition
60+
Student Engineers on the Roster
Who We Are

A student team that answers to a stopwatch.

Cornell Racing is a student-run engineering team that designs, manufactures, tests, and races a full electric formula-style car every season. There's no professor grading the result — the car either finishes the endurance event or it doesn't, and that's the standard every subteam builds to.

Members join as first-years with no experience and leave having run a CAD model through manufacturing, torqued it onto a rolling chassis, and stood on pit wall while it's driven at speed. It's the closest thing Cornell has to a real engineering job, run entirely by undergrads.

  • Founded1988
  • CompetitionFormula SAE, Michigan
  • ClassElectric Vehicle
  • HomeCornell MTEI, Ithaca NY
  • Subteams4
  • New Members / Year~25
CR-23 // Spec Sheet
This Year's Build

CR-23

Our current-generation electric formula car, built for the 2023–24 season and refined every semester since. Everything on this spec sheet was designed, machined, or wired by a student.

ChassisCarbon-fiber monocoque
PowertrainDual e-motor, AWD80 kW
BatteryCustom Li-ion pack7.2 kWh
Weight198 kgdry
0–60 mph3.1 sec
AeroFull front & rear wingCFD-optimized
How We're Organized

Four subteams. One car.

Every member sits on a subteam with real ownership over a system of the car — no busywork, no shadowing. First-years ship parts that race by spring.

Chassis & Aero

Chassis & Aerodynamics

Carbon-fiber monocoque design, suspension kinematics, and full-car CFD to keep the car light, stiff, and planted through every corner.

Powertrain

Powertrain & Electrical

Battery pack design, motor controller tuning, and the low-voltage systems that turn stored energy into corner-exit speed.

Controls & Software

Controls & Autonomous Systems

Torque vectoring, data acquisition, and the perception stack behind our driverless entry, built and validated on real track data.

Business

Business & Operations

Cost reports, sponsorship, and the logistics that get a finished car and a 60-person team to competition every May.

Support The Team

Sponsor the next build.

Cornell Racing runs on parts, machining time, and sponsor support — not university funding. Every tier gets your name on a car that actually races.

No racing experience required. Just show up.

We recruit new members every fall and spring. Bring curiosity — we'll teach you CAD, machining, and wiring on the job.

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