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Raftar Formula Racing Team, IIT Madras | "The stakes are high. The environment is intense." | Ep. 15

In this episode of The Best Place to Build Podcast, we dive deep into the high-octane world of student formula racing with the extraordinary team from Raftar Formula Racing at IIT Madras. Join us as Team Captain Aryan Varma, aerodynamics lead- Ankith Suresh, and powertrain specialist- Divyaratna take us behind the scenes of one of India's most impressive student engineering projects. 🔧 What You'll Learn: - The origins of Raftar Formula Racing, founded in 2012 as the first competition team from CFI (Centre For Innovation) - How the team transitioned from combustion vehicles to electric during the COVID pandemic - Inside look at Formula SAE competitions in India (Formula Bharat) and globally - The team's impressive achievements, including winning the 2020 national championship and being the first Indian team to win a dynamic event at an international competition (Italy, 2017) - The organizational structure: chassis division (vehicle dynamics, aerodynamics, frames and composites), powertrain division (battery pack, electrical systems) - How they recruit 20-30 students annually into their 40-member team across various engineering disciplines 💼 Why This Matters: - Hear how working on Raftar operates like a startup - pitching ideas, raising funds, building and testing products - Discover the "CFI mafia" - a network of startups founded by former CFI club members - Learn how the team collaborates with industry giants: creating a new category of tires with MRF and designing test benches for electric powertrains with Daimler - Understand why companies eagerly hire Raftar team members for both technical roles and positions outside their specific fields - This episode showcases how practical engineering experience transforms students into industry-ready professionals and entrepreneurs. The passion, technical expertise, and teamwork displayed by the Raftar Formula Racing team exemplify why IIT Madras is truly the best place to build. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction to the Fastest Electric Autonomous Vehicle 00:51 Welcome to IIT Madras: The Best Place to Build 01:25 Meet the Raftaar Formula Racing Team 02:00 Understanding Student Formula Racing 03:09 Competitions and Achievements 06:04 Why Join a Student Racing Team? 09:39 Designing and Manufacturing the Race Car 11:15 Team Structure and Faculty Support 15:31 Sponsorships and Funding 20:32 Organizational Structure of Raftaar Formula Racing 29:42 Achievements and Legacy of Team Raftaar 33:33 Iconic Black Green Livery 34:21 Consistent Performance and Championships 35:09 Shift to Electric Vehicles 36:23 Challenges of International Competitions 40:17 CFI Teams and Their Projects 43:08 Balancing Academics and Team Work 49:01 Engineering Failures & Resilience 52:00 Driver Selection & Racing Experience 57:00 Race Strategy & Competition Events 01:00:39 Future Ambitions and Sponsorships 01:03:22 Conclusion and Farewell References: FSAE - https://www.fsaeonline.com/ Centre for Innovation (CFI) - https://cfi.iitm.ac.in/ Prabhu Rajgopal - https://www.linkedin.com/in/prabhu-rajagopal-041ab74/ Satyanarayanan Seshadri - https://www.linkedin.com/in/satyaseshadri/ Nandhini K S - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nandhini-k-s-71777748/ Seshan Rammohan - https://www.linkedin.com/in/seshanrammohan/ Karthick Athmanathan - https://www.linkedin.com/in/karthick-athmanathan-b5a958a/ Shankar Ram - https://www.linkedin.com/in/shankar-ram-coimbatore-subramanian-041523112/ Vasu Guruswamy - https://www.linkedin.com/in/vasu-guruswamy-0b80802/ Swapnil Jain - https://www.linkedin.com/in/swapnil-jain-431ba14b/ Tarun Mehta - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tarunsmehta/ Arun Vinayak - https://www.linkedin.com/in/arun-vinayak-71a5b973/?originalSubdomain=in Ather - https://www.atherenergy.com/ Exponent Energy - https://www.exponent.energy/ To know more about what makes IIT Madras- the Best Place to Build- hit https://www.bestplacetobuild.com/

DivyaratnaguestAryan VarmaguestAnkith Sureshguest
Feb 27, 20251h 3mWatch on YouTube ↗

At a glance

WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT

IIT Madras Raftaar team builds EV racecars, eyes autonomy supremacy

  1. Raftaar Formula Racing is one of IIT Madras’ oldest CFI competition teams, building a full prototype race car each year for Formula Student / FSAE-style competitions in India (Formula Bharat) and abroad (notably Formula Student Germany).
  2. The episode explains how the team operates like a startup: raising funds, managing sponsors, coordinating manufacturing and logistics, and justifying engineering decisions through design, cost, and business-plan events—alongside on-track dynamic events.
  3. After years of success in combustion (including national championships around 2020–2022), Raftaar used the COVID period to pivot to electric, podium-finishing early in their EV era and seeking to close the gap to heavily resourced European teams.
  4. Team members emphasize hands-on learning, intense stakes, interdisciplinary participation, resilience through failures, and a long-term ambition: world-leading performance in electric autonomy by 2027.

IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING

5 ideas

Formula Student rewards engineering justification—not just speed.

Beyond lap times, teams are scored on cost efficiency, design rationale/validation, and a business plan pitch—forcing disciplined trade-offs and discouraging pure overengineering.

Raftaar runs like a startup as much as an engineering team.

Students pitch for sponsorships, manage budgets, plan launches, and handle international shipping/logistics—building real-world execution skills alongside technical depth.

The COVID downtime became a strategic inflection point to go electric.

With limited campus access, the team invested design time into an EV powertrain and returned with a new electric car, quickly translating that pivot into competitive results.

Interdisciplinary participation is normal and valuable in CFI teams.

Chemical or civil students can contribute meaningfully to electronics or aerodynamics; motivation and self-learning matter more than department labels, and projects often teach concepts before classrooms do.

Iteration compounds: small yearly gains produce major multi-year performance jumps.

Weight savings (e.g., reducing frame mass) and subsystem upgrades (battery, composites, aero) accumulate into large step-changes over 3–5 years—mirroring professional motorsport development cycles.

WORDS WORTH SAVING

5 quotes

By 2027, we want to be the fastest electric autonomous vehicle in the world, period.

— Divyaratna Joshi

The way our team works is essentially kind of like a startup.

— Aryan Varma

Because this is a competition team, the stakes are high, and the environment is intense.

— Aryan Varma

It all culminates down to those final few days of the competition, which defines pretty much all the work you’ve done across the entire year.

— Ankith Suresh

No one ever gives up.

— Ankith Suresh

What Formula Student/FSAE competitions testStatic vs dynamic events (design, cost, business plan, racing)Pivot from combustion to electric during COVIDTeam structure: chassis vs powertrain sub-verticalsFaculty, alumni, and CFI ecosystem supportSponsorship strategy and industry collaboration valueFailures, crashes, iteration, and operational intensityInternational competition logistics constraintsDriver selection, safety, and vehicle performance metrics2027 vision: fastest electric autonomous vehicle

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