Five days of engineering on track in Varano: this is Formula SAE Italy 2026!

Months of engineering work came down to five days on track at the Autodromo R. Paletti in Varano de’ Melegari, where university teams from across Europe and beyond competed in the XXI edition of Formula SAE Italy.

From 2 to 6 September, around 1,600 students from 13 countries gathered in the heart of Motor Valley for the international technical and sporting competition organised by ANFIA, in partnership with SAE International, the Autodromo R. Paletti and Associazione Motor Valley.

The 2026 edition saw 51 teams in competition, including 22 Italian teams representing 21 different universities, alongside teams from other European countries and beyond. The programme brought together four main competition classes: combustion vehicles, electric vehicles, driverless vehicles and Class 3, dedicated to the presentation of a vehicle project without a prototype.

From design to endurance

Formula SAE Italy is structured to test much more than a car’s performance.

The competition begins with static disciplines, including Engineering Design, Business Plan Presentation and Cost & Manufacturing, before moving onto the track for Acceleration, Skid Pad, Autocross and Endurance. For Driverless teams, Endurance is replaced by Trackdrive.

This combination requires students to bring together engineering knowledge, project management, teamwork and decision-making, while working within precise technical, economic and time constraints.

The 2026 edition also highlighted some of the most significant technological developments taking place within the competition. More teams are now combining manual and driverless configurations, while artificial intelligence is increasingly being used during the design phase and 3D printing is being adopted for selected components.

MUNER teams at Varano

The MUNER university network was represented on track by four teams:

For each of them, Formula SAE Italy marked the culmination of months of design, development, testing and preparation – and an opportunity to measure their work against university teams from across the international Formula SAE community.

The event also brought an important result for the University of Bologna: UniBo Motorsport Electric finished third in the Endurance event of Class 1EV, one of the highlights of a highly competitive electric category.

The results

At the end of the five days, Race Up Team Hybrid from the University of Padova won the Class 1CV overall, also taking first place in the Business Plan Presentation and Engineering Design disciplines, as well as Acceleration, Autocross and Endurance in its class.

In Class 1EV, Joanneum Racing Graz from UAS Graz took first place, followed by Rennstall Esslingen and Bern Racing Team.

The Driverless category was won by eForce Prague Formula from Czech Technical University in Prague, with RaceUP Electric Padova second and Dynamics e.V. of OTH Regensburg third.

In Class 3, dedicated to project presentation without a running prototype, Arab Academy Motors of the Arab Academy for Science, Technology & Maritime Transport took the overall victory.

Beyond the podiums, the competition once again showed the educational value of Formula SAE: students had to confront real engineering problems, work under pressure, manage resources and deadlines, and discuss their technical choices with evaluators largely drawn from the automotive and motorsport industries.

For MUNER, supporting university teams means creating opportunities for students to put their knowledge into practice within the ecosystem that surrounds them – from university laboratories and workshops to the racetrack.

After five days in Varano, the cars return to their workshops.

The next projects are already taking shape.