Case Study: Lycée Ozanam achieves hands-on, industry-ready engineering skills by building a mini Formula 1 car with SOLIDWORKS

Bridging education and industry building a mini formula 1 car

Lycée Ozanam, a French engineering and technology lycée, took on the Race to Learn challenge to set up an annual, multidisciplinary project in which 11th‑grade STI/2D students design and build a mini Formula 1 car (~30 cm). The task was to manage all stages of design and production while giving students real industrial experience using SolidWorks solutions — notably SOLIDWORKS Education Edition, SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation and SOLIDWORKS Sustainability.

Using SOLIDWORKS on roughly 200 education workstations, students modeled parts, simulated aerodynamics with Flow Simulation, evaluated materials with Sustainability, prototyped components on campus 3D printers and assembled a contest-ready car with full engineering documentation and presentations. SolidWorks enabled a full product‑development workflow that improved teamwork and technical skills, consolidated student strengths and addressed weaknesses, and brought industry engagement — measurable resources included 200 SOLIDWORKS workstations and a completed ~30 cm prototype.

Lycée Ozanam

Lionel Hélin

Teacher