How Sunswift Racing can help you build more than a race car

Join the most significant, student-led project within UNSW and lay down the foundations for your future career.

Published on the 05 March 2026

What is Sunswift Racing?

Founded back in 1996 during a chat between academics and PhD students at a pub around the corner from UNSW (no joke), the initial idea of Sunswift Racing was to build a car to compete in the World Solar Challenge (now the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge). What began as a PhD and academic-led program soon transitioned to an undergraduate-exclusive project within the Vertically Integrated Project Program.

The one leading the Sunswift Racing project since 2015 is former Head of Operations for the Red Bull Racing Formula One team, Richard Hopkins.

"Similar to the way I walked into the doors of the Red Bull Formula One team, I saw something that had potential and opportunity. It was an opportunity for me to make it bigger than it was at that point," recalls Richard.

Bold ambitions, especially coming from a championship-winning Formula One team. But Richard has made good on his aim.

"Over the last years, it's been building that team into something more and more credible and believable than it's ever been, and to create an experience for students that was second to none."

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A student-led team that's open to anyone - not just engineers

Sunswift Racing comprises over 100 members split up across several technical, engineering, media and business departments. There's a proper application process involving CVs, aptitude tests and interviews with a panel who are trying to gauge whether you'll be a right fit. In other words, this is essentially a company that just so happens to work out of UNSW Sydney and awards course credits towards your degree.

The key difference? It's almost all student-led.

"We're more interested in seeing how you learn, how you answer our questions. That really shows who you are as a person, which maybe can help you find out if that degree is for you."

"You've got the CTO, Chief Designer, Chief Engineer, Technology Manager and Team Manager," explains Andy Danis, a fifth-year Mechanical Engineering student and Systems Engineer/former interim Team Manager for Sunswift. "Richard is obviously involved in helping with the direction, but a lot of the decisions come from [this] senior leadership team, which is all students."

Don't think this is just for engineers, though. There are both technical and non-technical roles that need to be filled. What Sunswift is looking for is whether prospective team members can learn and grow with the team.

Putting theory into practice

It's one thing to learn everything in the classroom, but it's an entirely different thing to apply all that theory in a proper working context. For fourth-year Chemical Engineering student Anita Lin, it was a "very big learning experience" in taking all her foundational work and putting it into practice in a workplace environment like Sunswift. The key takeaway? Communication, communication, and more communication.

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"The thing that people don't take into account when they think about engineering as a whole – you don't work with just chemical engineers," reveals Anita, who is a Sunswift Alternative Energies team member. "You work with mechanical [engineers], you work with electrical [engineers], all different kinds of people and personalities [that] are different. [There are] also the financial considerations of building a car and a research project as well."

Beyond developing those all-important communication and soft skills, the 'all hands on deck' nature of the team allows members to learn new skills by simply 'doing'. Third-year Design and Media student Holly Tam says not only is "communication a big thing," but there's a lot of "hands-on learning" where members get to "learn things outside of what [they] think [they] can do."

"I know someone in the media team who, before she joined, had never used video editing software," recalls Holly, who is Sunswift's Media Lead and Social Media Officer.

"It was like, 'Oh, this is new!' [Upskilling] is very much embedded into the team as well, and a lot of unexpected opportunities can come up."

The benefits of joining Sunswift Racing

Like with any company, people come and go, and it's no different at Sunswift, as students will inevitably leave the team when they graduate. While all the success achieved for the team is great, Richard admits that students leaving means that they "take the knowledge, the IP, the consistency and the continuity that any team has." As such, recruitment is always ongoing for Sunswift, with applications and hiring taking place at the end of each term.

So why should you join Sunswift Racing? Well, the simple answer is getting valuable professional development in what's effectively a UNSW society environment. Plus Formula One/motorsport fans will get a taste of what it's like to actually work in a racing team.

"It's almost like you're getting free learning while also being part of a society," explains Andy. "You're literally getting course credits by being able to hang around people who are just as smart or smarter, or who just want to push themselves as much as you, while also being in an environment where we do social sport together."

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All interview quotes have been edited for length and clarity.

Last edited on 13 March 2026