Our Story

The PMF is a racing team that belongs to a project of the Department of Mechanics of the Politecnico di Milano, born in 2015 from the passion of five Mechanical Engineering students with the aim of participating in the international Motostudent competition, in which universities from all over the world take part.

The team is composed by students from different faculties within the university. In fact, there are men and women from the ”classic” Mechanical, Energy and Aerospace engineering, to the ”less obvious” Management, Electrical and Civil engineering, but also from the School of Design and Architecture. The only figure within the team that is not a student is the team tutor, required by the regulations to act as supervisor and moderator, who is represented by Prof. Alan Facchinetti.

The objective for the students is to apply and verify, in a real scenario, all the knowledge acquired during their studies. In fact, once registered for the event, each team only receives the engine (in the fourth edition it was a Honda 250cc 4t, now it is a Ktm 250cc 4t), a set of slick tyres and the braking system (calipers and brake master cylinders) from the MotoStudent organization. The rest of the motorbike, in accordance with the official regulations of the event, is completely the responsibility of each team. It is up to the students to design, develop and finally build and assemble all the missing components (frame, suspension, exhaust, fairings, electronics, etc.). The prototype, thus obtained, is then tested and evaluated by the official jury of the event. Once the static and dynamic tests have been carried out, the final race against the other universities is held at the Motorland Aragón FIM Circuit.

The tasks and problems faced by the team members are similar to a racing department competing in any world competition. In fact, in addition to the design, the management of material and spaces, the organisation and logistics of events, knowing how to relate with suppliers and sponsors, and finally managing the Team’s image via social media are required. Since the first edition in which the Team participated (i.e. MotoStudent IV, 2015-2016), the results immediately proved to be more than encouraging. In fact, in 2016, the Team managed to quickly build a first prototype bike that complied with the regulations and made it to the end of all tests, both static and dynamic, finishing overall in tenth position in MS1 and twenty-fourth in MS2.

In 2018, the team had more than 40 members from different engineering, design and architecture backgrounds and, thanks to an extraordinary effort and with many sacrifices, they managed to create a second prototype motorbike with performance above all the more than 40 motorbikes developed by the other participating universities, winning the title of world champion in the Petrol category with the Scighera prototype.

In 2021, the PMF took part in the 6th edition of the competition with Sciura in the Petrol category and, for the first time in the team’s history, also in the Electric category with the Nyx prototype, taking home first place in the Best Industrial Project.

The starting point for the work is the further development of the two motorbikes, to raise the bar even higher and gain further knowledge and experience to be used in the design and construction of the new prototypes. To do this, the PMF has already started a new and intense test season on the track, with real track days where new solutions will be tested. The aim is to plot the way towards Aragòn 2023, where MotoStudent VII will be held and where the PMF will have to be able to live up to the now very high expectations surrounding these exceptional students.