MSc in Advanced Motorsport Mechatronics
Bedford, United Kingdom
MSc
DURATION
1 year
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
21 Sep 2026*
EARLIEST START DATE
Sep 2026
TUITION FEES
GBP 29,025 **
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* for UK and Irish students
** for overseas students | £13,005 - for home students
Key Summary
About: MSc in Advanced Motorsport Mechatronics at Cranfield covers mechatronics for racing—integrating mechanical, electronic and control systems, multi-domain modeling, in-vehicle communications, embedded systems, hardware-in-the-loop validation and systems integration. You’ll learn scientific, engineering and managerial principles to design adaptive vehicle systems for motorsport environments.
Career Outcomes: Cranfield connects you to motorsport companies and global networks; most graduates enter motorsport or high-performance engineering roles. Past roles include Race Engineer, Embedded Systems Specialist, Vehicle Dynamics Engineer, Simulation Engineer and Project Engineer for Electric and Hybrid Vehicles. Graduates work in controls, software, advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) and EV sectors across automotive and engineering services.
Mechatronics in motorsports plays an increasingly important role in achieving a competitive advantage within this sport. By enhancing the integration of a vehicle's mechanical and electronic systems, you will be able to create intelligent systems capable of adapting to the rapidly changing conditions within the racing environment.
The Advanced Motorsports Mechatronics MSc aims to provide students with a sound understanding of the fundamental scientific, engineering and managerial principles involved in motorsport. The focus is on the “mechatronics” aspect of the discipline, involving the engineering of advanced control systems, multi-domain computer modelling, in-vehicle communication networks, electromechanical and embedded systems, hardware-in-the-loop validation and systems integration.
Compulsory Modules
All the modules in the following list need to be taken as part of this course.
- Motorsport Introduction
- Motorsport Powertrains
- Motorsport Electronics and Data Acquisition
- Motorsport Vehicle Dynamics
- The Business of Motorsport
- Mechatronics Modelling for Vehicle Systems
- Advanced Control and Optimisation
- Embedded Vehicle Control Systems
- Vehicle Control Applications
The MSc in Advanced Motorsports Mechatronics aims to provide you with a sound understanding of the fundamental scientific, engineering and managerial principles involved in motorsport, and their implementation within a high-performance technology context. You will cover design, testing and operation of competition vehicles, and related aspects of control engineering, computer modelling, embedded systems, alongside vehicle dynamics, vehicle systems, and management techniques related to motorsport. You will be taught the skills required for the planning, execution and reporting of motorsport projects and to prepare them for a variety of roles in motorsport.
To help students find and secure appropriate funding, we have created a funding finder where you can search for suitable sources of funding by filtering the results to suit your needs.
FIA Motorsport Engineering Scholarship
The FIA are looking for an engineer with exceptional personal qualities, who has high academic merit and who is passionate about motorsport, yet not able to afford to study at Cranfield. The successful candidate will benefit from a 1-year scholarship, covering tuition fees for an MSc in Advanced Motorsport Mechatronics and a contribution towards associated living costs in the UK.
Master's Loan from Student Finance England
A Master's Loan is now available for UK applicants to help you pay for your Master’s course.
Royal Academy of Engineering MSc Motorsport Scholarship Programme
The scholarships aim to help address the underrepresentation of Black or mixed Black ethnic engineers and accelerate the rate of progress of change.
Commonwealth Scholarships for Developing Countries
Students from developing countries who would not otherwise be able to study in the UK can apply for a Commonwealth Scholarship, which includes tuition fees, travel and a monthly stipend for Master’s study.
Chevening Scholarships
Chevening Scholarships are awarded to outstanding emerging leaders to pursue a one-year master’s at Cranfield University. The scholarship includes tuition fees, travel and a monthly stipend for Master’s study.
Institution of Mechanical Engineers Postgraduate Master's Scholarship
IMechE is offering a number of postgraduate research Scholarships worth up to £6,500 to graduates with a 2:1 honours IMechE-accredited BEng(Hons) degree to allow them to undertake an IMechE accredited Masters degree.
IGEM Postgraduate Master's Scholarship
The Institution of Gas Engineers and Managers (IGEM) is offering postgraduate Master's Scholarships worth £6,500 to those studying an Engineering Council-accredited degree.
Lendwise Postgraduate Student Loan
The Lendwise Postgraduate Student Loan provides tuition fees and maintenance loans of between £5,000 and £100,000 for eligible applicants studying at Cranfield University.
Motorsport is a highly competitive sector. Studying at Cranfield will immerse you in a highly focused motorsport engineering learning experience, providing you with access to motorsport companies and practitioners. Our selectivity at course entry, combined with world-class teaching, facilities and industry networking, means that the great majority of our graduates go into motorsports roles upon course completion. In some instances, job offers are made even in the final months of the course.
Past graduates have taken roles such as:
- Braking Calibration Engineer
- Race engineer
- Motor Control Specialist
- Electrical and Controls Engineer
- CFD Engineer
- Systems Engineer
- Vehicle Dynamics Engineer
- Applications Lead Engineer
- Embedded Systems Specialist (Cyber Security)
- Applied Controls Engineer
- Vehicle Software Engineer
- Software System Engineer/Model-Based Developer
- Simulation Engineer
- ADAS Systems Engineer
- Project Engineer for Electric & Hybrid Vehicles
Successful students go on to be part of a global network of engineers, and you will find Cranfield alumni working across motorsport and the high-performance engineering sector.
This course aims to provide students with a sound understanding of the fundamental scientific, engineering and managerial principles involved in motorsport. A combination of mechanics, electronics and computer systems, this postgraduate programme prepares graduates for a career in motorsport or high-performance engineering.
For those students wishing to apply with a pure science or pure mathematics background or those with limited motorsport experience, we strongly recommend our Introduction to Motorsport Engineering short course as a primer for the MSc programme.
Why this course?
Cranfield University has undertaken research, consultancy and testing for the motorsport sector since the 1970s. The University is home to the FIA-approved Cranfield Impact Centre and Cranfield Motorsport Simulation, which work with F1 and leading motorsport companies.
We have an international reputation for our expertise in aerodynamics, CFD, materials technology, including composites, safety of motorsport vehicle structures, power-train development, vehicle dynamics, simulation, data acquisition and electronics, tyre characterisation and modelling. This track record ensures the course is highly respected by the motorsport industry.
As a student, you will benefit from:
- Practical sessions using Cranfield's facilities and equipment
- Engagement with motorsport practitioners
- Motorsport-related project work.
The MSc course consists of nine one-week taught modules, a motorsport mechatronics group design project and an individual thesis project.
Taught modules 40%, Group project 20%, Individual project 40%
Race Vehicle Design and Race Engineering, Group Design Project
The purpose of the Race Vehicle Design and Race Engineering, Group Design Project is to allow each of you to demonstrate your team working ability in relation to a motorsport-relevant area and to communicate their innovative ideas, analysis and conclusions in both written and oral formats. The group design project develops your resource management skills and improves your business literacy. Individual reflection in relation to their contribution, competencies and peer review complements these areas of personal development. In addition, each student reflects on the economic, legal, social, and environmental context of the group design project.
The annual group design project is supervised by member/s of academic staff. You are expected to hold and actively participate in regular group meetings (at least once a week), producing meeting minutes that include a rating of individual team members’ contributions for the week and attend two formative reviews by the academic panel. You will be asked to follow up on the panel’s feedback. At the end of the project, each group of students is required to write a project report. There will also be an oral examination of your presentation of your group work.
The group report should be no more than 10,000 words (body text) with all students in the group contributing to the report’s concision and precision. As a group, you are required to produce a poster, although this is not assessed. Likewise, the data files you submit will not be assessed. Again, non-assessed, as part of your Cranfield learning experience, you will present your work, including a poster, at the group design project presentation day. Individually, you are assessed on both your individual contribution throughout the group design project and the delivery of a reflective review report that will take into consideration your personal evaluation of your competencies and how these developed during the group design project and the peer review exercise.
Regarding the latter element, you will attend a formative feedback meeting with a member, or members, of the academic team around the mid-point of the group design project. In terms of the individual evaluation, you will then focus on two areas of improvement for the remaining period of the group design project, reflecting on these and your own individual contribution in your written report at the conclusion of the group design project phase. Within the individual report, you will reflect on the economic, legal, social and environmental context of the group design project.
Individual Project
The purpose of the individual project is to allow you to demonstrate your independent learning ability and interest in advancing your knowledge through the pursuit of independent research and/or development work in an industrially relevant area and to communicate your ideas, analysis and conclusions in written and oral formats.
The subject of the thesis is agreed upon between the student and the academic team. Topics will normally relate to one or more elements of the taught modules with regard to a motorsport engineering or mechatronics technical issue.
On occasion, Cranfield theses have formed the basis of technical articles published in journals such as Racecar Engineering. Below is an example of a fully autonomous small-scale vehicle developed by one of our students in collaboration with a local motorsport company.