A high-performance steel with MIT origins has come full circle: After proving its worth in Formula One and Baja 1000 race cars, the computationally designed material has now been incorporated into the 2026 electric race car built by the student-run MIT Motorsports team.

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MIT professor Gregory Olson founded the Steel Research Group in 1985, pioneering computational materials design. His team developed Ferrium C61, a high-performance gear steel that dramatically improved gear longevity in Baja 1000 off-road racing (from 0.6 to 6 races average lifespan) and was adopted by Red Bull Formula One, contributing to four world championships. The MIT Motorsports student team has now incorporated C61 into their 2026 electric race car for the Formula SAE Electric competition.

Steel developed at MIT is key to Formula One, Baja 1000, and MIT Motorsports