FSPitside

Terms of use

In force from 6 August 2026

FSPitside is a community platform for Formula Student and FSAE teams. By using it you accept these terms. They are written plainly on purpose.

1. What FSPitside is

A place for teams to share knowledge, exchange parts and meet companies. It is an independent project run by two former Formula Student members. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or run by SAE International or any Formula Student competition organiser. Nothing here is an official rule interpretation.

2. Free, and staying free

Using FSPitside costs teams and students nothing, and we will not start charging them. We may charge companies to promote a job posting. We take no commission on anything exchanged between teams, because no money passes through the platform at all.

3. Accounts

  • You must give your real name. You may display a pseudonym publicly, but we need to know who you are. Anonymous contributions are not allowed.
  • A member account belongs to a team account. The team decides who joins it and what each member may do.
  • Team and company accounts are verified by hand before they can publish. We may refuse verification, and we will tell you why.
  • You are responsible for what happens under your account.
  • You must be at least 16 years old.

4. What you publish

You keep ownership of everything you upload. By publishing it here you give us permission to host and display it, and you grant other users the rights described by the licence you pick when you upload.

Before you upload, make sure you are allowed to. Design reports, test data and CAD usually belong to the team or the university rather than to you personally, and some of it is covered by sponsor agreements. When you upload you confirm you have your team’s permission. We do not check this, and we cannot: it is on you.

Competition rules limit what teams may share with each other and what help a team may receive. Following those rules is your responsibility and your team’s, not ours.

5. The marketplace

Listings are adverts. We are not a party to any sale, trade or exchange. We do not handle payment, shipping, customs, insurance or warranties, and we never hold anyone’s money. Everything is arranged directly between the people involved, at their own risk.

If a deal goes wrong, we cannot recover your money or your parts. We step in only where these terms have been broken: fraud, harassment, listings that should not be here. We will not arbitrate a disagreement about condition, price or delivery.

Some things must not be listed: anything you are not legally allowed to sell, anything that cannot be shipped safely, and anything that is not yours to sell. Battery cells, accumulators, fuels and fluids may only be offered for collection in person.

6. How to behave

FSPitside exists so that people learn from each other. That only works if it stays a decent place. So:

  • No harassment, insults, discrimination or pile-ons. Disagree with the engineering, not with the person.
  • No spam, scraping or bulk advertising.
  • No posting other people’s personal information.
  • No deliberately misleading answers, especially about rules or safety.
  • No impersonating a team, a company or another person.

We can hide content, suspend an account or remove it. We tell you what we did and why, and you can reply and ask us to reconsider by writing to [email protected].

7. Reporting something

Every piece of content has a report link, and anything reported reaches a person. Serious reports (safety, fraud, illegal content) go to [email protected] and we look at them first.

8. What we do not promise

The platform is provided as it is. We do not guarantee it will always be available, that everything published here is accurate, or that a resource is safe to build from. Check anything you take from here before you put it on a car. Formula Student vehicles are dangerous when they are wrong.

As far as the law allows, we are not liable for losses arising from using the platform, from anything published on it, or from any exchange arranged through it. Nothing here limits liability that cannot be limited by law.

9. Closing your account

You can delete your account at any time from settings. Your personal details are erased. What you published stays up under “deleted account”, because removing it would break conversations other people took part in. If you need something specific taken down, ask us.

10. Changes

We will email account holders before any material change takes effect. If you disagree with a change, you can close your account.

11. Law

These terms are governed by Italian law. If you are a consumer, you keep every right your own country’s law gives you.