The Oasis English Press sat down with Tushar Shekhawat, the Coordinator of Inspired Karters Electric (IKE), to understand the club and its plans for Oasis ’26.

To begin with, Tushar said that IKE was the official formula student team of BITS Pilani, which built electrical powertrain-based FormulaSstudent cars. He added that they had participated in competitions like Formula Bharat, Imperial Challenge, and FS Germany. 

The Coordinator shared that after many years of organising events solely for APOGEE, IKE would also be conducting an Oasis event this year. Tushar explained that the club would be setting up a Pitstop Simulator, a competitive event where participants would race to complete certain pit stop tasks. He elaborated that the purpose of the event was to give participants an authentic, hands-on pit stop experience, and to simulate it, the club will be using a real chassis designed by them.

Tushar said that COVID lockdowns had dealt a heavy blow to the team, along with multiple powertrain rule changes that forced them to start designing a new car altogether, which required a lot of thought, effort and manpower. He stated that their goal was to attract more people to the team to ‘restore it to its pre-COVID glory.’

Tushar added that the recent popularity of F1 as an entertainment sport had helped increase interest in their team. As they watched the races, many people would get curious about the engineering behind F1 cars, which naturally led them to show an interest in IKE. He explained that harnessing this popularity to reach a broader audience was the main reason they had chosen to organise an F1-related event at Oasis.

When asked about his experience as Coordinator, Tushar said that it had been significantly less hectic than he had expected. He expressed his gratitude towards his team and the StuCCA for being supportive of the club. To conclude, Tushar encouraged all first years to ‘get out of their rooms’ and enjoy their first cultural fest and the beautiful winter nights of Pilani.