The Formula Student UC3M project involves up to 45 students from different disciplines and majors, coordinated by five professors. "With our enthusiasm and effort, we aim to build a Formula 1-style single-seater race car to compete in the European championship organized annually by the Formula Student association," the team members explain.
Formula Student SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) is a competition organized by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, an independent engineering society based in London. Its aim is to inspire and develop young engineers to be entrepreneurial and innovative. For this event, teams from each university design, build, and develop a single-seater race car, which they then race. This provides students with valuable experience in design, manufacturing, and teamwork. It is a high-profile competition in the engineering world, with companies like Jaguar, Shell, and Airbus participating as official sponsors. The competition consists of two types of tests: static tests, based on aspects such as design, cost analysis, and business plan; and dynamic tests, which consider the car's effectiveness, efficiency, performance, and reliability.
The Formula Student UC3M project originated from a proposal by a group of students aiming to participate in this competition. It currently comprises 45 students and five professors, though more members are expected to join, according to Javier López Carrillo, the team's founder, who describes "the relationship and collaboration between professors and students as very positive." In addition to the various engineering specialties, this project requires broad interdisciplinary knowledge and skills. Therefore, fields such as audiovisual communication, journalism, and economics, among others, converge. Besides designing and building the car, the students also participate in finding sponsors, programming, and cost analysis.
When designing a Formula Student car, it's important that it be "safe for the driver and the team members working around the car, and it must guarantee sufficient reliability so that it doesn't fail before the end of the competition," explains Daniel García-Pozuelo, one of the professors coordinating the project, from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at UC3M. However, one of the requirements for scoring points is completing all the races in the competition.
Like a Ferrari
The UC3M team's single-seater uses a gasoline engine with a tubular steel chassis. To study the car's behavior, the researchers employ computer simulation techniques; at this stage, they are still exploring the possibility of incorporating composite materials into the system. The team emphasizes that they are designing "a low-cost, high-performance single-seater that can be reproduced by anyone with the necessary resources.".
While a good road car typically accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h in 9 or 10 seconds, the Formula Student UC3M single-seater would reach that speed in "4 to 6 seconds, roughly like a Ferrari," explains Javier López Carrillo. The car, due to its low weight and characteristics, "is going to be very agile, very fast in transitions and cornering; in short, a fun car to drive and to watch," emphasizes Daniel García-Pozuelo.
According to the competition regulations, the cost of the designed and built vehicle must not exceed €20,000. Once the necessary resources, both in terms of money and materials, have been secured, a prototype is expected to be manufactured and ready to compete within six to eight months.
The Formula Student UC3M team allows companies to actively collaborate on the project. From a technical standpoint, this opens the possibility for them to "develop or test technologies in this vehicle, as well as helping engineering students and students from other disciplines to gain experience," explains Javier López Carrillo. With the financial resources provided by sponsors, "we are confident that we can participate in the 2015 Formula SAE race at Montmeló," they conclude.
