Imperial Racing Green power up for 2018

Fresh from a new intake of students and having attended Learn to Win in Coventry back in October, we caught up with the team for a chat, a tour of their campus and workshops and to find out what 2018 has in store for them.

Located in the leafy green streets of West London, Imperial College is home to the Imperial Racing Green team, whose Electric Vehicles have been a familiar site at the Formula Student competition since their first entry. Their last outing as a class 2 entry at Silverstone in 2017 saw the team achieve 12th place on a field of 26; a great achievement given the relatively small team who competed this year.

Growing the team

Speaking to Iman, a second year student taking part in FS for the first time, we asked him what attracted him to the team. “I joined because I have an interest in motorsports and Formula One^TM but in my first year (of study) I didn’t think that I was technically proficient enough to take part” he explained, “but I want to work on the aerodynamics package as it’s a black art, something that you can make all the difference but you don’t necessarily see it working.”

Iman is one of over 50 new members that have joined the Imperial Racing Green Formula Student team this year after their recruitment drive was vastly oversubscribed. “We have only just finalised the team this year from the 205 or so applications we received” explained Team Principal Roman Chaika. “We had applications from all over the university - it was quite overwhelming to deal with and we have only just managed to finalise the new members.” The numbers speak for themselves about how popular the team has become; Imperial Racing Green comprises of around 120 members, featuring:

• 20 new experienced MechEng undergraduates
• 23 electrical engineers
• 28 aerodynamics engineers
• 8 communications team members
• 40 volunteer members

The increased team size also means that the team have ambitious targets for the future. “Our current team is focused on the Class 2 entry for 2018,” team member and fundraising manager James Eaton explained “once we move this to a fully built Class 1 car for 2019, we will start up a new Class 2 car and have two teams running simultaneously, similar to the setup that TU Delft have with their IC and EV teams.”

The next car starts to take shape!

The integration of students from other disciplines within the college for the first time means that the team can run dedicated teams that specialise in their given area, leading to more time for development, fabrication and testing. The dedicated electronics team is a particularly big win - the goal is to have a better organised, safe wiring in a car that can breeze through electrical scrutineering. “We have appointed a Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE) academic as a Faculty Advisor for the first time and as well as better integration with EEE, we have two new roles, Business/Finance manager and Operations manager” said James. “Next year we aim to integrate more with Aerodynamics”.

Likewise the new communications team means that they will be able to better communicate with their fans and galvanise sponsorship efforts. James, who is a MechEng student, joined the Marketing and communications session at Learn To Win and is delighted to have the support of first year marketing students: “it means I can still get stuck in when needed - I did three hours on a lathe before you got here”.

New expertise

One of the key advantages that the team has for the 2018 season is that some members are returning from industry placements. Sporting two members fresh from Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport and another from Red Bull Racing Formula One^TM, the team hope to capitalise on this new wealth of experience to positively impact the car.

The team’s Chief Engineer William Foster was upbeat about what he can bring to the table. “I was part of a team that did a lot of the extra jobs and took over ad-hoc projects at Mercedes, so I came away with experience in a lot of different areas. This means I have a good appreciation of what’s needed across the project and can help wherever is needed”. Likewise, Owen Heaney, who previously worked in the Vehicle Dynamics team at Red Bull Racing and is now in the new team role of head of Vehicle Dynamics, said that the step down from bespoke software for monitoring the car is unfortunate, but it does provide a great benchmark of what to look for and develop for the future. In the same way that Formula One^TM is a testbed for new technologies that make their way into commercial vehicles, the same is also true for Formula Student teams.

Formula Student isn’t the only project that Imperial Racing Green participates in and the garage also hosts their successful entry for the Shell Eco Marathon (SEM) and a stripped-down version of ZEPHiR electric bike entry. The intention is that developments and successes honed on one project can be quickly shared with the other project teams, such as the hybrid chassis for the SEM which is comprised of 3D printed lugs and carbon fibre tubing, developed with knowledge and expertise from Imperial College Advanced Hackspace. Not content with these projects, the team are also looking to future projects by taking their 2016 class 1 entry as the basis for an autonomous car.

Onwards to 2018

Like all teams, Imperial Racing Green are facing the challenge of balancing their academic workload and projects with the time to work on their FS project. However, now that they have so many new members and a clear team structure Imperial Racing Green are looking forward to a record result for 2018 and a firm plan for future competitions.

To keep up to date with their progress, visit their team website and follow them on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Want a visit from the FS Team? Email us!