Formula Student
Please introduce UP Racing Electric!
UPRacing Electric have just finished our second year of Class 2. We started in November 2017 with 8 team members, no budget and no sponsors - just the drive to be apart of the competition. To our surprise we did well at Silverstone last year with a 2nd place finish in cost and 15th overall.
It’s been a couple of years since we first caught up with you in Portsmouth, you seem to have been busy!
Moving forward into 2018 we expanded the team to 17 people, reached out to a few companies and the university. We completed the 2019 competition with support from 5 fantastic companies and the support of our new school and to our surprise we somehow won it! still have no idea how that happened!
Congratulations on winning Class 2 Cost and coming first overall in Class 2 – how does it feel?
Thank you, it was great to see all the hard work pay off in such a big way. I don’t think it has completely sunk in yet but no time to rest! The team has been working hard to get ready for the next set of challenges to come.
What advice can you give any teams competing in class 2 in 2020?
READ THE RULES!
What are your best memories of the competition this year?
Seeing how proud our unexpected success made our Alumni , School and Sponsors it showed just how much the team means to so many people.
After two years as a Class 2 team, are you finally graduating to Class 1? How are you hoping to maintain your successes?
The team is now working with the new School of Energy and Electronics at the University of Portsmouth and the head of the school's Professor Peter Kyberd, who has been extremely supportive of the project and allowed the team to run as a completely student-led project. With the addition of this support, the team will be running a Class 1 & Class 2 submission in the 2020 season. This is to ensure not only knowledge transfer / retention but allow each member to experience the purely technical side of Class 2 and get the hands on experience of Class 1 without the added pressure of having to design and build within 12 months.
What else can we expect from the team?
This year the team will be running its first Class 1 team and will be continuing to run a Class 2 as we feel it's important to learn from the freedom that Class 2 allows, being able to look much deeper into Design, Cost, and Business before taking up the challenges that Class 1 provides. In conclusion, the team is hoping to build its members to well-rounded students ready to take on industry when the time comes.
Can you tell us more about your battery systems?
Unfortunately not, we are still working with one of our sponsors to create something new for the Formula Student market. Keep your eyes peeled !
What have been your biggest challenges so far how have you overcome them?
Our biggest challenge has been creating a name for ourselves and proving are worth when approaching the University and Sponsors, by working hard and proving we are a professional team with a set rule, targets and a clear path we have now got a great relationship with the University and our five amazing sponsors who have become part of the team over the last year.
What made you join Formula Student?
Formula Student gives you the opportunity to learn what University does not teach from how industry works to the soft skills needed to create the relationships needed for any successful company. Oh and the obvious you get to play with race cars with your friend and compete at the highest level!
What has been your proudest moment at Formula Student?
The proudest moment for me was the Sunday of Silverstone, the team invited all of our sponsors and supports for a “Corporate day” where we took them on tours of the pits with lunch in grandstands with the opportunity to network between each other. This may sound like an odd thing to be proud of but seeing how professional each team member was the sponsors was incredible! The feedback we received after was amazing, every sponsor will be continuing with the team in the 2020 season. Getting a nice big trophy was also a highlight too!
How can we keep up to date with you?
We are on Facebook and LinkedIn as UPRacing Electric so please check them out as we will be posting our first Class 1 journey over the next 12 months. Before we start getting back to planning we would like to take the opportunity to thank everyone that has supported us.
Thank you for everything and we are looking forward to working with you all in the coming year!
One last massive thank you to everyone that makes FSUK possible: Lucy and Chris, you guys are amazing and we can’t thank everyone enough for the opportunity you give us each year!