Events
Having not seen the team compete with a car at Formula Student this year, the meeting was a good opportunity to find out what the issues have been. Having started his time as team principal, Andreas was keen to emphasise that this year is very much a new beginning for the team. “Last year, we simply ran out of time and weren’t able to get the car finished in time, which is a massive shame.” Andreas shows us round their workspace, a dedicated garage in mechanical engineering labs where their current car sits waiting to be reassembled with new parts. “For this year, we’ve got a good basis to go from for our IC car so we’re looking to finish what we have by November and then get on with our other car” – namely the team’s first electric car.
While they didn’t compete at Silverstone this year, Andreas and the team still joined the event to get some ideas for their EV car design and have been working on it ever since. As detailed by Ishmael, the team’s Head of Powertrain, their new car will be a four wheel drive affair, featuring an interesting powertrain system with rear wheel steering, which if they get right should prove a real advantage for the sprint and endurance events. Meanwhile, work continues on their battery system and the team are confident that their design will be able to provide enough output to get through the endurance on a single charge. Current simulations indicate at least 20 minutes of output without compromising speed and with the target time of end of February for their manufacture and build, the team should have plenty of time to test and fine tweak any issues they come across.
What’s remarkable about this plan to get two cars ready is the size of the team itself, comprised of around half a dozen core members. While they might be smaller than other teams, they more than make up for it with their combined experience and drive. Andreas spent this most recent summer working at McLaren, Ishmael enjoyed a placement at Advanced Engine Research (who develop engines for use at Le Mans) last year, while Team Manager and F1 in Schools representative Maximilian has just come back to university after a summer placement at Williams. “This is one of the biggest differences we have this year” explained Andreas “In the past, we had quite a few members but didn’t have the time or skills to get things done. This year we’re concentrating on a small main group of around 6 of us who now have the experience from industry and the drive to get our new electric car built in time.”
Next task on the agenda this week is to complete a working model of an electric car, comprised of 3D printed parts with model car motors, so that they can design and test their ECU and steering system. Ideally they will fine tune the ECU using the model and then install it in their actual car with very few adaptations. Currently Max and Andreas are weighing up whether to join Learn to Win and get their upcoming third year team members up to speed and contribute to the car for the 2019/2020 season. Driver selection for both testing and the dynamics is also on the cards, as they want to try and leverage their connections to get the most experienced people in the driving seat so that they can get the most out of the car. A new website and revitalised social media channels are coming along well in the background to give the team a solid place to show their work and update their fans. Finally, efforts are continuing for team sponsorship to expand their marketing budget, ideally so that they can get the actuators they need for the steering system.
And what about goals for this year?As half of Andreas’ marks for the year are on the outcome of producing the car he has his sights set high for 2019: “we want to rattle the European teams who join us at for the UK competition. Quite frankly, why shouldn’t UCL, one of the top six universities in the world, be able to produce a top tier car? It’s about time that we showed what we can do.” Strong words indeed!
If Andreas, Ishmael, Max and the team do manage to complete and bring both an IC and EV entry for Class 1, then 2019 will be the year that UCL Racing return to form; and in amazing style (this in addition to their work on the UAS challenge, including a jet powered quad copter – yes really!). From what we were shown this week, it will be a lot of work to undertake but there’s plenty of ambition and expertise to get the job done from this Central London team. Keep an eye open for more updates from UCL Racing as the competition unfolds and we look forward to welcoming the team ad their cars to Silverstone next year.