FS Vitoria: A Season of Growth and Ambition
Last season, the team focused on improving the efficiency of the previous year’s car, as this was the most noticeable shortcoming in the V02 version of the vehicle. This reliability was mainly sought in the electrical and drivetrain departments, aiming for more robust electronics and replacing the treatments for the transmission gears to reduce wear during use. The rest of the departments concentrated on gaining a better understanding of the vehicle and how different aspects affected its behavior, as well as beginning to plan an iteration of the car with significant changes, with the goal of having a worthy successor to “Bizkor” by the end of this season or the next.
In addition to working on the car’s design, considerable efforts were made to train the younger members of the team in preparation for the “Quizzes” that serve as entrance exams for the competitions, which are held in January after the exam season. This effort paid off, as the team achieved the best results in its history in these entrance exams, securing access to the FSPortugal, FSAustria, FSSpain, FSFrance, FSUK, FSRomania, FSIndia, and FSGermany competitions.
This allowed the team to choose between various competitions, and they ultimately decided to attend three of them. The first one was Formula Student IMECHE (FSUK), held at the legendary Silverstone Circuit, the birthplace of motorsport and an iconic competition within the Formula Student category.
We were already familiar with this competition from previous years, as the team had competed in both the “Concept Class” and “FS Class” categories. However, this year’s results were significantly better, as the team managed to become a finalist in the “Engineering Design Event,” a test in which the vehicle’s design is evaluated from an engineering perspective. We made it to the final in this category, along with five other teams with much more experience and knowledge, achieving 6th place out of 56 teams in the electric category.
In addition to this 6th place finish, we won the “Best Newcomer’s Award,” which recognizes the best work done by a new team. This was an acknowledgment of the excellent work our team achieved in record time; compared to the other teams, we are very young and have little experience in this category. The team’s results in this competition were:
- Design: 6/56
- Cost & Manufacturing: 16/56
- Business Plan: 41/53
- Overall: 19/56
Continuing with the competitions, we chose the local event held at the historic Circuit of Montmeló. This competition is a must-attend as it’s our national event, allowing us to connect with the growing number of teams in Spain, which continues to increase each year.
The results in this competition were not as remarkable due to some unforeseen issues. These were as follows:
- Design: 11/55
- Cost & Manufacturing: 15/55
- Business Plan: 55/55
- Overall: 18/25
Lastly, the team’s major milestone this year was qualifying for the German competition, becoming the first Basque team in the history of the event to achieve this.
This competition has the highest level of the entire category, and its entry exams are the most difficult. For this reason, securing a spot was already a victory for the team, as the training and preparation efforts to enter the competition proved successful.
Due to the high level of demand in this competition and the challenges we faced in Catalonia, we weren’t very confident about being able to race, and that turned out to be the case.
However, the knowledge we gained from both the judges and world-class teams was invaluable. It has inspired new ideas for the future car currently in development. Although we didn’t achieve good results in this competition, the feedback from the judges and more experienced teams reassured us that we’re on the right track. What the team has achieved in such a short time has been impressive.
This is a huge boost for the team, as our hard work and effort have been recognized, not with points in the competition, but through the feedback from teams and professionals with much more experience than us in Formula Student competitions.
The results we obtained in this competition were:
- Design: 63/79
- Cost & Manufacturing: 72/79
- Business Plan: 71/79
- Overall: 77/79
Starting a new season in a Formula Student team is always something special. After an intense summer where the team was able to make a triple header with the competitions of FS UK, FS Spain and FS Germany, we start looking for the incoming season in which a completely new car will be design and manufactured.
After a learning season, in which competing in FS Germany let us with a huge amount of knowledge we started defining what would be the 24-25 project. The car chassis will be completely new, with a new geometry, that will allow as to make the car more efficient and faster. Not only in the structural part, but also in the dynamic part huge changes are being implemented, the hole suspension system is undergoing changes for incorporating a 10 inches wheel, that will propose a car with more driveability and stability.
The most relevant goal is allocated to the electric part of the car. A completely new packaging of the Battery Accumulator pack gives the chance of making it smaller, lighter and more reliable. Related with that, all the electronic systems are going to follow a new topology so they can allocate in an efficient way for their maintenance and well working. For that aim having Eurocircuits as one of our sponsors is crucial for having high quality PCBs in reduce periods of time.
In terms of competition team objective is to keep learning while we continue pulling out the car performance. This means a thrilling season, with ambitious goals, however, this team is used to have great expectations, with has been seen in the past season competitions, with a Design Event Final and the award of the Best Newcomer at FS UK.
Keep yourself tune, because this season we are going to rock it!
For more information please visit the FS Vitoria website.
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