Engineering students from around the world compete in Montmeló to be part of Formula 1 teams

Montmeló (ACN).- The Circuit de Catalunya hosts the Formula Student Spain 2012 (FSS) until next Sunday, a competition for engineering students from all over the world. During four days they will test vehicles they have designed on the Catalan racing circuit. There are over 700 participants from nine countries and the majority of them are competing for the first time. However this does not lower the standard of the prototypes. According to the Director of the FSS 2012, Robert López, there are future members of Formula 1 teams amongst them. “There are students, especially from Germany, which provide solutions to problems that many competitive racing teams would like to apply to their cars. There are students of a very high level” said López.

The Formula Student Spain event was first held in 2010 with a dozen teams and has continued to grow, with 31 teams this year. There are teams from Catalan universities, the rest of Spain, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Romania, Pakistan, Slovakia, Switzerland and the Czech Republic.

According to the participants themselves, it is a unique opportunity to gain a place in Formula 1 racing teams. The Director of the competition, Robert López, said that major teams “value engineers which have experienced the Formula Student competition”.

During four days at Circuit of Catalonia, about 200 professionals from the automotive industry will evaluate both theory and practical aspects. This is the real test of the competition where students must demonstrate skills in project management, planning, construction and problem solving. Lopez explains that the teams are made up of the top students from their respective universities and claims that in the year preparing for this project, they have learnt as much as a masters degree lasting three or four years.

It is the first time that Andoni Lozaga, from the Basque University has participated in the competition and designed a vehicle of this type. He considers the organisation and technical demands before being able to test the vehicle the most challenging aspect. “In one test, we had a problem with avoiding short circuits when it rained […] but we will be able to solve it” he said. According to him, the competition makes the students face “the harsh reality”.

These unexpected difficulties are exactly what the Basque engineer values. “At university you can get it all set up, but here you design it and then you find out whether what you drew on paper works in the real world”, he explains. “We are here to gain experience” concluded Lozaga.