​TU Delft wins Formula Student… Again!

It has been a good year for TU Delft students with the need for speed. Earlier this year a group of students broke the Nurburgring record for hydrogen cars, in June a TU Delft built submarine broke a world-record during the International Submarine Races and now Team Delft has again won Formula Student, scoring 909.3 points out of 100.

Speaking about their success, team leader Stijn Pennings told Delta that having a winning team for the second year in a row felt “amazing”, adding “What we are really proud of is that we’ve set out a goal at the start of a year, started off with a clear vision among the team and are now able to say that our plan has worked and our effort was used in the right ways.”

Pennings attributed the team’s success this year to team effort, as well as finishing the car several weeks earlier than in previous years, and tyres which performed exceptionally well in Sunday’s rain. Team DUT15’s car differed in a number of ways from the vehicle the students built last year, this year’s design focused a lot more on aerodynamics, control systems, tyre testing and serviceability on the outside. On the inside, everything was a lot tidier and more organised meaning that they suffered hardly any electrical or power-train related setbacks.

Every year over 80% of the team members are new, allowing for a fresh approach and design each time. As well as the obvious engineering skills, being part of the TU Delft Formula Student team teaches students work-place skills, everything from email writing and planning to risk assessment and PR. Pennings believes the most important of these is people skills. “All the engineering students that participate from around the world share roughly the same amount of knowledge. What separates teams is how well they organize themselves and how well they can work together to overcome all the inherent paradoxes in designing a race car.”