IAV is one of the event’s main sponsors and also provides ten teams with support in the form of funding and automotive expertise. In “Formula Student” actual speed only plays a minor part: Although the teams compete against the clock on the Hockenheim racetrack, the designer competition focuses on the technology used in the vehicles and the possibility of marketing them.
Each team has twelve months’ time to develop its racing car from scratch, including body, engine and electrics. A panel of judges then assesses the quality of the vehicles in the first week of August: The small racing cars (approx. 90 bhp) must demonstrate in “dynamic disciplines”, for example, how quickly they can accelerate, how good their cornering ability is and how much fuel they use. The “static disciplines” provide the basis for rating technical design, manufacturing costs and a presentation to a hypothetical customer.
Junior Engineers in the Crash Facility
This year too, the expert panel will once again include ten executive members of IAV staff. The company is also one of the main sponsors of “Formula Student” and will be giving direct support to ten teams from universities located near IAV’s development centers in Berlin, Gifhorn, Chemnitz and Munich. In addition to funding, the teams will also be receiving valuable know-how: At a seminar, for instance, the junior engineers were able to gather information on state-of-the-art battery technology and tour IAV’s battery laboratory in Gifhorn – important insight for those teams taking part in the “Formula Student Electric” and fitting their racing car with an electric drive.
IAV’s crash facility in Gifhorn was also available to those participating for testing the crash boxes in their vehicles. And in autumn, the teams will be able to find out about the latest developments in the chassis domain for next year’s competition – at IAV’s subsidiary TR Engineering (TRE) in Neustadt an der Weinstrasse that is also actively involved in professional motor racing.
Career Springboard for the Engineering Elite
For IAV, this commitment is an important element in promoting young talent. “Participants in Formula Student are highly motivated, have a broad range of expertise, can work together at interdisciplinary level and have demonstrated they can successfully complete a challenging project in a short space of time”, says Kurt Blumenröder, CEO and President of IAV. “They most definitely rank among the top candidates in Germany’s rising generation of engineers.” Many of them came to us for a work placement, a dissertation or theses or to start a career.
Teams sponsored by IAV:
Berlin University of Technology
FaSTTUBe
HTW Berlin University of Applied Sciences
HTW Motorsport
Bergakademie Freiberg University of Technology
racetech
WHZ West Saxony University of Applied Sciences, Zwickau
WHZ Racing Team
Braunschweig University of Technology
Lions Racing Team
Ostfalia Team
wob-racing
University of Hanover
HorsePower Hannover
Munich University of Technology
municHMotorsport
BTU Brandenburg University of Technology, Cottbus
BTU Motorsport
University of Stuttgart
GreenTeam Stuttgart
Further information:
http://www.formulastudent.de
http://www.iav.com/karriere/formula-student
