Momentum - November 2019 - 12

FEATURE

STUDENT
GENERATION

'COMPLETE, FINISH, WIN'
Despite an understeer problem in the
Endurance Event (shown), the University of
Stuttgart car finished second en route to first
place overall at Formula SAE Michigan 2019.

University of Stuttgart team rides that motto to victories and podium
finishes by the dozen.
WE, THE RENNTEAM UNI STUTTGART racing team from the
University of Stuttgart, Germany, have been the world champions in
the Combustion Class of Formula Student for several years. Since the
team's founding in 2005, we have participated in 59 Formula Student
competitions (including Formula SAE Michigan) with 29 victories and
44 podium finishes. We have led the annual global rankings several times.
Our team consists of five subteams (frame and aerodynamics;
powertrain; suspension; electronics; and organization) and a threemember management body. Each team member has a specific function on
the team for one year. For Rennteam Uni Stuttgart, we take a break from
university studies to spend a year in a racing team workshop, where we
work together to create the next championship-winning vehicle. During
this time, every team member is completely focused on the end goal.

"Too many changes in a single season are
highly risky..."

Christian Lichtenberg

Following our motto of "complete, finish, win," we have successfully
manufactured fourteen racing cars and recently started development on
the fifteenth. In the 2017-2019 season (including Formula SAE Michigan),
the Rennteam grew to 45 undergraduate and graduate members from
a variety of majors, including mechanical engineering, automotive
and engine technology, aerospace, technical cybernetics, technology
management, technically oriented business administration, economics,

12 November 2019

and even architecture. All of us were jointly responsible
for conceiving, designing, and constructing the team's
thirteenth racing vehicle and the 2019 Formula SAE
Michigan winner: the F0711-13.
We followed our moto "complete, finish, win" since
our first race car, the F0711-1. What this exactly means is
completing the car as early as possible to get as much
testing time as possible, which gives the team and the
car the best chance to win the competition. But it is
not only important to finish the car; it is also necessary
to go on with development and keep in touch with the
strong competitors from all over the world. This article
will show you some interesting parts of the 2019 Formula
SAE Michigan winner, the F0711-13, and give you some
background information about the development process.
When we start developing our new racecar, we always
use data of our last season's car as a baseline. We analyse
the strengths and the weaknesses and try to figure out
how to improve the competition result. For the dynamic
disciplines, on which I want to focus here, we have a
self-developed lap-time simulation tool which enables
us to make a sensitivity analysis of the most important
parameters like weight, downforce or drag coefficient,
and weight distribution or moment of inertia, to name
just a few. With the calculated data, we are able to set the
focus of development on the right spot and get the most
performance out of the limited capacities we have.

MOMENTUM

Momentum - November 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Momentum - November 2019