Formula Student

Formula Student is an international design competition for students based on the competition of the American Society of Automotive Engineers SAE. The task for teams from all over the world is to design a single-seater formula car with an electric motor or combustion engine and to produce a ready-to-drive prototype. Autonomous functions can also be implemented, which enables participation in the Driverless category.

Parallel to the technical tasks, the team must develop a viable business plan and a marketing concept for the small series production of the car. The vehicle and sales concepts are evaluated by experts from automotive, motorsport and supplier industries who award points for various static and dynamic disciplines. In the end, the team with the best overall package of design, financial planning, sales argumentation and racing performance wins.

Over the years, more and more nations have organized a Formula Student competitions. There are 20 official racing events listed worldwide, in which over 800 teams take part. As the competitions usually take place at well-known race tracks such as the Hockenheimring or the Silverstone Circuit, they attract thousands of visitors, interested parties and companies every year. 

Our Team

The Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg is one of the youngest universities in Germany. Students from areas like economics, engineering, natural sciences and social sciences study there, structured into nine faculties.

Our UMD Racing team is a prime example of the interaction between all these branches of science. Our team members include students from over fifteen different degree programs, not only in engineering but also in humanities and economics. At UMD, they can apply their knowledge under real-world conditions for the first time, learn how to work in a team and ultimately develop themselves personally. Each member of the team is an indispensable cog of the wheel, that enables the UMD Racing Team to assert itself.

The UMD Racing team does not only represent the University of Magdeburg and the city. UMD Racing is the only Formula Student team in Saxony-Anhalt and therefore represents the entire federal state in the world's largest construction competition for students.

Goals of the 2023/2024 Season

For the 2023/2024 season, we are developing the third generation of our electric race cars. After a glorious end to the 2023 season, we want to continue this success story and further improve our new car. 

Teamgoals

At the start of the new season, we defined our team goals based on the events of the previous season. Our first two goals, which are project management and team spirit, go hand in hand with the restructuring of some departments. We want to reduce the workload for individual team members by increasing the size of the team and distributing tasks better among the departments. Strict adherence to deadlines is required from the members in order to ensure a high quality and to avoid stress and errors caused by time pressure.

Our third goal is to improve the corporate image and networking. We want to make our team even more visible within the Formula Student community and among sponsors and supporters. With UMD Racing being the only formula student team of Saxony-Anhalt, we want to make our university, the city of Magdeburg and our region better known and represent them internationally. This includes contact with other Formula Student teams — not only at formula student events but also at other occasions such as trade fairs and exhibitions.

We also set ourselves the goal of improving and upgrading our equipment. 

Vehicle goals

Once again this year, we have set ourselves ambitious goals with the design of our new vehicle, which we will implement over the course of next year.

While last year we focused primarily on meeting all the requirements placed on the car, this year we also want to significantly improve our racing performance.

The new vehicle should not only comply with all rules, but also improve in the areas of weight and speed in comparison to its predecessor. Achieving these three cornerstones — speed, efficiency and rule compliancy — brings our second vehicle objective to the agenda: deepening the vehicle understanding. We want our team members to not only know their areas of responsibility, but to understand how the car behaves and how different parts and components interact with each other. Expertise, combined with a broad foundation of knowledge, helps us identifying mistakes more quickly. To achieve this, we want to simulate and test individual parts as realistically as possible.

Our final vehicle objective aims at a clean assembly. This also contributes to a faster detection of faults. To achieve this, we strive for simple, elegant designs, making vehicle components easily accessible and maintenance friendly. In addition to more efficient fault processing, this method will help us to quickly get through the technical inspections during the events. 

Our scuccesses of the last season

Last season, we had set ourselves the goal of taking part in all the dynamic disciplines of Formula Student. A milestone that we actually achieved and even surpassed by qualifying in five out of eight Formula Student events. These included our home event, Formula Student Germany, and Formula Student UK, the two competitions in which we ultimately took part. On that hand, FSUK was the first event for us that did not take place on the mainland.

Following the qualification rounds, we entered the manufacturing phase. During this time, we worked hard on the car until we had a roadworthy prototype on its feet. Our car launch then took place on 22nd of June 2023, at which many of our sponsors took part and got to see "Edelbert" for the first time.

Shortly afterwards, on 17th of July 2023, we set off for the first event, the FSUK. The FSUK was a very exciting event for us, one of the biggest we have ever been part of. Not only did we achieve our first ranking in a dynamic event with "Edelbert", our second e-car, but we also took first place in the "Efficiency" category!

After our success at the FSUK, we continued on 13th of August 2023 in Hockenheim at the FSG. As one of the oldest events in Europe, it was an honour for us to be part of it. With our previous experience from the FSUK, we quickly passed the technical inspection and were able to enjoy the event to the fullest. We also gained a lot of experience and got to interact with some of the best teams in the world so that we can continue to develop next season.

All in all, the 22/23 season was a complete success for our team and we will be looking to build on this success this year! 

If you want to find out more about the team and car, or if you want to support our team or have any questions: don´t hesitate to contact us. You can find the details on our website: www.umdracing.de

Pictures by Grobe, Maru, Kohler, Schlunz