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BRS Motorsport takes overall victory in Spain 2021
After evaluating all eight disciplines, the team scored 818.8 points. For the team from the motorsport group at Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, this meant overall victory at Formula Student Spain 2021, with the university's BRS motorsport team clearly standing out from the competition in this international student competition. With their G21e electric racing car, the students from Sankt Augustin achieved the highest score of all teams in the "Design" and "Acceleration" disciplines.
The result was particularly outstanding in the design discipline: the electric racing car, nicknamed "Luna", which they designed and built themselves, scored 150 points and clearly outperformed the second-placed vehicle (134 points). The team from Sankt Augustin also achieved very good results in all other disciplines with Luna in Spain, meaning that the points total at the end of the four-day competition added up to a convincing overall victory. It is the first time that BRS Motorsport has achieved overall victory in an international race.
At Formula Student, student teams compete against each other with their Formula 1-style racing cars at different locations. Formula Student Spain 2021 was held for the eleventh time at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Catalonia from 4 to 8 August. The rules stipulate that each racing car is judged in four disciplines on the racetrack. In addition, there are three so-called static disciplines. Among other things, the student teams have to present a fictitious business model and a complete cost-performance calculation.
Numerous technical innovations
Before Luna could start at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, it had to undergo a lengthy technical approval process. The all-wheel-drive racing car is characterised by many innovations in the electrical systems. For example, in addition to the 600-volt drivetrain, the self-developed battery feeds a 24-volt on-board power supply, on which control units developed and manufactured in-house run. Luna has a sophisticated damper system and 10-inch forged wheels. The students of BRS Motorsport build a new race car for each racing season in their workshop on the Sankt Augustin campus. The group has been in existence since 2006 and regularly takes part in Formula Student in Europe. Since 2014, it has been building exclusively electrically powered cars. Collaboration in the interdisciplinary motorsport group is embedded in the university's curriculum and is supervised by Professor Dirk Reith.
Luna collected her first points on the race track on Friday night in the acceleration race. Typically for Formula Student Spain, this discipline is run after sunset. The BRS Motorsport team set the best times right from the start and was able to maintain its top position. Luna even covered the 75-metre sprint course in a record-breaking 3.48 seconds.
After solid midfield results on Saturday in the skid pad (lateral acceleration test) and the time trial, it was all to play for on Sunday for the H-BRS students. The long-distance test was on the agenda, the supreme discipline of Formula Student, which covers a distance of 22 kilometres. With an anxious eye on the Spanish temperatures, both drivers managed with good management to drive Luna across the finish line in second place without any problems.
"It fills me with happiness and pride that our team has achieved an overall victory in the prestigious Formula Student for the first time," says Faculty Advisor Dirk Reith from the Department of Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Technical Journalism. "And especially since we only had six weeks to finalise the car and were only able to travel to Spain with a team of eight. I would like to thank all of our supporters for their trust in the project."
The next competition awaits BRS Motorsport next week (Monday, 16 August 2021) with Formula Student Germany in Hockenheim.
Do you still have questions?
Dirk Reith
Computational Science and Engineering , Managing Director of the TREE Institute, Presidential commissioner for institutional research co-operations, Faculty Advisor BRS Motorsport
Research fields
Location
Sankt Augustin
Room
B 223
Address
Grantham-Allee 20
53757 Sankt Augustin
Telephone
+49 2241 865 9678
Location
Sankt Augustin
Room
E 240
Address
Grantham-Allee 20
53757, Sankt Augustin
Telephone
+49 2241 865 9560