The 2022-23 season was a big one for LUMotorsport, continuing the push to get an electric Formula Student car up and running at events was at the forefront of our minds, but just as important was the drive to get team members up to speed with the cars various sub-systems and giving them experience of how Formula Student events run, ensuring a continuation of knowledge in the team for the coming years.
Unfortunately, we were unable to complete scrutineering in either FSUK or FSCzech. This was down to a combination of factors including some charging issues in FSUK and the positioning of some components outside of the car’s rollover envelope in FSCzech. The LFS24 team have already been made aware of where to improve; this involves simplifying a few areas of the car that are currently slightly over engineered, taking what we have learnt from other teams at the events.
However, this is not all doom and gloom as it may sound! We were able to successfully complete Accumulator (HV battery) and LV scrutineering in both events, along with mechanical scrutineering. This is a huge achievement for an electric team after effectively 2 cars – something that even the big European teams struggle with when they make the change to EV. With an extra day of scrutineering in both events, competing dynamically with a full set of scrutineering stickers would have been an almost certainty.
This year has been one of the most successful in the team’s 20-year history in the static competitions with us securing superb results in design, cost & manufacturing and the business plan presentation. This was one of the goals that we set out at the beginning of the year and we are proud that it has come to fruition! It is a testament to the hard work that the whole team has put in to achieve this. The points haul from the static events helped us to achieve very respectable results overall even without a running car!
Results:
· FSUK: 19th/63
· FSCzech: 21st/37
The team has learnt an amazing amount this year and we have been incredibly successful in securing placements and graduate jobs in Formula 1. We believe that it is the highest number of team members going into the Formula 1 from a single LUMotorsport team, but this will have to be checked! We believe, as it currently stands, 13 LFS23 team members will be working in the top level of motorsport next year.
We would like to take the time to thank everyone that has helped the team this year. Without everyone’s support, we could not have achieved what we have this year. It’s difficult to explain that, as a motorsport team, we can still have an immensely successful year without turning wheels on a track!
End of the day, the team really grew as a unit pushing through the many struggles we faced to produce our most complete electric FS car to date and the lessons learnt this year will help next year’s team to achieve what we set out to do in 2020 – to see an electric car running on a circuit with ‘Loughborough Uni’ written on the side. Bring on LFS24!