The Formula Student competition is now so big that for any team participation is by no means certain. To keep the quality of the teams sufficiently high, a provisional start list based on past results is drawn up for most races. Other teams can then do a registration quiz in an effort to get selected: a pretty tricky questionnaire about the competition regulations. Last year things went wrong for URE during the registration quiz for the Formula Student competition in Germany.

Problem of abundance

But this year, by contrast, the team from Eindhoven has been successfully placed for this competition to the east of the Netherlands. In total, last Monday, the team were selected for three events, namely FSG (Germany), FS East (Hungary) and FSA (Austria). “Our thorough preparation has borne fruit,” declared a relieved team manager Dennis de Niel. The results mean a return to the official world championship in Germany and the Eindhoven team's debut in Hungary. In addition, the team has already been selected for the second edition of Formula Student Netherlands, by virtue of its rostrum position here last year.

The team is also assuming that, with its new car URE13, it will be allowed to compete in Barcelona at Formula Student Spain. This event invites its own participants and given our past results "we are certainly assuming that we'll be invited back,” says the team manager. And so, for the first time, the team has gained entry to five events. This creates a problem of abundance and URE has decided to skip the competition in Austria. Attending this event would mean having only three days preparation time for Germany. Instead, URE hopes to debut at FS East in Hungary; official confirmation of participation has yet to be received. 

As well as the regular competition, in which URE as a rule aims for a place in the top five, URE is this season engaged in another first: developing a driverless racing car. This involves converting the URE11, now two years old. For the time being only demonstrations are scheduled for 2018, with participation in Formula Student Driverless in Germany to follow in 2019. “In June we want to organize a demonstration ourselves, as a team. We are also in discussion with FSN about giving a demonstration at the circuit in Assen.”