TU Brno Racing is the 9th best team of the Formula Student Competition in the world and the bronze team of Europe. This stems from the official results of the 2018/2019 season, in which 614 teams from all over the world started. BUT students have managed to get into the world top tens for the second time since 2010, when the team was organized. Brno engineers, who have a background at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, are among the top in the category of internal combustion engines.
The ninth in the world, the third in Europe and the best in the Czech Republic – Brno team TU Brno Racing has a very successful season behind them. With the Dragon 9 model, BUT students started in four races, including the unofficial World Championship in Germany, where they took the 9th place. "The beginning of the 2018/2019 season was not easy at all, a large part of the team from the previous season had completed their studies and there were not many experienced members left. Fortunately, thanks to a strong recruitment campaign, many capable newcomers applied. Unfortunately, we also lost the support of the general partner during the season, but still we managed to build Dragon 9 in time," the Business Manager Vojtech Rezac described, who is in charge of communication with partners in the team.
The key to the success of the last year's season according to students is, among other things, the fact that they had enough time for the testing phase due to their lead time. "We gradually improved the reliability of the new single-seater. Thanks to this we did not have to solve technical defects at the races, but we were able to concentrate mainly on the best performance. We achieved these not only on the race track, but also during the defence of the engineering design of the car and our knowledge," the current team leader Matej Ecler explained. They did not count with the fact that the team will be among the top ten student formulas of the world for the second time in its less than a decade of history at all. "Before the official results were published, we tried to predict our position in the world ranking. We counted with placing in the TOP20, but of course the real result pleased us much more, especially compared to the European competition," Ecler said. TU Brno Racing thus confirmed its role as the best Czech team in the category of internal combustion engines.
Results of Dragon 9 in the season of 2018/2019:
- 3rd place at the racing FS Czech Republic + 1st place for Engineering design of the car
- 3rd place at the racing FS Netherlands
- 4th place at the racing FS East
- 9th place at the racing FS Germany
So far, the best result of Brno engineers was the 2016/2017 season, with the Dragon 7 model ranking fifth in the world and making it to the TOP10 for the first time. In this season, about 510 university teams were competing to win.
The team enjoyed a short rest only at the end of the summer and they had returned to work before the start of the semester. At the moment, they are fully focused on the development of the tenth model of the internal combustion engine and are also working on the design and development of the very first electric eD1 formula. TU Brno Racing remains to be a single team, which will reveal two cars with different types of engine next season.
Formula Student is a competition for young engineers from all over the world. The task of the teams is to design, produce and test the Formula single-seater in series competitions Formula Student in one year. The competition evaluates the engineering approach, thinking about production costs, business skills, reliability, manoeuvrability, performance and safety of the car. The design of the car is also evaluated in addition.
The student team of TU Brno Racing was established at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of BUT in 2010 and this year is developing the jubilee 10th model of Dragon and the very first model of electric formula. TU Brno Racing is the largest BUT student team. Approximately 40 students of bachelor's and master's degree study programmes not only from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering participate in the development and production every year.