Interview – TU Brno

Introduce your team briefly.  

We are TU Brno Racing, FS team located in Brno, Czech Republic. This year we developed the 10th monopost from our workshop, called Dragon X and our first electric monopost, Dragon e1. Names “Dragon” are inspired by “Brno dragon” which is located in the town hall.

How did the cancellation of the formula student competitions impact your team?

We started looking for improvements which could be done in the next year. Cancellation of events had one positive impact: we saved the budget for next year with the possibility of using this years’ monoposts for the next season as well, so we can focus on tuning and developing current monoposts rather than building new ones from the scratch.

How did your team deal with the situation, what challenges did you face and how did you resolve them?

Our university was closed on the 12th of March. From the first moment, we switched to online cooperation. From our homes we focused on static disciplines, we discussed different concepts and we voted for a new team leader for the next season so that he can prepare to manage people, who will stay in the team for the next season. After a cautious return to the workshop with a limited number of people, we rescheduled our timetable with the ultimate target – finish both of the monoposts this summer. 

What will you do differently for the online event?

We edited our template to be suitable for the presentation. With limited time for presenting and with a prohibition of handing over validation data, we focused more on showing our decisions’ background during design, team management, etc.

What is your biggest achievement in Formula Student so far?

They are several. We won FSCZ in the years 2017 and 2018. In 2017 we finished the season on 5th place in the world ranking. In FSG 2019, we have managed for the first time to step up into design finals. In the season 2019, we have achieved in a total of 8 podium positions, and at the moment, we are 9th in the world ranking and 3rd among European teams.

Do you believe the future of Formula Student can adapt to the COVID-19 crisis and how?  

We believe that Formula Student will survive without any major changes. Permission to use the same cars for the next season helps the teams financially in these difficult times

What can the Formula Student organizing bodies do to help the struggling teams due to the current events?

We believe that postponing of the major rule changes and allowance of team members who finish studies this year to participate also next year is a reasonable help.

Do you think there are any positive outcomes for the competition from the current situation? 

We don’t see any.

Do you think it is beneficial for the teams to participate in an online competition and why?

We participate because we want to transfer the knowledge in static events and what is better for training for statics than to actually make them? We also see it as an “investment” to the following season, because large design changes are not expected.

Did your team help your local society with the COVID-19 situation, if no, please ignore this question, if yes, please provide an example.

Yes, we have donated redundant protective equipment and our team tents to a local hospital.