How to set up a Formula 1 team: this is how the Arus team works with 120 students from the University of Seville

In the workshop area of ​​the Higher Technical School of Engineering (ETSI) of the University of Seville, almost nothing is what it seems. The two cream-colored aluminum huts are not warehouses for storing material and in the hangars, the students who work with the torch on some metal tubes are not doing welding practices. There a team of 120 students, from different disciplines and faculties, work on their new racing car. It is not a prototype, nor is it a university internship project. They are a real team. They are not called Ferrari or Williams, but ARUS Andalusia Racing Team, they do not have the same budget or sponsorship, but they deal with investors, advertisers and have their own marketing and accounting team; his vehicle is not the RB19, but the RT24; They do not compete in Formula 1 either, but they occupy the top positions in the Student Formula, where cars manufactured by European universities participate. An experience that combines study, teamwork, self-demand and extraordinary talent, passion and maturity that turn these young people into the pool from which leading engineering and manufacturers in the automotive sector are nourished.

“In this sector, what is most valued is experience in the world of motorsport and competition. It is impossible to finish the degree with experience in those areas, so to get to Formula 1 it is practically necessary to go through here first,” explains Pedro García, a 4th year Industrial student and the team manager of the team. This circuit is the perfect showcase, better than any internship in a company, to be able to start working in the sector. “About 20 people who have passed through our team are working in Formula 1. At Ferrari, at Williams, at Alfa Romeo, but also in other areas of motorsport,” says García, who cites one of his predecessors in his position, Fernando Osuna, who is a tire engineer at Pirelli.

The team he leads was created in 2012 at the ETSI on the initiative of its students, although it quickly spread to the rest of the US faculties. The first car they designed was presented in 2014, but they are now going to model by year and in different categories – combustion, electric and soon the autonomous one -, following the extensive regulations that govern the Formula Student, which requires new features to be introduced every year. on the chassis. “We have already abandoned the combustion car to focus only on the electric one,” explains García, who anticipates that they are already working to join the new autonomous category next year. “It will be the first Andalusian autonomous car of any category,” he warns. “It does not work by radio control, but through code sensing, algorithms that make the car capable of interpreting the circuit alone,” he points out.

For the calculation of these algorithms, in the development of the new chassis, the manufacturing of the aerodynamic wings or the assembly of the structure of the car, they do not have any guidelines from teachers, nor with the help of professional mechanics or engineers. “If we have technical questions we consult them, of course, because we are students and we are learning, but the team's philosophy is that everything we can do, we do. There can be no innovation, without making mistakes, without testing,” says García.

And this self-learning also involves management: looking for investors, controlling money, designing business plans, devising a marketing strategy… Because that immobile part – apart from the dynamics and speed associated with racing cars – is essential in competition. The Student Formula tests are divided into a static one, where the team must defend a business plan – which includes the resource management project, the industrial organization… – and convince the judges to invest in their project. “In this test, historically, we are the best team. We have been the only one to have achieved first place in the combustion and electric category,” García boasts.

The second, the design test, is divided into different tests: acceleration, skidpad —an 8-shaped circuit where lateral behavior is measured—, and the autocross —a kind of qualifying lap on a closed circuit. “What is really valued is the engineering, what is behind the car, not simply that it runs, but what studies you have carried out to get the most out of the resources you have, because this competition seeks to train the best professionals of the future, not just make fast cars,” he points out.

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Practical teaching that is not taught in classes

Behind the machine there are 120 students from different faculties, divided into 12 departments specialized in a specific task: business, electronics, aeronautics, chassis… “In the end what this project aims to do is professionalize us and function as a company,” says García. “The good thing is that the team feeds each other, you learn from others and others from you. This is a multidisciplinary team and what it promotes is not only making the car, engineering technological development, but many other areas, such as accounting… In the race you see how what you are teaching in the classes can be applied to reality, which motivates you to study,” explains Carlota Garruta about the bidirectional learning between theory and practice, academic world and real life that this project implies.

She is an example of the melting pot of learning that comes with participating in this university team. She is studying 3rd year of Industrial Organization and this year she is in charge of the team's Treasury. She talks about the same thing about an ergonomics simulator as about sponsorships, a versatility that has taught her to negotiate with companies. When the ARUS pioneers embarked on the project they went from one industrial estate to another asking for material, now it is the companies that are betting on them. The Jerez circuit lends them its facilities for testing for the competitions that take place in summer, a transport company pays the costs of transporting the vehicle to the circuits, aeronautical companies offer the material to manufacture the car, others contribute. money… That gives an idea of ​​the seriousness of the project. “This is not a child's game, it is true, in the end we are a non-profit association, but it works like a company,” says García of his organization.

In the ETSI workshops these weeks there is a lot of movement. They are in the manufacturing stage of the new electric car, after completing the design phase. The kids spend an average of three to five hours a day, which in certain phases of the project ends up taking up the entire day. In one of the two booths, Alejandro García and Victoria Camilla place the spoilers on the tubular model structure they manufactured last season. “I have always liked the topic of motorsports, here you learn many practical things that they don't teach you in college,” says Camilla, a 2nd year Mechanical Engineering student and member of the ARUS Monohull team.

“Often people like working on the car more than studying, but you have to make it compatible,” says García, who is part of the Aerodynamics team and is in the 2nd year of Aerospace Engineering. He joined ARUS in March this year, six months after Camilla. Students usually spend an average of two or three years working in the team. “Many have stopped going on Erasmus because it is addictive,” says García, who recognizes that this passion distracts from the career. “What is better, finishing your degree one year at a time or having spent more time training? The company will take the second one, I assure you,” he maintains.

In January there are the cuts that discriminate the circuits in which they will compete in the summer. Around 600 or 700 teams are presented. It is a kind of selectivity that all universities attend and those who get the best results can choose which cities they run in. “We always look to go to the highest level to measure our car,” says García.

They are circuits like Assen, in the Netherlands, or Hockenheirim, in Germany, that have witnessed legendary races. It is the fascinating part of Formula 1 and to which those who in the coming years will work on the design of the cars of the future, probably autonomous, like the one being designed by the ARUS team, aspire to be part. A self-taught experience that prepares them like no other to support their professional career. “Of course, I wouldn't have anywhere near the ambition I have now to reach certain places if I hadn't experienced what Formula Student entails. Because the best part is realizing everything that a person is capable of doing and learning on their own and as a team,” Garruta summarizes.

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