Please introduce your university and team!
We are IDEA motorsport, a new team in Formula Student from Tecnológico de Monterrey, Campus Guadalajara in México with 25 people working on this project, from 5 different majors careers, we think of ourselves as a multidisciplinary team. We are building an EV car for the UK competition and the separation of the tasks are very standard: drivetrain team, design team, chassis team, electronics team and business team. However, we are one large group with one only goal: to reach a great performance in the competition!
What are your objectives for this year’s competition?
Give our absolute best. As this is the first year we are competing, it is very challenging but we should raise our expectations, so we push harder than anyone else. Of course, getting high on the leaderboard would be great, but we want to learn and have fun. To shoot high, we must aim higher.
We would like to show that Mexican students are also capable and creative to develop projects like Formula Student.
What progress have you made on the car so far?
Right now, we are in the middle of the development of the CAD design of the car and the Design Spec sheet, we also have part of the cost report as we are putting all our efforts in the looking for real costs of manufacturing and pieces that correspond to the specifics that we want and need in order to have an excellent vehicle in paper and next year bring an amazing car to the competition to win all the categories and bring to Mexico the biggest award of the competition as the first Latin American team.
How does your team organise your workload?
We separate the workload by teams, each focusing in something important. Drive train and motor team investigate and choose components useful and necessary for the specs we have in the car. Design makes 3D renders of the car and choose the best materials and design for the car. Chassis makes the structure of the car, coordinating with all teams so that our components such as the battery banks will fit in the places we want to. Electronics are evaluating the best options we have for battery banks, sensors, and computers we need to run the overall systems in the car. Finally, business are searching for the cost of the pieces for the car and looking for sponsors.
What is new and exciting for your team in 2018?
It is something we have never experienced before and we have never applied our knowledge to a project of this nature. Starting something new, figuring engineering problems from scratch, meeting new people, working with your team while understanding the way they think. Getting over any obstacle we encounter is exciting, it is a challenge, but at least one that we are eager to overcome.
Our team is growing every week, with new members and ideas. Sponsorships are a work in progress, but we are confident that won’t be a problem, due to the magnitude of this project.
What have been your biggest challenges this year and how have you overcome these?
Starting from zero. Figuring all the mechanisms, the motor and the power we need, the correct geometry, every tiny measurement, all the calculations, gathering a team of capable people that are willing to give up a night to accomplish a challenge. And we have overcome these by asking the great minds around us, investigating, working as a team and supporting each other, exploiting our creativity and working hard.
What made you join Formula Student?
We joined Formula Student because we were challenged and fascinated for the project, we think and believe it’s a great way to experience a something more like reality, because in school they teach us the theory but we most practice it. It was a crazy idea, but achievable. No one has ever participated in our campus and after we talked to the head director, he was in love with the project, he told us he had been telling the other directors to promote and create a team, after 3 years, the team came from the students.
What’s your proudest moment at Formula Student?
Well, it’s the moment when all the directors started to help us more and I realized that all the effort that we made in planning and researching had worked and with the right team, the effort and passion for the project everything was possible.
How excited are you to join the UK competition for the first time?
A lot, because is our first time in a competition this big with a lot of people from different countries, we can say that we are excited to learn from them and start gaining experience for next year.
What will IDEA Motorsport / a Mexican team bring to FSUK?
We study in one of the best universities in Mexico and we all are moved and inspired by something: cars and its functionality. We had to research, met people, and think of the best and new ways to create a car from scratch. In Formula SAE you have a lot of great teams in the competition, and we are eager to compete against all of them, we think it’s amazing what a group of interested engineers can do. We'll bring the best of Mexico to your competition.
What advice would you give for fellow teams?
Our advice is that all of us, as Formula Student Teams, we must have a process to identify our mistakes and how can we overcome so that debility transforms in a strength of our car or our team organizations and activities, especially the ones that have already competed in FSUK. Also, we must create a network with all the teams to share our problems and suggestions of them.
How can we keep up to date with you?
You can find us in Facebook as IDEA motorsport here https://www.facebook.com/ideamotorsport and our website is www.ideamotorsport.com