If teams could score points for their hospitality and ability to make you feel totally welcome, MMU Racing would be seriously contesting that prize. Project Manager Enrico Belsito collected me from my hotel bang on time, and drove me to the Oxford Road campus where I was introduced to Faculty Advisor, Paul Aldred; Team Principal, Leo Batty; Suspensions Lead, Polly Ovsyannikova; Tom Morley, looking after this year’s new wheels (more on this later!), Omar Causapruno, looking after the Cost report and Natalina, the team’s official photographer.
Leo and Polly took me through a comprehensive presentation on the team’s structure, recent performance history and their strategy for success in their 2019 campaign. What really stood out from this was the level of professionalism on display, from their confidence presenting to their detailed organigram, presentation of data analysis and the use of project management tools to track their progress against objectives and milestones (Omar Causapruno from their Business team is a fan of the GANTT chart!). ‘FS is a real-world project so the team operates as a professional organisation’ explained Polly ‘We also focus on knowledge transfer where team members have particular skills in a certain area, for example Tom and I have trained other team members in working with carbon fibre and we’ve manufactured all of our aero (new for 2019!) in-house’. Faculty Advisor Paul Aldred explained why this approach is so pertinent to success ‘April is the deadline for having the car running and static events documents complete. I’ve been very clear that a failure to meet deadlines will mean a shift to Class 2 next year. We’re very lucky to have the support of the University, particularly financial support, but there are always other projects competing for the same funds so we have to keep the pressure on to deliver.’
Despite not finishing Endurance after failing to restart the engine within the time limit after driver changeover, 2018 was a strong year for MMU Racing, making up 20 places YoY placing 27th overall (17th UK team) and enjoying an outstanding Engineering Design score (the word ‘elegant’ was used A LOT in Judges’ feedback!). The team also scored highly in the Cost event, with Judges remarking on how well the team had embraced and understood the new Cost Report template. But valuable points were lost with a less strong performance in Business Plan Presentation. ‘Improving (on Business Plan Presentation) is a definite focus for this year, along with maintaining last year’s form in Design and Cost.’ explained Leo, ‘We have a team entirely dedicated to Business this year. Richard Gray, experienced in finance and presentations, switching to Engineering so it’s good to have that broader knowledge base as the rest of Business team are from the engineering faculty.’
With a clearly defined plan for maximising points from the static events, Tom and Polly explained their strategy for ensuring success on track. Taking inspiration from their 2016 car (which completed all dynamic events), the team will bring the design up to date with a redesigned rear suspension using spring and damper shock absorption to reduce bump steer, a new air intake (3D printed in-house), new steering rack, centreless wheels and aerodynamic components for the body kit, a first for MMU Racing. ‘Cars just look better with aero, don’t they!’ said Tom ‘We’ve completed a fair amount of simulation to assess the trade-off between the added weight of aero and the speed advantages from downforce. The sprint and endurance track at Silverstone doesn’t always lend itself to seeing massive results from aero, but we’ve seen marginal gains in performance. We’ve saved weight in (the new centreless) wheels and new air intake, too, which helps balance the added weight of the wings.’
In fact, weight reduction has been a real focus over the past few years, reducing from 250kg in 210kg. A huge part of this has been the design of the new centreless wheels, where the hub is replaced by bearings in the framework of the wheel. The wheels are Tom’s final year project and he is, understandably, very proud of his design. ‘The 2016 team had something similar, but they got absolutely slated in Design as they couldn’t explain why they’d made the decision to go centreless. The simple answer is component reduction – less to go wrong, less to replace. But they also look good and save weight. Changing tyres is more of a challenge, though!’
In order to put the simulation to the test in the real world, the team have an ambitious but, in their opinion, achievable deadline to get the car finished by the end of April so that they can go testing and use refined data gathering in preparation for optimising their set ups first for Formula Student Netherlands (a first for the team) followed a week later by the UK competition at Silverstone. ‘Our aim is top 10 at Silverstone’ said Leo, ‘yeah, there are some natural, friendly rivalries amongst the UK teams – we always want to compete with Bath! We get on well with the local teams, Manchester City and Salford Unis. University of Liverpool are good fun, too.’ Any rivalries outside of the UK teams? ‘We’re friendly with all teams!’ said Tom ‘Omar knows some of the Align Racing team (University of Agder) and we have some good memories from sharing the queue for Noise with the BlueStreamline team (Transilvania University of Brasov) in 2018.’
Aside from clear business objectives, innovative thinking and a professional image, what are the human factors that make MMU Racing a great team? It’s worth pointing out that FS is not integrated into the MMU engineering degrees, so all the time spent on the project is extra-curricular. ‘We can’t spend enough time on FS’ said Leo ‘I have a meeting every Wednesday with our Head of Faculty, to update her on how we are tracking against our project milestones. I also meet with the Team Leads once a fortnight. The whole team will be in the workshop every spare minute really. Christmas, Easter and weekends don’t really mean anything to us.’ But it’s not all work and no play, as Polly explained ‘We always make time for socials!’ ‘We’ve got a good combination of experienced and new team members, which makes the dynamic in the workshop much better and a good opportunity for knowledge sharing, which keeps people interested. A lot of the team members are friends away from FS, so we’ll often go to the pub at the end of the day, or out for dinner together.’ In fact, as many teams do, MMU Racing use one of their top team building social activities, karting, to select their drivers ‘Good drivers stand out early but also it’s who wants to do it, who can handle the pressure and who can fit in the car.’ said Leo. ‘Sometimes people think they want to drive as it’s a prestigious position to hold within the team, but when it comes to Silverstone you don’t want to let your team down. I got a bit of stage fright last year, as did our 2018 Team Leader Luke. So it has to be personal choice rather than just automatically selecting the quickest drivers.’
Despite FS not forming part of the degree course, MMU Racing clearly have a ‘firm but fair’ mentorship from FA Paul Aldred and solid support from their engineering faculty. A tour of their fully kitted out workshop, complete with 3D printers, materials manufacturing machinery including turning and water-jet cutting machines and lathes along with plenty of space for this year’s car development, last year’s car and even an older car converted to a racing simulator really helped to contextualise the enthusiasm, preparedness and professionalism on display from the team. I’ve already mentioned that the team receive financial support from the university, but they also work hard to procure sponsorship, with Polly also heading up this area of MMU Racing’s business model. ‘Financial support and the provision of in-kind support are so important to our capacity to innovate and follow up on our design concepts. We’d really like to thank Schroth Racing, Easl and Force Racing for their support this year.’
After a solid couple of hours meeting and chatting with the team and touring their facilities, Polly, Tom, Enrico and I chatted over lunch about their experiences of Formula Student as well as other European competitions. I promised it was off-record, but they definitely had some constructive feedback in there that I hope the team will notice being actioned at Silverstone this year.
I’d like to thank Paul, Enrico, Leo and the team for a well thought out, informative and inspiring visit to MMU Racing. Catch up with the latest news and updates from the team via their social media channels:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MMURacing/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mmuracing/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mmuracing?lang=en-gb