FRT 2021 season

With the summer break, one of the most unusual seasons ever for the Firenze Race Team has come to an end. The project for the new FR-21T was born in 2019, as an evolution of the FR-19T, with the aim of participating in the 2020 competitions but this obviously could not happen. The lab was forced to close for about a year due to the global pandemic but despite this, we never stopped working. We only had the chance to get our hands on the car in March 2021 and this led to a very busy spring, with a lot of hard work on the test benches and in the construction and assembly of the car.

We would therefore like to thank our partners, who gave us fundamental help by offering us technical support and hospitality in their premises.

The grounding and first start-up was exciting, but the road was certainly not downhill! The summer tests were littered with technical problems, especially with the fuel system and electronics. The guys were fantastic in working hard, day and night, to solve them in the shortest possible time, but this severely limited the kilometres covered by the car before the only competition in which the Firenze Race Team participated this year: Formula Student Czech Republic. It too kept up with the typical trend of the season, with a rollercoaster of emotions.

At the end of two and a half days of fire, the FRT passed technical inspections at the last permissible moment, unfortunately having to renounce participation in the dynamic events of Acceleration and Skidpad. Great excitement to finally see the car on the track for the Autocross event, where despite the car’s good behaviour, the result was affected by several penalties.

Unfortunately, the Endurance test was marred by a gearbox sensor malfunction right from the start, and after holding out for 6 laps the FR-21T was forced to retire. The Static Test, where in particular we achieved good results in the Cost Report and Design Presentation, allowed us to raise our ranking a little.

The final results, out of 18 participants in the Combustion category see us as:

Overall: 14th

The balance is that of a very difficult season, where many difficulties were overcome and many problems solved, but evidently not all of them. However, the boys have shown great character, and most importantly for their participation in Formula Student, they have gained a treasure trove of experience that they will take with them into the course of their careers.