FRT 2022 season: victory in class 3

THE 2022 SEASON ENDED IN THE BEST WAY FOR THE FIRENZE RACE TEAM WITH THE VICTORY IN VARANO DE’ MELEGARI IN THE CLASS 3 OF THE ITALIAN FORMULA SAE COMPETITION.

The 2022 season of the Firenze Race Team began with a goal: to design an autonomous car to compete at high levels in Formula Student. To do this, the team decided to participate in class 3 this year to have a Design Review of the project and use a whole year to construct and develop the new single-seater. Work during the season also focused on a profound renewal of team organization and relations with the University and Sponsors.

During the year, there was a great work of improvement of the team in several aspects to achieve the best possible result with the new project: the FR-22D. The FR-22D was born from a careful evaluation of past projects trying to improve their benefits and fix their defects. In addition, the big challenge was implementing autonomous driving systems without losing the racing character of our car!

Reaching the highest possible level in the development of static events to have an excellent basis from which to start for the coming years was another of the great goals of this season.

From 13th to 17th July, the Firenze Race Team participated, after months of preparation and study in the laboratory, in the competition of Formula SAE Italy 2022 at the Autodromo Riccardo Paletti of Varano de’ Melegari.

In the afternoon of Thursday, we faced the first static test, the Cost and Manufacturing Event, in which we discussed with the judges our model of a cost analysis of the production chain that will make possible the realization of the project, from the cost of a specialized operator to the electricity consumed by a machine tool.

On Friday, the other two tests: in the Engineering Design Event, we had to present the car’s design in front of an examination committee and explain what the design process followed, with relative choices and justifications. The judges pay particular attention to the autonomous system and the steering and brake actuation mechanisms.

In the Business Plan Presentation, we have drawn up the business plan of a hypothetical start-up that assembles our car to sell it to go-kart tracks and create a new market for autonomous vehicles. The judges particularly appreciated our idea and advised us to continue to evolve it in the future!

The final ranking of Formula SAE Italy 2022, therefore, sees the Firenze Race Team at 1st place in Class 3, with the following scores: