Formula Student team Road Arrow has presented the new, sixth, vehicle for the 2017 season. On Monday 29th, more than 700 people came to a crowded amphitheater at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering to see the reveal of the formula with which our students will represent Serbia at the prestige, Formula Student competition. Among the participants were deans, professors, friends of the project, team alumni as well as proud parents and friends.
At the beginning of the ceremony, we reminded ourselves of the history of the team and previous successes: “5 formulas so far, 12 competitions, hundreds of young professionals who have gone through this, tens of thousands of working hours and an immense wish and desire for success have marked 6 years of the existence of this team. It all started with a dozen students and their idea to do something extraordinary and unusual. Since the first competition at Silverstone in the UK, across Austria, Italy, Hungary and the Czech Republic, Road Arrow has represented Serbia in the best possible way.
Engineers from the world’s largest automotive companies, like Ferrari and Maserati, were amazed by the rise of a small team that was able to, in a short time become competitive against teams with far more experience.”
The audience was address by the Dean of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, prof. Dr. Radivoje Mitrović. He emphasized the importance of applied knowledge for students gained through the Road Arrow project, quoting Immanuel Kant – “Experience without theory is blind, but theory without experience is just an intellectual game.”
The team mentor, prof. Dr. Aleksandar Veg, stated that Road Arrow is the best example of entrepreneurship in Serbia and a model for all young people who wish to apply their knowledge. The formula that this team presents every year is a product that places the University of Belgrade among the best in the world.
From 2010 until now, the team has grown and this year has over 50 students from 9 faculties from the University of Belgrade. These are the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Economics, Faculty of Transport and Traffic Engineering, Faculty of Physics, Faculty of Forestry, Faculty of Organizational Sciences and the Faculty of Applied Arts.
The team has work hard from October on the design and manufacturing of the vehicle, which is also a result of years of effort and hard work. The team leader, Strahinja Zdravković, thanked all the alumni members who are responsible for the Road Arrow that exists today, as well as their constant support that is of increasing importance from season to season.
Also, he explained what the students did this year: “The main guideline for the improvement of the new vehicle were the three golden rules of this competition: the vehicle with the lowest mass, lowest polar moment of inertia and lowest center of gravity wins. Therefore, we worked on optimizing the structure of all the parts on the vehicle and careful selection of materials, where we relied on carbon fibers more than ever. Parts obtained using this technology have proved themselves last year and we decided to continue using composite materials. For the first time at Road Arrow, there is now a team intended for materials development solely for this competition, consisting of student from the Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy. We also dealt with the improvement of the processes of production and assembly of various systems on the vehicle, to increase precision, efficiency and the quality of our vehicle. Changes were made to the aero package that will remove all deficiencies identified last year and improve vehicle performance. This year, we worked on the development of our own radio-communication, which will allow for better connectivity with the driver on the track. In order to achieve better results, we introduced a series of tests for selecting drivers, who will in the next month actively train and test the new vehicle.
He praised his team and said that he expects a lot from this year’s competitions. That was when the rest of the Road Arrow team joined him onstage, who were welcomed by a thunderous applause from the audience.
Finally, Road Arrow 2017 was revealed by the team coordinators, who took on the greatest responsibility this year and who will lead the team in all competitions.
The team is extremely happy with what has been achieved so far, but they have a lot of work waiting for them so they can achieve the best possible results. With the tremendous support they received at the ceremony, they will continue to work hard and prepare for Italy, the Czech Republic and Germany. Excitement is growing around the competition and all that remains is to wait for August to see the Serbian formula on Formula 1 tracks again.