ETSEIB Motorsport is a team of 33 industrial engineering students from the Escola Tècnica Superior d’Enginyeria Industrial de Barcelona who takes part in the Formula Student competition. The team was born in 2007 and since then has developed a new car every year.

Formula Student is a global engineering design competition that involves the design, manufacture and development of a formula style car and the later participation in international competitions where both the car's performance and the team’s project management are being evaluated by judges. Nowadays there are more than 600 participants from more than 30 different nationalities among the 3 different Formula Student categories: Formula Student Electric, Formula Student Combustion and Formula Student Driverless.

Since our inception, more than 130 companies have taken part in this project as ETSEIB Motorsport’s sponsors. Every one of them have made possible that year after year the team can evolve and set higher goals. Moreover, being part of the project allows companies to establish direct contact with the future engineers and helps to reduce distances between university and workplace.

CAT10e

After the most successful summer for the team, with a 1st place in the Overall Electric in Formula Student Czech Republic, the team has been renewed for the next season. Besides the victory achieved in FS Czech Republic, we got a 6thposition in FSAE Italy and a 12th position in FS Spain. It is clear that the team is improving year after year. And this season the hard work will go on in order to close the gap to the world’s top teams. After 2016 competitions, ETSEIB Motorsport climbed to the position 15 out of 110 in the Formula Student Electric World Ranking list

The season started with the goal of designing CAT10e, the fifth of ETSEIB Motorsport’s electric racecars. Last season’s car, CAT09e, set the bar really high. But without any doubt, there is still room for improvement. The team has been focusing on redesigning the car in order to get a faster and more reliable car. The design stage was completed at late November, and now the team is focused in the manufacturing stage. Each part of the new car has been designed not only with the goal of obtaining a better performance, but also trying to reduce the weight of every single piece to achieve a light design.

Besides an important weight reduction, some highlights of CAT10e’s design have been significant improvements in the cooling of the batteries in order to get the maximum performance of our powertrain unit, new and redesigned electronics, a stiffer monocoque, more efficient aerodynamics and an improved drivetrain, with a significant wheelbase reduction.

One of the most critical zones in an electric car is the battery, which consist on Lithium-ion cells. To choose the proper cell or to evaluate the electrical connection is necessary to use a specified and expensive equipment. This is where SETUP Electronica and ITECH are cooperating with ETSEIB Motorsport, supplying this crucial material for the fulfillment of the tests.

The first component is the IT6942A power source (programmable, 60V, 15A and a resolution of 1mV and 0,1mA). This power source allow charging the modules of the battery, monitoring the current to cycle the cells in an appropriate way.

Once the cells are charged, to evaluate the behavior of the whole battery, it is necessary to discharge with different current profiles (constant, current steps or even the current profile of the most demanding race). For these cases the IT8816C electronic load, allow to know the behavior of the battery inside our workshop.

After checking all the components were correctly designed and in compliance with the Formula Student regulations, we started the manufacturing stage. This stage will take a few months, until the CAT10e is completely assembled and ready to be tested. Every component designed by ETSEIB Motorsport team members will be constructed whether by ourselves or with the collaboration of our sponsors.

This summer, ETSEIB Motorsport will be competing in FS Germany, FS Austria and FS Spain, three of the most important Formula Student competitions over the world. Definitely, big challenges are ahead.