Our Hamburg championship vehicle had the name “Pistris” which is Latin for shark. It got its name due to the “Gilles” on the rear spoiler and due to the “Finn” at the vehicle’s front. As you can see, we were more focused on controlling the airflow than just minimising the aerodynamic resistance. We also tried two completely new things. First, we abolished the backbox behind the rear wheel. We did this to have more control over the mass and the centre of mass of our vehicle. Second, we implemented an impeller to our wheels and an air channel that forces the air to rotate our wheels faster. We called it the “Rotation Support Device” (RSD).

Whenever we had an idea we wrote it down in a shared document, so we never forget any of our ideas. Then, we used Solid Edge, a Computer Aided Design-software (CAD), to design a 3D-Model of our idea. Afterwards, we used Computational Fluid Dynamics-software to analyse the airflow of our vehicle. We compared different ideas and choose the best of them. 

We had many unusual ideas, which were never done before in an F1 in school car. Thus, we had to figure out how to implement these ideas into a final vehicle. Our production manager Christoph did a lot of research, due which we could figure out the best way to produce our car as precisely as possible and to give it a clean surface. Our entire chassis was 3D-printed in SLS. We used polyamide 12, which is one of the most solid materials available for SLS printing. And this was a good choice. At first, we thought that our “Gilles” might break, but they did not. In the end, we were able to build the faster car at the Hamburg championship.