TU Brno Racing made riding a “Dragon” a reality when they built their first car “Dragon 1” in 2010 .They have been developing their cars ever since, and this year, they are participating at FSN2019 with their newest car; Dragon9, with goals which their team member Františk Hlaváč shared with us to officially introduce the team to the competition.
TU Brno Team Photo
Introduce your team briefly.
We are a student team from Brno University of Technology in the Czech Republic. There are 45 team members mainly from faculty of mechanical engineering, but also from other university faculties. Our team is composed from variety of members with different knowledge, interests and personalities. But every team member has a common passion for building a Formula Student race car and a common goal to build a better car every year.
Tell us about your team’s history with Formula Student.
TU Brno Racing was founded in 2010. We built Dragon 1 for that season. From that year we have annually built a new Dragon. This year we are already building Dragon 9 that will be competing at FSN 2019. There were a lot of milestones along the team history. The biggest ones were related to our car. Dragon 4 (2014) – first car with a complete aeropackage, Dragon 5 (2015) – the first car with a turbocharged one cylinder engine, Dragon 7 (2017) – the first car with a hybrid chassis, CFRP monocoque in the front and tubular frame at the back, Dragon 8 (2018) – first car with a three damper/spring system on each axle, Dragon 9 (2019) – first car with a roll-heave suspension.
What does joining Formula Student Netherlands mean to you?
FS Netherlands is the first European FS competition this year, so for us it sets a goal to bring a proper tested and competitive car. Also it means feedback from static events, which can help us improve our presentations for other competitions. Last but not least it will be the first ever FS competition for nearly a half of our team.
What are your main goals for this year?
This season we aim for top 3 standings overall at every competition. To achieve this we want to get at least 90% of points from static events, finish the skid-pad under 4.9 seconds and also to finish all endurance events.
What made you think of/choose FSN?
We heard about your very good organisation and very strict but objective scrutineering and judging on FSN from other teams, and also TT circuit Assen is a really nice place where we want to go.
What makes you different than the other teams?
It is our main car concept, which transfers to whole team concept and it is main key to our success.
One cylinder, one heart, one team.
What is your biggest achievement in Formula Student so far?
Our biggest achievement so far is Dragon 7 season. We won FS Czech Republic 2017 and finished 6th overall at FSG 2017. That lead to 5th place in the world ranking.
Describe your car in three words.
The Spitting Dragon