E Team Squadra Corse

Mission

E-Team is a multidisciplinary and dynamic environment where Bachelor, Master and PhD students from mechanical, automotive, electronic, electrical, aerospace, management engineering, economics and liberal arts work together. In the E-Team’s vision the Formula SAE is a proof of concept and a bridge to the job market. In addition, it is a chance to find innovative solutions that may improve racing performances as well as daily driving experience.

History

Founded in the late 2007, the team today comprises more than 40 members. University of Pisa competed for the first time in Formula SAE in 2008. Usually rookie Formula SAE teams compete only with a project in the first season. By the years they still build and compete with the car. E-Team, with a limited budget, started from the bottom, was able to race at the Italian Formula SAE event in Fiorano after 9 months of intense work. The E-Team was first among the rookies, third over 11 Italian teams at the endurance race. The endurance race was particularly selective so that was completed by only 14 teams over 34 inscribed teams.

"In my knowledge it is the first time a rookie team finishes the endurance test", said Andrea Toso, head of Dallara R&D, "a very good result" added Luca Marmorini, former member of the Toyota Formula One team.

2008

Starting from 2008, a year after its foundation, the team was already composed by 35 members, mostly from Engineering with one exception in Humanities. There was a strong need for outgrowing the Engineering faculty itself, due to the project’s wide interdisciplinary aspects, with it requiring technical knowledge as well as ability in economics, marketing and communications management. With this background, the first competition car “ET1” was conceived and designed.

The actual debut comes directly in 2008, with the Team participating to the Italian event Formula Sae Italy at the Fiorano Circuit in Fiorano Modenese (MO), organized by the Italian Automotive Technical Association (ATA).

The E-Team got the first place among the first year teams, and classified third among the Italian teams in the Endurance event.

Since then, more members joined the group every year, enriching the team, bringing the project to a progressively higher level every year.

2009

In 2009, the team was composed by 43 members from 4 different Faculties: Engineering, Economics, Humanities and Political Sciences; the group is now organized in sectors interacting and working proficiently in order to make everything work in the best way possible, just like an industrial working environment, brilliantly accomplishing its objectives, as in August 2009 the Team participates to its first international competition: Formula Student Germany, held at Hockenheimring (Hockenheim, Germany). In that occasion the group faced the competition against 78 teams from all over the world, and gets the tenth position at the static “Cost Report” event.

In 2009, the Team also competed in the fifth Formula SAE Italy Event, which from that year on, was held at the Riccardo Paletti racetrack in Varano de’ Melegari (PR), from the September 4th to the September 7th, with a very relevant Technical Commission made up by engineers from the most prestigious Italian car makers, like Lamborghini, Ferrari, Fiat, Maserati and Dallara to name a few. In the event, the ET2ev car from Pisa ranks second among the Italian teams and 12th overall among the 39 participating teams. In the static events of Design and Cost Report, the team is respectively in 9th and 5th position.

2010

2010 is the year of ET3, realized by a team which receives additions also from Foreign Languages and Law departments. Thanks to the results from the previous season, the notoriety of E-Team is still growing and gets more and more team members during the season. In 2010, too, the racecar from Pisa participated both in the Italian and in the German competitions – held in the same locations as the year before – with excellent outcomes, reaching the top in the Italian event with the first place among Italian participating teams, and getting to the ninth place overall.

2011

In 2011, the partially renewed team takes inspiration from the previous year’s work to developed the ET4, a brand new car built as an overall improvement of ET3, featuring renewed ergonomics and a lightweight bodywork with maximized efficiency and cooling flow. During the season, the first presentation with a running car was made at the Engineering Faculty in order to recruit new designers, and the team participates in the two events it has been getting acquainted to, namely Formula Student Germany and Formula SAE Italy. The former event, interrupted by a hideous oil leak, gives anyway good results, with the best being the FSG Media Award for a 30 seconds video presenting the event to the world. The latter keeps up with the FSG results until an unexpected engine issue causes the engine to overheat and eventually catch fire on runoff lubrication oil, mid-way through the Endurance event.

2012

In 2012, the team faced a reduction in its members for the very first time, as the managements tries to make a big step on the way to an official academic and structural recognition of the project. Not satisfied with the results from the previous year, the designers adopt a best-performance strategy on the design, which is focused on a complete rebuild of the cockpit, for improved ergonomics, keeping the optimal layout and dynamics target from ET4. The ET5 comes out as a similar, with different concept and is extensively tested. The Team participates in the usual events, with good results progress in Formula Student Germany until a hard stop for a very much argued disqualification during the driver change mid way through the Endurance event; in Formula SAE Italy, a great result is obtained for the first time in the Business Plan Presentation, even though the overall score is threatened by another bitter disqualification in the Endurance event, a couple laps from its completion, with a very competitive car which was even getting better one lap after the other.

2013

The 2013th session had started with a hard decision: not getting any tangible result from Academia, and with the officiality of the project in jeopardy, the alternatives were either: keep hoping or close the Team. Fortunately, with the intervention of a second Faculty advisor the progress towards the recognition of the Team members participation in terms of credit and with an official funding from the Departments gets back in route. The decision to save the project has been made quite late in the year, so the only chance remained was to participate in the brand new Formula Student Czech Republic competition in Hradec Kralove. The new ET5-xl car, modified to be compliant with the new rule set, is prepared to unleash its true potential and extensively tested. The competition sees once again an exceptional third place in the Business Plan Presentation, but unfortunately another share of bad luck is around the corner and the car, after having behaved very well on the previous events, is forced to stop after a bad debonding failure of a suspension A-arm.

2014

During the 2014th session the team planned to complete the development of the electric car E2T1 and to improve the ET5-xl to prevent a recurrence of the problem that forced to stop the race in the Czech Republic. The E2T1 project was realized in a year but, due to the lack of necessary funds to pay the entire cost of the car, the team decided to participate only with the project at the competition.

The E-Team has participated both in the class 1 (combustion with ET5-xl) than in the class 3 (electric with the E2T1 project) during the Formula SAE Italy competition held in Varano de’Melegari.

2015

The 2015th session began with an increasing in its members. Later it was redesigned the organization dividing members in two areas: technical and management. The team assumed a company structure which soon brought its results. A new car, called Kerub, was designed in few months, but for several reasons, the team could not be able to finish its development. This is the reason why the E-Team participated only to the Formula SAE Italy competition Static Events (class 3). During this event held in Varano de’Melegari on September 2015 the team won the first place in Class 3: first place in Design Event, Business Plan and Cost Event. Three out of three.

This victory brought to the team the incentive to improve ang get involved in the future events all over Europe.

2016

E-Team Squadra Corse took part in the Formula SAE Italian Event (22-25 July 2016) achieving these results.

E-Team Squadra Corse took part in the Formula Student Hungary Event (18-21 July 2016) achieving these results.

2017

Season 2017 began with a lot of job interviews at the Engineering Faculty at the University of Pisa. After an opening period of organisation the Team had the chance to participate at the Motor Show that took place in Bologna, Italy, with other italian teams. 2016 ended with the confirmation of the attendance at the future FSAE Italy competition that will take place in Varano de' Melegari at the Riccardo Paletti Racetrack from the 19th to the 23rd of July 2017. After hard work and tests, the E-Team Racing Team had successfully joined the list of the 65 teams, globally, that will participate at the FSGermany 2017 that will take place in Hockenheim from the 8th to the 13th of August 2017.

Cars

E-Team designs and builds open-wheeled, open-cockpit formula-style cars. The vehicle realized every year does not only have to participate in speed competitions, it also has to respond to very specific requirements in terms of economic, safety and innovation aspects in addition to a brilliant driving behavior.

Colors

The color's team are red, white, and black: red and white are Pisa's color, and black is the color of the school of engineering at the University of Pisa.

Logo

The logo shows the name of the team, the Italian flag and the seal that connects the team to the University of Pisa.

Seal

The E-Team seal is a modification of the official seal of the University of Pisa in which half of the cherub is a driver.

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