Caltest Sponsors University Of Surrey’s Formula Student Team

The Formula Student competition is run by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and draws more than 100 teams from across Europe and beyond. Now in its 15th year, it has established a strong reputation as one of the principal proving grounds for young engineering talent, with many leading automotive and aerospace companies filling their graduate roles from amongst the competitors.

Team SURTES consists of 36 students drawn from a variety of different engineering disciplines including mechanical, aerospace and even civil engineering. Like all Formula Student teams, they are responsible for every aspect of their vehicle, including design, test and manufacture. Their combined expertise is distributed amongst four sub-teams that concentrate of different aspects of the car: chassis, suspension, power train and systems. To be successful in the competition they must also get to grips with other professional skills required to run their project, such as finance, marketing and human resources.

Dr Patrick Gruber is a Lecturer in Advanced Vehicle Systems Engineering at the University of Surrey and acts as the official faculty advisor to Team SURTES. He said: ‘Leading employers agree that Formula Student is a benchmark for practical engineering experience at undergraduate level. The patronage of companies like Caltest allows our students to continue their participation in this important and valuable event, providing a fun and exciting arena where they can hone their skills by solving real-world engineering problems. By sponsoring Team SURTES, Caltest are supporting the development of our next generation of professional engineers. We’re all very grateful for their assistance.’

Nic Gonella is an MEng student who acts as Technical Director for the team. Commenting on their chances of success next season, he said: ‘We are aiming to make the top twenty and we feel that this is definitely achievable. We have managed to shave more weight off the car and we are spending much more time on testing, which has been one of our weak areas in the past. Given the strength and resources of the competition, particularly some of the German teams, a place in the top twenty would be a very respectable result for a relatively young team like ours.”

David Sheath, General Manager at Caltest Instruments said: ‘We had already heard of the Formula Student competition and the University of Surrey is literally on our doorstep, so when we found out about the existence of Team SURTES we knew immediately that we wanted to get involved. The car is certainly impressive and I am looking forward to watching their progress during the 2013 season. We are very pleased to be supporting them and I hope that this will be the beginning of an ongoing relationship for us.’