Fastda Racing Team Hockenheim

Summer is the season for motor racing. Student teams around the world compete against each other with their new cars in the Formula Student contests. Time for helmets and hot wheels! The race at the Hockenheimring, which has meanwhile been taking place for 20 years, is very prestigious. Also participating is FaSTDa Racing, the Formula Student team of Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences (h_da), with its electric speedster “F25”. The impact team accompanied them.

By Simon Colin, 3.9.2025

The F25 rolls slowly up to the starting line, where a marshal stands with a blue pylon in his hand. He lowers it, signalling “GO!” for Theo Schubert. Then every millisecond counts. The mechatronics student is one of the four drivers on h_da’s FaSTDa team and about to compete in one of four Formula Student disciplines at the Hockenheimring: the skid pad. This is a horizontal figure of eight, and students drive twice round the two circular sections in different directions. Their average time is then calculated from the second lap in each case.

FaSTDa team leader Michelle Peters and team supervisor Professor Florian van de Loo from the Faculty of Mechanical and Plastics Engineering watch from the barrier. A slightly nervous tension starts to spread. Then the blue pylon drops. Theo Schubert hurtles along the track, which is marked with yellow cones, and completes the first lap. If the cones are knocked over, time is deducted. “That was great!” calls out Florian van de Loo after the team has completed all four laps. Their average lap time is 5 seconds and 27 milliseconds, while the most experienced teams finish in under 5 seconds.

Professor van de Loo is nevertheless content. “This is the first time we’ve been able to concentrate entirely on driving since we started building only electric racing cars. In the previous years, we were just happy to be able to meet the technical challenge. The changeover from combustion engine to electric drive meant a big adjustment, and the team underwent a huge learning curve.” In the meantime, Theo Schubert has coasted to the side of the track and come to a halt. Several people immediately cluster around the car. Among them Formula Student Germany officials, who rigorously inspect it after every discipline.

“They are very strict here about the car complying with the rules and making sure, for example, that no liquids leak out,” explains Florian van de Loo. And something indeed attracts the officials’ eagle eyes: the distance between the tyres and the chassis is slightly too small. The last lap doesn’t count. The h_da team is allowed a second attempt, but they must correct the problem straight away. Armed with sandpaper and water, the students set to work.

“The race here at the Hockenheimring is known above all for two things – precision and discipline,” says Theo Schubert, peeling off his racing gear after completing the skid pad for the second time with no errors. “It’s like riding a wild boar that’s been startled,” he jokes, referring to the F25’s rigid suspension, which reacts to the smallest bump and obliges the driver to keep the car constantly under control.

In the meantime, team leader Michelle Peters is preparing for another racing discipline: the 75-metre acceleration sprint. She will be driving the F25 herself. “I think it’s great that we can compete here in the dynamic disciplines, but I also have a lot of respect for them,” says the industrial engineering student. Shortly, she will get into the car and practice on the open road: she wants to concentrate on accelerating, braking, getting to know the car even better and learning how to control it.

A good 40 students are currently active members of h_da’s FaSTDa team. They come from very different study programmes at the university: mechanical engineering, industrial engineering, polymer engineering, as well as optical technology and image processing. Particularly in demand – because of the electric drives – are electrical engineering students. The students join forces each year to build a new racing car: a huge, tightly organised, interdisciplinary project that enables the students to acquire important engineering skills.

The core members of the team participate in the Formula Student races once a year over several weeks in the summer. Before Hockenheim, the students competed in Austria, but they did not pass the rain test. This safety test checks that the battery is properly sealed. This proved to be a blessing in disguise for the h_da team: several weeks lay between the race in neighbouring Austria and the one at the Hockenheimring. The students pulled out all the stops to build a new, even better battery.

The students camp, live and work at the Hockenheimring for a whole week, together with over 80 teams from throughout the world. After each discipline, they take the F25 to the pit, a workshop where it can be repaired or corrections made. The clock is ticking, and it is really hard work for the students, sometimes lasting late into the evening. No surprise, then, that a team member can sometimes be found between equipment and spare parts, taking a nap and catching up on lost sleep. And even enjoying a little peace and quiet in the process, at least to some extent. Since Formula Student switched to electric vehicles, the vast terrain of the Hockenheimring is less noisy. Roaring engines, a continuous din and exhaust fumes are now largely a thing of the past.

Florian van de Loo is pleased that Formula Student is going in this direction. “We were successful with our combustion engine, but its limits were exhausted,” he says. “What our students are now learning from the electric car is very valuable. Such experts are highly sought-after in industry.” However, the changeover from combustion engine to electric drive was also challenging for the FaSTDa team, as it obliged them to design a completely new car. This meant overcoming a number of setbacks and some frustration. Something that other student racing teams also experienced. At the university, too, the transformation underway in automotive development is clear so see.

But the effort is worth it, thinks Theo Schubert. “If a lecture accounts for 30 percent of academic success, FaSTDa accounts for the other 70 percent,” he calculates. “My involvement has meant a steep learning curve for me. It’s a great feeling.” An experience that the other team members share. After Hockenheim, they travelled together to the Formula Student race in Lyon, France, where the h_da team came second overall in the skid pad discipline: it was the first time on the podium at a major competition for the students with their electric racing car. This marks the successful conclusion of the 2025 racing season for the FaSTDa team. In the autumn, the students will start working on the F26. And on another innovation: the development of an autonomous, driverless system.