What a journey! It all started at the Regional Championship, where a strong third place earned us our ticket to the German National Championship in Neuburg an der Donau. Behind this success lie months of hard work, because the competition demands far more than just sending a fast car down the track. It is the perfect combination of engineering, teamwork and creativity.
Preparation and precision down to the last detail
The heart of our project, the car for the race track, was first created digitally in CAD software. Every detail was aerodynamically optimized before it went into production via 3D printing. Our goal was maximum speed with minimum weight. But a fast car alone is not enough. We also had to design a team stand that matched our theme, write portfolios and perfect our presentation. On May 15, the big day finally arrived. After a long train journey, we moved into our apartments in Bavaria. While we took care of the last bits of shopping, preparations within our team were already in full swing. We were ready.
Arrival at the Audi Driving Experience Center
May 16 began with setting up our team stand. On a large exhibition floor, we presented not only our car but our entire team identity and way of working. It was a great feeling to see everything come together. On race day itself, the excitement grew. After an inspiring speech by Stefan Dreyer, Chief Technical Officer of Audi Formula Racing GmbH, it was finally time to hit the track.
Record times on the race track
The rules are tough: the best time out of four runs counts. We knew our car was fast, but the result exceeded even our own expectations. With a sensational time of 1.121 seconds, we set the fastest race time of the entire championship, putting us in first place in the pure time ranking. Alongside raw speed, our performance at the team stand, in the portfolios and in the presentation was crucial. This is where we showcased our entire development work and our finished team concept. Our presentation was so convincing that even the world runners-up, Team Array, listened closely as we explained our technical solutions to the judges.
The icing on the cake
The big moment came at the award ceremony. In an extremely strong field, we finished fifth overall, just a hair’s breadth behind the teams that qualified for the World Finals. We are especially proud of the special awards we were able to take home: the award for the fastest car, the award for the best engineered car and the “Vorsprung durch Technik” award presented by our host, Audi.
As a reward for the Audi special award, we got to experience something truly unique: a ride in a sports car on the test track. Accelerating from 0 to 100 km/h in under three seconds gave us an indescribable adrenaline rush. We will never forget the off-road drive with its extreme inclines that followed, either.
A big thank you
A project of this size never works alone. We would like to thank all our sponsors and supporters from the bottom of our hearts. Without your generous financial and material support, our participation in the championship would simply have been impossible. You believed in us and made this dream come true.
A huge thank you also goes to our supervising teacher, Ms Kraus, who, just like us, sacrificed countless hours of her free time and always supported us. We would also like to thank Ms Kosczelny for accompanying us and Lisanne for the fantastic photos. Another thank you goes to our back-office team for their great organization behind the scenes.
At this point, we would also like to warmly congratulate our friends from Nanox Racing on their impressive eighth place overall. It was great to share this journey with another team from our school.
We came home exhausted but happy. And who knows, maybe we’ll have another go next year!
Your Team aiXplosion