The UPV team aspires to win in Germany with a new single-seater that can be driven without a driver

VALENCIA, June 9. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The FSUPV Team, the team of the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), has presented this Friday its new prototype, the FSUPV-10, with which it will compete this summer in Formula Student, the most important international university competition in the field of engineering high performance, created in 1980 in the United States and landed in Europe in 1998.

The team aspires to achieve victory in Germany thanks to its autonomous driving system in the leading European competition in the field, coinciding with the last year of the combustion category at the Hockenheim circuit.

In addition to the Formula Student Germany, the FSUPV-10 will compete in Spielberg (Austria), Hungaroring (Hungary) and Montmeló (Spain), where it already won in 2021, details the academic institution.

Developed by 50 students from various UPV degrees, the FSUPV Team car incorporates an autonomous driving system with vision sensors, a processing unit and actuators that exert force on the brake, accelerator, clutch and steering wheel and that they allow the prototype to roll without a self-guided pilot.

Along with the novelty of driverless driving, the 2023 prototype incorporates other highly relevant improvements, such as an advanced real-time telemetry system, a variable aerodynamics system that improves vehicle behavior and numerous redesigns that have made it possible to lighten the single-seater. All these improvements have made it possible to see faster lap times on the track than its predecessor, the FSUPV-09, last year's prototype.

In the innovative manufacturing process of the FSUPV-10, carried out in collaboration with the Institute of Design for Automated Manufacturing and Production of the UPV, the use of molds printed on a large 3D printer, unique in the Spanish university, stands out.

"Each edition -says Joaquín Real, co-director of the FSUPV Team- in each prototype, we set new challenges, with the aim of continuing to improve, and we apply the new knowledge that we are acquiring in the UPV classrooms to do so. and in the team's workshops. For this improvement, the support of all our sponsors is also essential, which this year is already more than ninety".

After the three podiums achieved last summer, the FSUPV Team faces the season with new challenges, such as trying to climb to the top of the podium in the three competitions in which it will participate in the coming months. It focuses on the most prestigious competition at the European level, FS Germany, where it will be the last year of the combustion modality.

In any case, the first appointment will be in Spielberg (Austria), at the Red Bull Ring circuit, from July 22 to 27. In this test, the UPV team will only compete in the modality with a pilot. "It is a competition in which, despite not having a prototype specifically designed for it, we will fight for the first position," explains Lorena Borrás, Head of Image and Communication for the FSUPV Team and coordinator of the team's Electronics division.

From August 15 to 22 they will compete in Formula Student Germany, the reference competition in Europe for its history and competitiveness. It will do so at the legendary Hockenheim circuit, where after achieving first place in 2022 in the skidpad DV, this year the team seeks to compete in the autonomous driving category against the best teams in the world.

"Successfully completing the autonomous tests would put the team in a very good position against others in its category that lack a functional autonomous system, demonstrating uniqueness and the work behind the prototype," says Marc Ferrara, co-leader of the team.

Previously, the FSUPV-10 will compete in the Hungaroring, from August 1 to 5, and then in Montmeló (Barcelona), from August 7 to August 13, an event (Formula Student Spain) that poses something different to Germany. "The autonomous and piloted competitions will go separately. Our bet is to compete in both with the same car and emerge victorious," says José González, also co-director of the team.

Born in 2014, the FSUPV Team was the first team to join the UPV Spontaneous Generation, the support platform for students to carry out extracurricular activities that can facilitate their future job placement and, at the same time, serve as an example to the rest of the university community. It currently has 71 teams in which more than 2,000 people from its three campuses participate.