About the team members ?

[xdriver]

Hi,

We are the first year team. This year we are going to race in class 2.
Our team have 5 members right now, is it enough for the class 2 ? I wonder that, the number of other teams members for class 2.
How many members do you have ?
If you are a big team such as 20-30 members, do you travel with all members or not ?
I want to ask this question for big teams, how many members go for the race ?

Thank you for your answers...

[Gr8Flux]

If I had to guess it depends on where you're located, and obviously how much money you have. Our team is about 30 students, we plan to bring about 10 of our team members with us to competition. This is largely due to funding, as it costs a lot of money to transport our vehicle and team to and from competition. Our team competes in the USA, and our travel is about 2,300 miles one way.

[xdriver]

Thanks a lot Gr8Flux
Your answer was very helpful for me.
I understood, your team travel with about 10 members.
Do other 20 members pose a problem ?

[Pat Clarke]

Xdriver, it would really help (and be polite!) to tell us who you are, where you are, what team you represent and which event you wish to enter.
That way you would get some more qualified advice.

Pat Clarke

[xdriver]

Hi Pat Clarke,

Sorry about that. I am from Turkey. We are planing to participate in the FSAE competiton in this year.
Our team consists of the newly. So we are doing a lot of research about the Formula Student challenge.
Our team has not yet been officially formed. So our team name is not yet certain.
This year, we are planning to race in Class 3 in Russia.
At the moment, our team occur 5 members. I don't know, is this enough or not ?

[Pat Clarke]

Your name?

Pat Clarke

[xdriver]

Your name?

Pat Clarke

My name is Serhat :)

[craigorydean]

Hello Serhat,

My name is Craig Kellermann. I am a member and project manager of the University of Texas-San Antonio Formula SAE team(Roadrunner Racing). Just as a little background not all the SAE/Formula student competitions have different classes. Here in the United States our competitions only have what is essentially Class 1. The team must build and compete a rules abiding car to preform in all events(Cost, Design, Business, Accel, Skidpad, Eundurance, and Fuel Economy). To Compete in the Last 4 you must pass technical inspection.

Now with this I will inform you that my team (Roadrunner Racing) has had an average of 7-15 members attempting to do this the past 3 years.Of that 7-15 we had 7 showing up to the shop and getting the project done. This year our membership of the team has increased tremendously as we now keep track member with dues. So we have had close to 30-40 students to be "Members" of our team. Now the amount of people whom regularly show up in our shop and work on getting the project done is 10-12 members.

Next I think that there may be a minimum members of a team to be 2, as you need different drivers to be able to finish both segments of endurance.(I maybe wrong on this last statement)

You and your team will have to decide if you have enough members to "Share" the work load of the project. Not one person outside of your group will be able to know if your group is strong enough to handle project. Pat Clarke may be able to tell you much more than I(as he has been around this much longer)that many teams ,some quite successful, function with as little as 5 members. Also some teams have stated that having more members is not always a blessing.

~~Some Data from UTSA~~
- We Take 8-15 member depending on funding
- We travel about 900 mi
- 5-8 members partake in the events
- 2-8 members assist in getting the car ready and scouting other cars for design ideas or concepts
- If our project is not finished then we don't go
- No team is to small to be sucessful

*I was notified that you need a minimum of 3 drivers so you have to have more than 3 members.

[Swiftus]

Next I think that there may be a minimum members of a team to be 2, as you need different drivers to be able to finish both segments of endurance.(I maybe wrong on this last statement)
I think you will need a minimum of 3 people to compete in all events. Drivers can only compete in 3 dynamic events and there are a total of 5 dynamic events. You are required to have 2 drivers in endurance, so each of those drivers can only compete in 1 other event. This leaves 1 event without a driver, forcing a third driver. :)

[craigorydean]

Ahhhh I see. I have never driven any of our car nor do I fit in them safely (I must be the 96% MALE).

But from what Jay says you exceed the min. amount of members so you are good.

Also Jay would have experience of what it is like to work on a VERY large team. One that is on 2 different continents and May not even speak the language.

I feel we are on the other end of the spectrum.

[Swiftus]

Also Jay would have experience of what it is like to work on a VERY large team. One that is on 2 different continents and May not even speak the language.

I feel we are on the other end of the spectrum.

You are correct that GFR is a larger team, however I don't think we are anywhere near the largest team. And when you are running 2 cars, you really only get the benefits of having a larger team back at the campground (which is still very useful when creating cooking crews for the day).

15 to 20 team members can make for a very fulfilling competition. We went to FS Spain with a group of 18 (https://www.facebook.com/TeamGFR/photos/pb.130002227052111.-2207520000.1425465633./804205446298449/?type=3&theater) and it was a blast! 3 of the team members came to the competition halfway through so our original crew was 15 people. 15 people is probably the 'right' amount of people necessary to have a team where everyone can specialize a bit so no one gets overworked. 'Joe is going to hang back in the campground and make everyone lunch today'. Oxford dictionary says Napoleon said 'An army marches on its stomach.'

We do often go testing with the car and 4 or 5 people, which is in reality the minimum number of people you can have. In order to lift the car into the air to put it on stands, we need 4 people. So while technically you only need 3 people to do everything at competition, 4 is likely the actual minimum number.

[JulianH]

I have no experience in Class 2, but I think 5 people are enough to make a big picture design for the next year and therefore be able to compete in Class 2.

For me, the main upside of Class 2 is that you can go to the competition 1-2 months before you start your "real" car for the next season. Look at all(!) the other cars, talk to as much people as possible (not just to Delft, they have completely different problems than you!), take tons of pictures, "feel" the competition, and so on.

Yes of course, you learn how to do Statics, but that's not so important I guess.


So. Yes. Do it!

[xdriver]

Hi Craig,

Thank you so much for your answer.
I understood what you said. We should decide this topic according to workload. At the moment our team have 5 members. I think, this is enough for the Static event.
Maybe 1 or 2 person contribute us. At now, our team just did some chassis design. We are planing to join Russia event in this year. None of the documents, we have not yet started.
For the competition, there are almost 6 month. Is this time enough or not for preparing ?

[xdriver]

Hi JulianH,

Thanks your answer.
Go to the competition 1-2 months before, this is the good idea. We will do this in class 2.
Class 2 will be learning section for us. We will look other cars, take a lot of pictures and so on... For the first year our goal is not make the degree. But in order to race in the class 1 we should get some sponsors. In order to find some sponsors, we need to gain experience. Because in my country, companies generally look first the experience.
So joining the class 2 necessary for us.