The web showcase of the Tecnun eRacing team members reads: "Build a team, build a car, build a passion". The motto perfectly defines the working spirit of the 56 engineering students who make up the team. Every year, and for almost a decade now, different students from the School combine their studies with the design and manufacture of a single-seater car to represent Gipuzkoa in the international competition Formula Student. 

The story began with TecnunMotorsport: the combustion single-seaters built since 2009 and stored in the Automotive Workshop show the evolution and learning of different students over time. A year later, in 2010, TecnunSeedRacing was born , which meant the arrival of the first electric single-seater at campus. 

This year, both teams have merged to adapt to the demands of the market and bet on the design and the manufacture of a competitive and fully electric vehicle: "We have taken advantage of the virtues of each of the teams. It has been the main novelty of the year and the biggest restructuring that Tecnun Formula Student has gone through since its beginnings in 2009", points out the director of project, Andoni Medina. "The tools that worked have been maintained, some came from Motorsport, others from'Seed'," adds team leader Koldo Iriarte, whose incorporation to workshop has been a milestone in the history of this project.

"The merit of this year is that, in addition to bringing the two teams together, we are going further with additive manufacturing and carbon fiber. We are thinking about what we are going to do in the future," confesses director technician Eric Roig. And he exemplifies: "The ergonomic structure of the steering wheel is 3D printed. We have also made spoilers for next year using the same material as McLaren. We are going to validate them this year. 

When they talk about the future they are aware that many of them will not be around, as the foundation of project is in the apprenticeship of students from different Degrees and engineering courses. "We think about the bequest that will be left to the next generations. We train the new ones coming in so that they will train the ones coming back in in the future. You don't just focus on this year's car, but on what you leave for next year," says Alejandra Areñas, director of area organization and 3rd year electrical engineering student. 

Every year, at the beginning of the season, the future engineers face problems when deciding which aspects they want to keep and what to improve compared to last year. "It's such a complex project with so many variables and we have such limited resources, that we are always looking to find which is the core topic to improve the most at the lowest cost," says Koldo Iriarte. 

In this sense, and thanks to a simulation program developed by the student of the Master in Industrial Engineering, Carlos Rubio, the team has been able to feel and experience the car before having it built.  

In the words of director: "We have replicated the process of development that a car brand would have, using a cutting-edge tool such as the driving simulator from AIC-Automotive Intelligence Center".

"This simulation platform has given us a fairly reliable replica of what the single-seater would be like. Thanks to this tool we have made a sensitivity study and we have been able to know the impact of each of the parts on the final performance", argues Koldo Iriarte. "It has helped us to detect problems and we have been making decisions in a justified way", concludes this young man from Toulouse.