CIAO, ITALIA!
The months practically flew by and July 2023 rolled around so our brand-new single-seater made its first-ever stop at the Riccardo Paletti Circuit for Formula Student Italy. Every competition is unforgettable in its own way, but Italy was truly something else.
Everybody knows that Italy is the home of motorsport and we felt it with every pore.
Hours of packing bags of food, supplies, and tools in the bus, 36 hours of sleeping and living in the said bus (and another 30 back to Romania!), a memorable stop in Duino, the most beautiful little port town, right in the heart of the Gulf of Trieste where we got to spend a magical night living the Italian dream, a once-in-a-lifetime visit at the Dallara Academy, warm nights after hot days, where the only way to cool down before getting in your cozy tent was a swimming session in a cold little river that accompanied us on our daily trips from the camp to the circuit. These are the images that will live vividly forever in our memories. Even so, what remains in history are not the mediterraneean vibes, but the actual competition.
So let’s go back to the real deal!
The definite premiere of this season was the fact that we built not only a functional car like last year but a rigorous one. For the first time in the history of UPB Drive, we passed the technical inspection! A little late, but better than never. But that being said, we did not have time to pass the scrutineering and participate in the dynamic events.
On a more positive note, we succeeded in the static events. Out of 21 cars in the CV category we got 5th place for the Bussines Plan, 7th place for the Cost and Manufacturing Event, and 11th place for the Design Event. And these results put us in 10th place overall, with a score of over 200 points. And this is a dream come true, considering that last year we got less than half of those points.
The Italy adventure was both a total success and the perfect place for a lot of lessons that needed to be learned. With that in mind, we packed the camp up and headed back home.
