Forze
Forze Hydrogen Racing is a hydrogen electric vehicle racing team. It is run by students and was founded at the Delft University of Technology in 2007 by Edgar van Os and has built 8 hydrogen fuel cell racing vehicles. The team's offices and workshops are located at the Schiehal in Delft.[1] In 2007, the team began designing and building go-karts with a hydrogen-electric drivetrain. With these vehicles they participated in the Formula Zero competition, hence the name ForZe. After five years the first full-size hydrogen race car was built, the Forze VI. Another three years later the project of the Forze VII began. This became the first hydrogen-electric racecar to ever participate in an official race against fossil-fueled vehicles. The latest iteration, the Forze VIII, was the first hydrogen-electric race car to ever beat petrol powered cars, and came in 2nd place at the Gamma Racing Days in Assen in 2019. Over the coming years the team wants to develop its cars in such a way that they can compete in a Le Mans Prototype endurance series.
| Stichting Formula Zero Team Delft | |
 | |
 Forze VIII at Gamma Racing Days 2018 | |
| Founder | Edgar van Os, 2007 |
|---|---|
| Location |
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| Website | www.forze-delft.nl |
Hydrogen
In a conventional road car, the energy that is stored in fuel is converted to mechanical energy, using the principle of combustion. The cars that are built by Forze utilize a different concept. The hydrogen fuel cell system inside the vehicles converts the energy stored in hydrogen to electric energy. This means that the fuel cell system can be used to power an electric drive train with hydrogen as a so-called alternative fuel.
The efficiency of the fuel conversion can be about two to three times higher than a conventional combustion engine. The most obvious differences of hydrogen-electric vehicles compared to their battery-electric relatives is the time required to recharge or refill, and the driving range. Hydrogen tanks can be refilled within minutes whereas batteries currently take several hours to recharge. This makes hydrogen-electric propulsion ideal for applications where non-stop operation and/or a long driving range is required.
The mission of Forze is to promote fuel cell technology by educating their own team members, but also the general public and to inspire industries to use hydrogen technology. By designing and building their own high performance hydrogen race cars, the potential and application of hydrogen can be demonstrated. Currently, Forze is still the only student team worldwide that uses high power automotive fuel cells.
Cars & Competitions
Formula Zero
The team started competing in the 2008 Formula Zero Championship, the world's first hydrogen fuel cell championship. Given the importance of the upcoming Hydrogen economy and considering climate change and oil related problems, the project draws a lot of attention from international media.[2][3]
The first season was limited to one event in the inner city of Rotterdam next to the Erasmus Bridge. The second season consisted of a European Cup and a separate Grand Prix in the city center of Turin. The third season again only had one race, held the center of The Hague.
Formula Student
The Formula Zero competition did not prove to grow into what it promised to be during the first years. The team continued to innovate and moved on to the Formula Student competition. The Forze IV and V vehicles were purpose built for this competition. To this day, Forze is still the only student team that has competed with a fuel cell powered kart.
Going Big
After competing in the Formula Student race twice, Forze made a big step towards the professional racing world. The next car, the Forze VI, became world's first full-size race car powered by hydrogen. Due to the lack of a FIA license for the Forze VI, registering for official races was difficult, and the car did not compete in any FIA backed competitions. To avoid this problem, the Forze VII featured an FIA licensed LMP3-monocoque from ADESS AG. With it, the team built the first hydrogen race car ever to compete against fossil fueled combustion vehicles in an official race. The Forze VII competed in the Supercar Challenge in 2017 during the Gamma Racing Days on the TT Circuit Assen. In the 45-minute race, the Forze VII set the third fastest laptime in the Sports division, showing its potential. Unfortunately though, the hydrogen-electric race car was not able to drive the full race as it only had fuel on board for 30 minutes.
One year later, in 2018, the Forze VIII drove the full 60-minute race at the Supercar Challenge 2018 during the Gamma Racing Days on TT Circuit Assen. In August 2019, the Forze VIII competed in the same race and came in second place in the sports division. This success was nothing the world had ever seen before.
Currently, the team is working on designing and building the Forze IX, with which they hope to compete in higher divisions of the Supercar Challenge.
Competition results
| Date | Race | Car | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23-08-2008 | Formula Zero World Championship | Forze I | 1st |
| Summer 2009 | Formula Zero European Home Grand Prix | Forze II | 3rd |
| 11-10-2009 | Formula Zero GP Torino | Forze II | 1st |
| 19-08-2010 | Formula Zero GP The Hague | Forze III | 1st |
| 17-07-2011 | Formula Student UK | Forze IV | DNF |
| 15-07-2012 | Formula Student UK | Forze V | 55th |
| 07-08-2017 | Supercar Challenge Sport Division (Gamma Racing Days) | Forze VII | DNF |
| 07-08-2017 | Supercar Challenge Garage 56 (Gamma Racing Days) | Forze VII | 1st |
| 18-08-2018 | Supercar Challenge Sport Division (Gamma Racing Days) | Forze VIII | 6th |
| 18-08-2018 | Supercar Challenge Garage 56 (Gamma Racing Days) | Forze VIII | 1st |
| 14-07-2019 | Supercar Challenge Sport Division (Blancpain Sprint World Cup Zandvoort) | Forze VIII | 7th |
| 14-07-2019 | Supercar Challenge Garage 56 (Blancpain Sprint World Cup Zandvoort) | Forze VIII | 1st |
| 18-08-2019 | Supercar Challenge Sport Division (Gamma Racing Days) | Forze VIII | 2nd |
| 18-08-2019 | Supercar Challenge Garage 56 (Gamma Racing Days) | Forze VIII | 1st |
World Records
The team made several official and unofficial world records attempts to beat the FIA world land speed record for hydrogen powered fuel cell cars under 500 kg on the 1/8th mile. On 3 October 2010 the team tried to break the world record held by the Formula Zero Mark II at 11.2 seconds. This attempt took place on the island of Aruba on the Palo Marga International Raceway Park. Unfortunately due to heavy rain part of the island flooded and the attempt was pushed to 4 October. In a much smaller time frame with little time to prepare the vehicle for racing, the team managed to set a time of 9.77 seconds.
On 16 August 2011, the team organized an official attempt on the Princess Beatrixlaan in the center of The Hague. With the help of the Dutch national autosport federation (KNAF) a licensed track to FIA standards was put up. The Forze IV hydrogen vehicle drove a time of 10.45 seconds that day. After several months the FIA ruled that this measured time was not an official land speed record because of an error in the documents submitted by KNAF to the FIA.
In May 2015, the team took the Forze VI to the Nürburgring Nordschleife. With ex-formula 1 driver Jan Lammers they broke the fuel cell lap record by over a minute, which was previously owned by the Nissan FCV X-Trail concept. Lammers accomplished a time of 10:42.58. This time still stands as the fastest fuel cell laptime today.
On 17 December 2015, the full-size Forze VI obtained the fastest electric lap record on Circuit Zandvoort with driver and also team member Kevin Schreiber behind the wheel. With a lap time of 2:04.519 the Forze VI has beaten the Tesla Roadster, which was the previous electric lap record holder on the famous Dutch race track. On 4 June 2017 Forze lost the record to InMotion.
Team
All members of the team are both bachelor and master TU Delft students from a wide range of faculties, including aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering and electrical engineering. The size of the team has grown over the years and has varied from forty to sixty students in the last few years. As of October 2020, the 14th team consists of 25 full-time members and is backed by nearly 25 part-timers.
Board
| 2007-2008
Team I |
2008-2009
Team II |
2009-2010
Team III |
2010-2011
Team IV |
2011-2012
Team V |
2012-2013
Team VI |
2013-2014
Team VII |
2014-2015
Team VIII |
2015-2016
Team IX |
2016-2017
Team X |
2017-2018
Team XI |
2018-2019
Team XII |
2019-2020
Team XIII |
2020-2021
Team XIV | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Edgar van Os | Ivo Salters | Koen Lubbers | Wouter Krul | Jan Jaap Treurniet | Michel Haak | Ruiz Knöbel | Menno Dalmijn | Rick Everaert | Mats Dirkzwager | Gijs Vermeij | Zhi Wei Cai | Jesper Frijns | Mark Jan Uijl |
| 2 | Koen Legrand | Teunis Schuurman | Edwin De Kreij | Charlie van der Schoor | Andrew Hagens | Albert Mulder | Jonas Brendelberger | Nils Barfknecht | Werner Jousma | Joost Berendsen | Steffen Strübing | Daan Treurniet | Antonio Scoccimarro | Jasper van Dongen |
| 3 | Laurens Barten | Leon de Poorter | Hielke Wesdorp | Mart Moerdijk | Matthijs Jansen | Ruben Burger | Remco Duba | Mart van Rijsingen | Marc Bisschop | Sieger Falkena | Sanne Nielsen | Levi de Vries | Anna
Noteboom |
Gabriel Garcia Aparicio |
| 4 | Rob Barendse | Bob Wittebrood | Jelle Boersma | Ruben Grandia | Martin Hartvelt | Anton Stoop | Thomas Boogaart | Coen Lastdrager | Karsten Bakker | Joost Wendling | Daphne Stukker | Ron Hochstenbach | ||
| 5 | Pieter Danneels | Thomas Arink | Matthijs Damen | Thijs van Winden | Joost Kortleve | Sjoerd van Empelen | Beau Smit | Thomas Barendse | Lorenza Mottinelli | Emiel Hartsema | Alvaro Detailleur | |||
| 6 | Matthijs Koornneef | Tiemen Joustra | Kevin van Giessen | Jan Bot | Casper van Dien | Colin Heimans | Simon Vermeijlen | Joris Vlasblom | Seymour
Lubbers |
Sebastiaan Kruit | ||||
| 7 | Niels van Duijkeren | Ruben Biesheuvel | Bob Ligtvoet | Jasper Schenk | Mathieu Blanke | Pepijn de Heer | Jonathan Linssen | Tim van
de Weijer |
Bob Morssink | |||||
| 8 | Stefan van Seggelen | Philip Coenen | Oscar Verbeek | Tjebbe de Lint | Maurice Valentijn | Dennis Koens | Coen Holland | |||||||
| 9 | Kevin Schreiber | Tinie Lam | Christophe Geuens | Andrea de Matteis | Mounir Roodenburg | David Vos | ||||||||
| 10 | Huib Versteegh | Lars Musters | Daniele Tarantini | Lars Talsma | Flint ten Berg | |||||||||
| 11 | Sander Verhage | Joerie Arkesteijn | Renko Siebols | Pranav Madabhushi | Jikke de Mol van Otterloo | |||||||||
| 12 | Wouter van Gijseghem | Koen Rodewijk | Martijn Jorissen | Kalyan Wessendorp | ||||||||||
| 13 | Lode de Herdt | Steven Kortekaas | Thijs Goetzee | Laura Muntenaar | ||||||||||
| 14 | Thom Huisman | Wouter Kleynen | Antoni Plonczak | Max Huting | ||||||||||
| 15 | Maurice van der Maas | David Veselka | Otmar Ubbens | Merijn Jongepier | ||||||||||
| 16 | Jan Maarten Buis | Martijn Eppenga | Bram Kool | Maxime van Kekem | ||||||||||
| 17 | Steijn van Schoor | Simon Beets | Thijmen Langendam | Martijn Loonen | ||||||||||
| 18 | Jelle de Vries | Frank Overes | Rosalie Kievits | Marius van der Bend | ||||||||||
| 19 | Martin Osowski | Nicolaas du Plessis | ||||||||||||
| 20 | Peter Elffers | Noël op 't Land | ||||||||||||
| 21 | Tuur Knevels | Noah van der Linden | ||||||||||||
| 22 | Niels de Boer | Odile Niers | ||||||||||||
| 23 | Ricarda Warnat | |||||||||||||
| 24 | Simon Andreas | |||||||||||||
| 25 | Sander Blok | |||||||||||||
| Willem van der Vliet |
Drivers
During the third season a new team member with karting experience became the third driver for the team. The driver, Charlie van der Schoor, was also more closely involved with the development of the Forze III. In season 4 the team said farewell to Martin Buitelaar as a driver. He was no longer a student and took on a full-time job outside the racing industry. For season 4 the team raced in the Formula Student (UK) competition and therefore needed more drivers to be able to compete in all the events. A selection among the team members was organised by Buitelaar where Marco van't Wout, Arie Nap and Lennert van den Boom were selected. For the 6th season only licensed race car drivers were allowed due to the increased performance of the car.
| Driver | 2008-2009 | 2009-2010 | 2010-2011 | 2011-2012 | 2012-2013 | 2013-2014 | 2014-2015 | 2015-2016 | 2016-2017 | 2017-2018 | 2018-2019 | 2019-2020 | 2020-2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Martin Buitelaar | Martin Buitelaar | Andrew Hagens | Andrew Hagens | Kevin Schreiber | Kevin Schreiber | Kevin Schreiber | Kevin Schreiber | Kevin Schreiber | Kevin Schreiber | Kevin Schreiber | Kevin Schreiber | Kevin Schreiber |
| 2 | Andrew Hagens | Andrew Hagens | Marco van't Wout | Jan Bot | Jan Bot | Jan Bot | Jan Bot | Jan Bot | Jan Bot | Jan Bot | Jan Bot | Jan Bot | Jan Bot |
| 3 | Charlie van der Schoor | Charlie van der Schoor | Charlie van der Schoor | Leo van der Eijk | Leo van der Eijk | Leo van der Eijk | Leo van der Eijk | Leo van der Eijk | Leo van der Eijk | Leo van der Eijk | Leo van der Eijk | ||
| 4 | Arie Nap | Arie Nap | |||||||||||
| 5 | Kevin Schreiber |
Sponsors
As a foundation Forze is completely dependent on its sponsors. Sponsors provide the team with software, materials, equipment or financial support. As of March 2022, Shell is the main sponsor of Forze. A list of sponsors of the team can be found on the website of Forze:
References
- "Schiehallen worden een broedplaats van innovatie". delftopzondag.nl. Retrieved 15 October 2020.
- "Hydrogen-powered cars meet in championship race". Reuters. 23 August 2008.
- "Green tech in 'Formula Zero' race". 26 August 2008.