Forze

Forze
Forze sponsor drink
Full name	Forze Hydrogen Electric Racing Team Delft
Location	Delft, Netherlands 51°59′58.5″N 4°22′35″E / 51.999583°N 4.37639°E / 51.999583; 4.37639Coordinates: 51°59′58.5″N 4°22′35″E / 51.999583°N 4.37639°E / 51.999583; 4.37639
Website	www.forze-delft.nl
Founder	Edgar van Os

Forze is a Delft University of Technology's student team specialised in hydrogen electric racing. It was founded in 2007 by Edgar van Os and has built 7 hydrogen fuel cell racing vehicles. The team's offices and workshops are located in the D:DREAM hall on the campus of the Delft University of Technology. In this monumental post-war factory hall, designed by architect Dirk Roosenburg, all TU Delft's teams, called Dream Teams, are located.

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 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 & competition

Formula Zero

The team started competing in the 2008 Formula Zero Championship, the world’s first ever 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.^[1]^[2]

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 Torino. 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.

Entering a New Era

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 in the latest iteration of the Forze lineup, the Forze VII, the team bought a FIA licensed LMP3-monocoque from ADESS AG. With it, the team hopes to build the first hydrogen race car ever to compete against fossil fueled combustion vehicles in an official race. The Forze VII is Forze's latest model and will compete in the Supercar Challenge 2017 during the Gamma Racing Days on TT Circuit Assen.

Competition results

Greenchoice Forze on the stage after winning the world championship in 2008

Date	Race	Car	Result
23-08-2008	Formula Zero World Championship	Forze I	1st place
Summer 2009	Formula Zero European Home Grand Prix	Forze II	3rd place
11-10-2009	Formula Zero GP Torino	Forze II	1st place
19-08-2010	Formula Zero GP The Hague	Forze III	1st place
17-07-2011	Formula Student UK	Forze IV	DNF
15-07-2012	Formula Student UK	Forze V	55th place
Summer 2017	Supercar Challenge	Forze VII

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 the 4th of 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.

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 June 4th 2017, Forze lost the record to InMotion, who set a lap time of 1:48,371 with the IM/e.

Team

Greenchoice Forze, Forze I Team Photo in front of University Library

All members of the team are TU Delft students, from the first year up to final year students and come from a wide range of faculties. The size of the team has grown over the years and has varied from forty to sixty students in the last few years. Most involved students join the team as an extracurricular activity next to their studies. Only the board is involved on a full-time basis.

Board

	2007-2008 Board I	2008-2009 Board II	2009-2010 Board III	2010-2011 Board IV	2011-2012 Board V	2012-2013 Board VI	2013-2014 Board VII	2014-2015 Board VIII	2015-2016 Board IX	2016-2017 Board X
1	Edgar van Os	Ivo Salters	Koen Lubbers	Wouter Krul	Jan Jaap Treurniet	Michel Haak	Ruiz Knöbel	Menno Dalmijn	Rick Everaert	Mats Dirkzwager
2	Koen Legrand	Teunis Schuurman	Edwin De Kreij	Charlie van der Schoor	Andrew Hagens	Albert Mulder	Jonas Brendelberger	Nils Barfknecht	Werner Jousma, Bsc	Joost Berendsen
3		Leon de Poorter	Hielke Wesdorp	Mart Moerdijk	Matthijs Jansen	Ruben Burger	Remco Duba	Mart van Rijsingen	Marc Bisschop	Sieger Falkena
4				Bob Wittebrood	Jelle Boersma	Ruben Grandia	Martin Hartvelt	Anton Stoop	Thomas Boogaart	Coen Lastdrager
5				Pieter Danneels	Thomas Arink	Matthijs Damen	Thijs van Winden	Joost Kortleve	Sjoerd van Empelen	Beau Smit
6				Matthijs Koornneef		Tiemen Joustra	Kevin van Giessen	Jan Bot	Casper van Dien	Colin Heimans
7						Niels van Duijkeren	Ruben Biesheuvel	Bob Ligtvoet	Jasper Schenk	Mathieu Blanke
8						Stefan van Seggelen	Philip Coenen			Oscar Verbeek
9						Kevin Schreiber				Tinie Lam

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
1	Martin Buitelaar	Martin Buitelaar	Andrew Hagens	Andrew Hagens	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
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
4			Arie Nap	Arie Nap
5				Kevin Schreiber

References

External links

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