University of Malta racing students show their grit in Italy

The University of Malta Racing (UoMR) team has fulfilled its goal of competing in Formula SAE Italy this week, after two years of preparation, despite the Maltese delegation being decimated by an outbreak of food poisoning so severe that some team members needed hospitalisation.

Formula SAE is an international competition which tests the technical mentoring competence of international universities by challenging them to provide student teams that are capable of presenting a fully compliant formula style racing car.

The 33-strong team made up of University students from a number of faculties which included Engineering, Commerce, IT and Pharmacy, all aged between 18 and 24, travelled to Parma to compete in the six-day event which started on July 19.

Competing vehicles are assessed in a number of different events which focus on rule compliance, an effective business model, engineering design, together with high performance vehicle racing. FSAE Italy 2017 hosted some 80 University teams in what was described as an “intense, yet friendly, competition.”

The judges were very receptive to the Maltese team’s report and cost justification, awarding the team 2nd place in the cost event on Thursday.

The UoMR team were 41st in the technical inspection order, which meant that most of the team had to wait their turn for the technical inspection scheduled on Friday. 

But disaster struck on Friday, 21 July, with several team members reporting sick and being ordered to rest. By midday, and during the technical inspection the number of students complaining of general sickness to exhaustion and disorientation shot up to 10. Food poisoning was suspected.

By 3pm, the time the design presentation was due, at least half of the team was sick, with a number of team members resting at the camp site and the rest trying to push on to deliver in the competition. As more and more team members took to their sick beds, the remainder battled the symptoms to carry on working on the vehicle until the technical inspection was successfully concluded on Friday evening. At that point, two of the remaining team members collapsed and had to be rushed to hospital in ambulances.

By Friday night, 18 team members out of a total of 33 were spending the night being treated in the two hospitals for what resulted to be a case of bacterial food poisoning.

During the night between Friday and Saturday, another seven team members were treated for the same symptoms in the racing circuit clinic, with fewer than 10 team members remaining to face the competition on Saturday. 

On Saturday morning, the team, now down to just eight healthy members, soldiered on with various tests and inspections. 

By the evening, most of the hospitalised team members had been discharged from hospital and returned to the track. They took to helping solve a number of issues with the turbocharged engine in order to allow the team to make the autocross race before the 7pm deadline. The team succeeded in securing 24th place in the event with a lap time of 1:13. On the same evening, the UoMR team achieved 20th and 38th place in the design and business presentation events.

Despite a promising start, trouble with the engine management system caused the UoMR race car to pull out just six laps into the final endurance race, which carried over one third of the overall score in the competition. Only 15 cars of the category finished the race.

Matthew Buhagiar, UoMR’s business team leader, praised his team’s performance: “Despite all that happened, the team’s morale remained high throughout the whole undertaking. With nearly all the team members either in hospital or in clinics for around 24 hours, the team’s collective mind was always focused on pushing onwards and deliver through for what they had worked for over the years.

“Eight team members rose to the challenge and carried the whole team for a day whilst the rest recovered and most objectives were reached. The team was especially satisfied on Monday morning when the overall results came out. UoM Racing placed 27th overall in Formula SAE Italy 2017 out of 80 teams.

“This meant that despite the hospitalisation, the on-the-fly decisions and the fact that the team was forced to miss two out of the total seven events, an improvement of two places over the team’s last attempt in 2015, was registered.”

The team has since returned to Malta and is already hard at work on their next attempt at Formula SAE glory.