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Almost one year ago the first race for hydrogen powered took place in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Now we were back in the same country to get some revenge... with a clean winning streak so far in the European Championship it seemed like there was nothing holding us back from a victory in Oss (Netherlands).
click on the image below to open a panorama of the track in Oss:
click here for more pictures of the event
In early practice sessions on saturday 22nd the news got to us that  Greenchoice Force was still having problems with there electronics. This was also the reason why they could not start in the main race in Mitchett Place. Because there is a short time in between races the risk that teams who damage their kart have very little time to fix it (transport time between the countries also has to be taken into account). On sunday they sadly announced that their kart would not be running in the Dutch GP.
During the testsessions on Saturday the teams had time to adjust to the longer track (+/- 650m) compared to the 480m in the U.K. The temperatures (27 - 28 degrees Celcius) was the highest we had to race in so far. This also meant that the Fuell Cell, which is cooled with a cooling circuit of deionised water, would not cool so efficiently since all teams use a radiatror.  Imperial Racing Green had no problems with the cooling it seemed but seemed to have mechanical issues. The Spaniards seemed to be the ones with the least of troubles although they are always busy in their pitbox. At the end of the day things were still looking good for us for the sprint race: we managed to fix an issue with our emergency stop and got some nice laptimes.
Recorded testsession times:
 Zero Emission Racing Team: 37.280 s UnizartecH2: 39.889 s- Imperial Racing Green: somewhere in the low 40's
After a nice supper, apparently in the same restaurant as our closest rivals UnizartecH2, and a good night sleep youu could feel the tension in the pitlane in the morning. The normmal raceschedule had to be adjusted so it would fit a race with three competitors and still show the public anough racing action. The qualifying would determine wich kart should drive the semifinal first, the two best semifinnalists would advance to the final and had to race a third time for victory.
The sprint race had every potential of becoming a real thriller with testsession times sometimes only being a few hundreds of a second apart between us and the Spaniards. The British team would have to focus on the main race and hope reliability would leaad them to victory. Last year every kart had difficulties with keeping the fuel system running, but the past week (in the U.K.) all teams were running a very reliable kart it seemed.
Sprint Race
Here are the times of the qualifying round:
- Imperial Racing Green: 42,773 s+5% = 44,870 s
- UnizartecH2: 40.478 s
- Zero Emission Racing Team: 38.769 s
- Greenchoice Forze: DNS (Did Not Start)
The 5% added to the time of Imperial Racing Green is actualy a penalty time Formula Zero introduced so all teams would be conform to the regulations. In a sprint race like this one these penalty times are very hard to recover from.
Semi Final Sprint Race:
- Imperial Racing Green: 44,559 s+5% = 57.287 s (due to mechanical issue ? )
- UnizartecH2: 39,937 s
- Zero Emission Racing Team: 38.893 s
Final Sprint Race:
UnizartecH2 [ 41.784: 38.302] Zero Emission Racing Team
Main Race
In qualification for the main race our kart performed as expected and our driver (Erwin Janssens) knew exactly how fast he had to drive to keep ahead of Imperial Racing Green and UnizartecH2. During the semi final the British kart ran in to some mechanical issues again and lost a lot of time. This meant that the Spain and Belgium just needed to run a reliable race in order to advance to the final. The Spaniards were off first with some nice laptimes in the beginning but slowing down at the end. The chances were very good for our kart, but then disaster struck. Our kart had a technical issue of a yet unknown source... this meant we lost some valuable time.
In the end the Spaniards deserved this title but we were left with a bitter feeling, exactly one year after what happened to us in Rotterdam, happened again. All teams will be on their toes for the next GP in Belgium.
Qualification Main Race:
- Zero Emission Racing Team
- UnizartecH2
- Imperial Racing Green
- Greenchoice Forze (DNS)
Semi Final Main Race:
- Zero Emission Racing Team
- UnizartecH2
- Imperial Racing Green (lost time because of mechanical issue)
- Greenchoice Forze(DNS)
Final Main Race:
- UnizartecH2
- Zero Emission Racing Team (lost time because of yet unkown technical issue)
Official Standings after DUTCH GP
SPRINT RACE RESULTS FORMULA ZERO DUTCH GP
- 0th Solvay Umicore Zero Emission Racing Team, 0 points
- 1st UnizartecH2, 2 points
- 2nd Imperial College London , 3 points
- 3rd Greenchoice Forze, 4 points
MAIN RACE RESULTS FORMULA ZERO DUTCH GP
- 0th UnizartecH2, 0 points
- 1st Solvay Umicore Zero Emission Racing Team, 3 points
- 2nd Imperial College London, 5 points
- 3rd Greenchoice Forze, 7 points
STANDINGS AFTER ROUND 2 OUT OF 4:
- 0th Solvay Umicore Zero Emission Racing Team, 3 points
- 1st UnizartecH2, 7 points
- 2nd Imperial College London, 17 points
- 3rd Greenchoice Forze, 21 points
As you can see anything can still happen in this championship. The Spaniards have gained a point on us, but we are destined to win.
The next event will be held on Sunday 29th of August in Genk, Belgium. This will be our home GP and will be very important in the outcome of the Championship. (Entrance is free)
See you there! |
