DIAN Racing: Where Passion Turns Dreams into Reality
Many people grow up with a fervent dream of racing, but few ever manage to turn that youthful aspiration into reality.
Seven years.
That’s how long it took for the Tongji DIAN Racing team to rise from its founding to the highest podium of the Formula Student Electric China competition.
More than a hundred DIAN Racers have taken that distant dream and made it their own story here.
Perhaps the start of the story had little to do with passion, but its final chapter was written solely by passion.
In this moment, we share with you the glory of championship, reliving the emotions of youth and dreams.
Written by Yang Yuzhi
Editorial Team Cheng Zehao, Dong Bo, Huang Jie
“Complete.”
That was Yu Yongshang’s truest feeling after the team won the championship.
In 2016, Yu Yongshang still remembers it was a rainy day. At Jiading New World Plaza, he immediately spotted the DIAN Racing recruitment poster. The tagline, “Are You Electrified?”, left a deep impression on him.
It was the very year he joined the team that they came closest to the championship—only to miss it because of a misstep in decision-making. After the competition, the team members wept over the lost title.
It wasn’t until much later, when Yu Yongshang himself led the team onto the circuit, that he gradually understood the meaning carried by those tears of the senior members.
｜2019 Season Team Captain, Yu Yongshang
Tongji DIAN Racing has achieved many technical firsts among domestic Formula Student teams.
China’s first dual‑motor team, first four‑motor team, first team to build its own battery box and battery management system, first four‑wheel‑drive team with a complete dynamic control algorithm, first team to develop its own vehicle control unit, and more.
On the team’s surging path forward, mastering core technologies in‑house has been an unchanging pursuit.
But for a student team, the more self‑built components, the greater the risks they must shoulder.
Before this competition, the team had made bold technological leaps every year—and suffered DNFs in the Endurance event for three consecutive competitions.
Among all the events, Endurance had long been a knot in the members’ hearts. The Endurance event demands that the car complete 22 consecutive laps on the track. Any failure that prevents finishing almost wipes out the score for that event. And Endurance happens to carry the highest points: in this year’s competition, with a total of 825 points, Endurance plus Efficiency accounted for 400 points.
Three hours before this Endurance event, DRe20 damaged its front wing during pre‑race dynamic practice.
The past shadows suddenly resurfaced in Yu Yongshang’s mind. Although he continued to coordinate the team’s work normally, inside he was experiencing intense turmoil. After calming down, he reassessed the repair and re‑inspection schedule and opted to repair using the front‑wing spare. Fortunately, the team had spare parts for all key components, and the time until the Endurance event was still sufficient. The team smoothly replaced the front wing and passed re‑inspection. The entire process was tense but ultimately safe.
If the feeling of winning the championship was the happiness of a wish fulfilled, then the moment DRe20 sped past the finish line on the 22nd lap of the Endurance event—when tension and pressure instantly released and everyone’s hearts surged with emotion and joy—that was passion.
｜DRe20 in action
From joining the team in 2016 to serving as captain in 2019, each time they fell just short, leaving Yu Yongshang always regretful that the team hadn’t won the championship.
As if by fate, the storyline twisted and turned.
In the 2020 season, he returned to the team in a time of need.
This time, finally, there was no dramatic last‑minute miss, no uncontrollable unexpected event.
Lifting the team’s first championship trophy and cheering with raised arms—that moment perhaps soothed many past regrets and unwillingness, and brought a complete and happy conclusion to this Formula Student experience.
This hard‑won championship trophy belongs not only to the cheering crowd before us, but also to those lonely figures who turned away in years past, to the determination and courage to shout “Let’s go again” time after time, and to every DIAN Racer who never gave up.
｜2020 Season Championship Moment
Eight DRe‑series cars, more than 80 corporate sponsors, over 100 team members.
Throughout its development, the team has built a very mature organizational structure that supports the operation of such a large‑scale team.
The team consists of three departments: Management, Technical, and Business. Within the Technical Department, there are six subgroups: Chassis, Body & Aerodynamics, Electronic Control, Powertrain, Driver, and Driverless Vehicle.
Besides students from the School of Automotive Studies, the team also includes members from Economics & Management, Arts & Media, Telecommunication, Sino‑German, Mechanical Engineering, and other colleges. Interdisciplinary collaboration is vividly on display here.
Just like the parts that assemble into a race car, the close and smooth coordination among every department and every technical group is the driving force behind the team’s operation.
Every year, the last task on the final day before the car is shipped to competition is packing. All competition materials—the car, equipment, tools—must be consolidated and loaded into a container for transport. This is the single task each year that demands the most manpower; nearly all team members join in, organizing their respective parts and tools and packing them into cases.
A single race car, from design sketches to final assembly—every component starts from repeatedly revised drawings; every calibration goes through meticulous and rigorous calculation.
Such an all‑night session is the team’s last collective activity before the competition. Although it involves working almost through the night, everyone looks forward to it every year, as if a family is packing for their child who is about to embark on a long journey.
Perhaps at the moment the container loaded with the whole team’s hard work departs at dawn, the result of the competition no longer matters that much. Because what they hoped to gain from it has already been gained.
｜Team photo at the DRe20 launch event
Due to the pandemic, the team worked online for nearly half a year. Keeping the team highly productive under such conditions tested the ability of the team’s managers.
Liu Fan and Peng Yiming, the team captains for the 2020 season, delivered an outstanding answer.
Liu Fan introduced an online work platform for the team. He strictly emphasized time management, setting a detailed schedule for every piece of the team’s work at the very start of the season. Every department’s work was driven forward strictly according to the timeline milestones. After returning to campus, during the manufacturing and assembly phase, the important subsystems each had their own work timelines, which ensured that a new car could be built in just two months, leaving time for later tuning.
Behind the championship trophy lies just such a fine‑grained level of effort and dedication.
｜2020 Season Team Captain, Liu Fan
The team is a platform. Only by being immersed in it can one feel everything it offers.
Xiao Wenbo has always felt warm and proud of the team’s seamless collaborative atmosphere. In his eyes, this is the team’s most precious asset.
When Xiao Wenbo was the head of the Chassis group, once during assembly of some mechanical parts his hand was accidentally scratched by a component. Captain Liu Fan meticulously bandaged the wound for him.
It is many such heart‑warming details that make Xiao Wenbo’s memories of the team filled with cozy scenes. For him, what he gains here is not only the chance to personally experience the entire process of building a race car and to have close‑range conversations with CEOs of renowned domestic and international automotive companies, but, even more importantly, a group of like‑minded companions.
In a sense, the individuals and the team are making each other shine.
｜2021 Season Team Captain, Xiao Wenbo
Right now, the team is undoubtedly in its best period of development.
It possesses continuously updated race cars, advanced and mature technical experience, solid cooperative sponsors, and achievements strong enough to prove its strength.
Carrying greater expectations from all sides, the baton has passed into Xiao Wenbo’s hands.
He jokes, “The pressure is immense.”
Since the 2017 season, the team has held first place in Racing Design for four consecutive years. An innovative mindset has been woven into every step of the team’s development.
For the 2021 season, the team will carry out a comprehensive technical upgrade of the car’s wheel‑end system. A small change in this area can affect the whole car; this upgrade not only involves one subsystem but requires the integration of many subsystems. Going forward, the team will adopt self‑made carbon‑fiber rims, change battery cells, develop its own motor controller, and explore more carbon‑fiber processes aimed at weight reduction.
Continuous progress through technological innovation also means unpredictable risks and the possibility of failure.
“We are still in the process of developing, and what DIAN Racing cares about most has never been competition results, but rather the drive to keep advancing and become a world‑class team.”
If you could see the determination in Xiao Wenbo’s eyes right now, you would absolutely believe that this statement is not just a simple slogan, but the team’s consistent pursuit and belief in every choice it makes.
｜DRe20 Vehicle Specifications
We marvel at the subtle workings of fate because sometimes a life trajectory quietly changes due to one casual choice.
We celebrate youthful dreams because passion is infinite possibility.
The clouds shrouding the valley will eventually clear, and the cheers from the summit will eventually cool.
Between success and failure, only the courage not to fear challenges, only steadfastness that refuses to be swept along, only in the name of passion.
The story continues.
Some leave, others are rushing to arrive.
Passion passes from one to another; dreams flow on without end.
What Team?
DIAN Racing!
An even more wonderful story of the DIAN Racing team awaits—always in the coming season.