What Is MAD

 

In plain words: Who are we?

 

We are a group of students that have united our personal goals to make something special happen, together. In the process, we want to push ourselves to the limit and we want to self-improve and improve as a team in every possible way.

 

Our Vision – What do we want to change in the world?

 

We want to set the reference on how any group of people, in any discipline, should work together to achieve big things.

 

We want to show the world that a balance of original-practical thinking, dedication, organization and love is all it takes to make a team unbeatable, regardless of any other factors. That is what we want to show.

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Our Mission – How do we want to change the world?

 

We want to build a race car that shows who we are as a team. We want to recognize ourselves in our car. The better the car, the clearer we will send the message.

 

Our Values; Our Strengths

 

Above all, there are 4 values that determine who we are and that make sense of everything we do:

 

4. ORIGINAL-PRACTICAL THINKING: We do not want to just adapt to our resources the car concept that others have established as the default. We want to conceive a new successful car concept (be original).

 

But we are aware of our strengths and our weaknesses. We are not afraid of making compromises because we have a very clear idea of who we are and what we are doing, and we know that we must prioritize simplicity and effectiveness to complete the project (be practical).

 

3. DEDICATION: We would not stop doing what we do under any circumstances. We would never give up. We make an effort to understand the limits and we go as close to them as one possibly could. We are driven by commitment with the team and ourselves and passion (be dedicated).

 

2. ORGANIZATION: We know that a complex project as ours needs perfect coordination to succeed. Organization means that we understand that every message we send to a mate, the attention that we pay to every message we receive, the title that we set in a document… every tiny decision makes a difference on the level at which we perform. We also understand that every single person is important for the team, that internal communication must flow, and that organization is our main strength and provides the synergy of efforts that makes success possible. We must run like clockwork (be organized).

 

 

1. LOVE: We spend a lot of time together suffering for the same things and dreaming about the same successes. Eventually, we have become like a family. We can distinguish disagreement from disrespect. We trust each other, we help each other, we are honest, straightforward and we watch each other’s backs when needed. We take care of each other. That is precisely what true love is all about, right? (do love)

 

It is certainly possible that taking all these four values to their limit in the path towards being the perfect team may make us do things that we would have never imagined ourselves doing… it may drive us mad. And applying these values to the marketing, the design and the manufacturing of a race car can certainly drive anyone mad, as our past history and past members shows. This has happened to us and it will happen to us again. But we can bear with it since we are not afraid to be mad.

 

Why did we change from Formula UC3M to MAD Formula Team?

 

We did NOT go through a change in our corporate image. We founded a new team. And we did it because we wanted to change who we are as a team, and what our objectives are.

 

What remains from Formula UC3M is our knowledge and our past experiences, used now to help us build something different. Everything else has changed and will keep evolving as we look for perfection.

 

What is success for us?

 

Success is, while working, having always in mind our 4 key values. Working every day towards our mission and vision. Knowing who we are.

 

And what is failure?

 

Forgetting our Values, our Mission, our Vision. Forgetting who we are. Not meeting the expectations that our teammates have on us. Not living up to our own self-imposed expectations.

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The Future

 

Our main long-term objective is just our Mission put in more specific terms.

 

We want to win FSG. And we want to do it not by having the most resources; not even by building the best car. We want to win FSG by being the best team. In all aspects. To achieve that we just need to stick to our values.

 

The nature of future projects will be determined by the people in charge and the team members that are part of the team when such decisions must be taken, but always subordinated to who we want to be. There is no other boundary or limit to what MAD ought to do.

 

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The “Right Now”

 

Developing Our Own Concepts As it was already stated in the Foundational Guidelines, one of the most important characteristics that define a team like ours is the design approach. In this case, we will put a strong accent in the conceptual part of our designs. Why? Because we cannot beat the best teams by playing their game; we must play our own game. If our long-term sporting objective is to win FSG, then we must start exploring the path to get there from right now by starting to develop our own concepts.

 

Taking the step from building a car based on existing concepts that fulfils the regulations to conceiving a new car concept is a huge challenge. It requires three main ingredients:

 

1. A suitable context.

2. A strong, well-organized, motivated team.

3. The courage to go for it.

 

The third point is the one that most top Formula Student teams miss when they decide to just evolve their already successful prototypes. The points one and two are the ones missing to totally unexperienced, badly structured teams, teams whose hierarchy is baseless, etc.

 

We are in a third group. We are not a well-established Formula Student team with past successes. Nor are we a badly structured team or a team without experience. The institution of the Carlos III Formula Student team exists since 2010 and has built 4 cars in 4 successive year. It is true that most of the current team members have not taken part in any competition, but this is exactly the case in most Formula Student teams, in which in fact it is typical to spend just one year in the team, so most team members have no experience. It is true that the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid Formula Student cars have never finished an Endurance or achieved a successful result in overall terms. But let us be honest: these cars never arrived at a competition fully finished, let alone well tested. Had the team been organized in a different way, the same effort would have produced very different competition results. And that is the actual reference to which we must measure against.

 

We can call this third group to which we belong the outsiders. We have enough resources, partnerships, knowledge and -above all- team members’ dedication and organization to build a fairly decent car -we possess the ingredients 1 and 2-. We still have less monetary resources than the vast majority of Formula Student teams. But we do not have to bear the burden of an already successful car that forces us to stick to our previous concept due to fear of risking worsening our results. This implies that the only thing that restricts our car concept are the rules -and our capacity to find their limits. We can be brave -ingredient 3-.

 

Outsiders do not typically win a competition in any discipline -that is the definition of an outsider. But there are two facts that cannot be denied:

 

1. Under the right set of circumstances, outsiders can certainly win a competition.

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2. Outsiders will never become top teams without being hunger.

 

As outsiders, we bring together the three basic ingredients that were mentioned before to develop a new, successful car concept. We are in the perfect position to intelligently use our strengths -our values- to take some measured risks in order to challenge the best teams. It will take time and effort. But we are going to do it. Because that is what our team philosophy dictates. Because that is what our values dictate. Because that is what we are.

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The Risks

 

There are risks in following this approach. External forces (such as the COVID-19 pandemic) may pressure us to follow alternative plans. Partners may not collaborate with us as expected, leading to a lack of resources or critical delays.External forces may go against our interests, but what cannot ever fail is us. Always remember that it was during the most difficult weeks of the pandemic when the idea our team was born, and that during those same times we worked even harder than usual. It was during those times when we came up with many of the ideas that have made it possible to be where we are now.

 

We, as individuals, cannot have direct control the factors above. But as a team, if acting all together and with our philosophy always in mind, we can influence how they affect us and get the positives even when no one else sees them, as we have already done with the pandemic.

 

There are also internal forces that may limit us. The project has been designed assuming that every member of the team fully commits and takes their responsibilities to their limit, no matter how experienced anyone is. This implies some risks. But we want to take these risks: in the definition of the project there is an implicit trust in all team members. If not, it would not be possible to defined a project like the MFT-01.