I first talked about Formula Zero racing two year ago almost to the day. Formula Zero is a hydrogen fuel cell go-cart style racing venue initiated by Dutch designers, Godert van Hardenbroek and Eelco Rietveld.
Today starts off the first day of the 2008 Formula Zero Championship also called the World Premiere Rotterdam FZ-GP. The event runs August 22 – 23, 2008 in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
The racing teams competing include Herculas from University of California, Los Angeles, Greenchoice Forze from TU Delft, The Netherlands, EUPLATECH2 from Eupla, Spain, Imperial Racing Green, from Imperial College London, UK, Zero Emission Racing Team from Groep T, Belgium and Element One from Lawrence Technical University from Southfield, Michigan.
All of the vehicles competing are using a Hydrogenics HyPM8 8.5kw fuel cell and are promoting the use of clean zero emissions hydrogen technology on a platform easily accessible to the public. While the venues and vehicles are starting out small, the plans are to scale up both for future races.
In 2011, Formula Zero will scale up for its Street Edition and once again in 2015 they will scale up to Formula Three size for the Circuit Edition. Here’s a video from Delft University giving an overview of Formula Zero racing.