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My name is Annemiek, I am 22 years old and I am from the Noordoostpolder.
I am responsible for the aerodynamics and I am a racer.
Why am I participating in the World Solar Challenge?
I think it is an awesome project and I have thought so for a long time.
It has been a dream of mine every school year. The team spirit, going to Australia, racing
the car. It is that total picture that convinced me.
I am Maarten Frijling, I am 24 years old and I am from Bussum.
I was mostly occupied with the structural design of the car and production.
Why am I participating? I just thought: "That is pretty cool!".
We have been waiting for our moulds for some time now that is when we are getting the
3D-phrased plugs we designed on the computer.
But I just got a call the plugs are loaded onto a truck, the truck is ready to leave,
but the driver exceeded his working hours. He has to wait until tomorrow morning.
We have about a three-week delay by now. At some point it is going to be night, and it is really just too much.
We will just wait and see if they can find another driver to get the plugs here tonight.
Count on it being there in three hours. Yeah. Okay, we will be watching out for you.
That is fine. Okay, have a good evening.
Oh well... three hours till he gets here. And who is going to unload it?
'Cause I was gonna say, now it is our problem. That dude is not going to stay the night here.
It is going to be fine. We can find a solution, easy.
At least they will be here. Yeah, that is true.
Yeah, I am pretty tired -- we worked until 4 a.m. last night.
And we left home at 10 o'clock this morning to continue working on the car.
So, we are missing a lot of sleep. On top of that, there was a waiting line for
the shower yesterday, so before I got to sleep it was nearly 5 o'clock.
So yeah, I am getting tired.
The mould system itself is made from fiberglass, which gives you a surface to put the carbon on.
The car is basically in the shape of a car,
and if you put carbon on top of that, you get a kind of mirror reflection.
A negative of the car. And by first making moulds of it, you mirror
it, allowing you to build the real car inside.
What was really cool for me with this project was releasing Nuna 7 from the moulds.
That was truly the first moment you think: "Wow! This is a really awesome car!".
How long did it take last time? 3 hours or something? No, longer. Much longer.
It came loose in 5 minutes and we had the car out of the mould in 10 minutes.
That is really a moment you feel... wow, it is really a moment to enjoy.
Normally, you are so focused on doing the project and that was really the moment you
think: "We have accomplished something".
Here, Teunis. Teunis is gonna sit down too.
I can say that with pride that we are really a good team together.
I do not think we could have wished for a better team.
My name is Allard, I am 24 years old and I am from Leiderdorp.
My job is mechanics. I think my highlight was the press event.
When you can finally present your car for real, that is just a great moment.
Someone who, unfortunately, cannot be here today, has an important message.
A message of hope. Ladies and gentlemen, Wubbo Ockels.
A very warm welcome on this very special day. This special day on which the Nuna 7 team
presents itself to the press, but more importantly the car Nuna 7.
Yes, I can do that from here, on Aruba. I am undergoing a treatment that the doctors
prescribed from Houston That means, unfortunately, I cannot be there
myself. Let me take off my Nuna glasses here.
It started in 2000 when they asked me to be an advisor and coach, which has been so amazing for me.
I have been allowed to do it six times, and
now for the seventh time to work with all those young people.
Not only the team needs to be fantastic, but the air resistance must be very low, as well
as the weight. And then the solar cells, you need the best
in the world. And we managed all of this again this time.
But I especially have hope because of the car itself.
Because of the team of Nuna 7 itself. The hope that with this we can just take back
that World Solar Challenge trophy for the Netherlands.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is with pride I present to you: the Nuna 7!
Especially that moment we were behind the curtain and it drops with our car behind it,
that was really awesome. I think I will always remember that moment.
We are at Schiphol now, saying goodbye to each other.
This is my girlfriend, Aurelia. It is really tough to say goodbye, but I will
probably be so focused on the race and part of the spirit that it will turn out alright.
This is my little brother, who was in Amsterdam.
So, he has come over to say goodbye.
A lot of people showed up for me. I am happy they did. I am glad you are here.
We are in the shed, sitting next to Nuna now. I am sitting next to the concentrators.
The concentrators are our secret weapon this year.
Together with Jorit and Masoed, I have been very busy with them.
The concentrators are a system that focuses sunlight on a very small solar cell.
That allows us to get that extra boost of energy during the race, with few solar cells.
We are really looking forward to it.
My name is Rick, 22 years old and I am from Eindhoven.
My function in the project is electronics. Yeah, I think we are going to win.
We still have to dot some i's, which is worrying me a little, but after that is done we are
going to make it happen.
We gathered here around 6 this morning. It is really early and we just had our first
briefing. Today is a testing day for Nuna 7.
We will be driving down the *** Peninsula Road, which is a highway here in Australia.
This means we will be driving in normal traffic. We will have to be very alert.
And now go backwards. Wait, wait, wait.
I cannot walk to the other side. Take away the U-shape.
Motor -- OK. MT -- OK.
CMS -- OK.
It is nice and hot, but good weather to test our car.
We finished off the solar panels nicely, so we could bring down the air resistance even
a bit further. Intake is good, everybody is ready to go.
We are just making some final adjustments to the car.
Nuna, Mission Control, if you can hear me, please speed up to 60 again.
Yes, I can hear you again speeding up to 60.
"Nuna keep right there is a bush" There is doing something not quite right
in how he sends the packages. At least, it is different than what it was.
Stop!
Those break lights really suck.
Yeah, when you accelerate the system shuts down.
And then I cannot do anything anymore.
That was one of the least safe I have seen so far.
A lot of things went wrong. Nuna was not told to break.
Nuna did not stop at an exit twice. We agreed on a number of protocols, which
were not followed this time. I think we should look at where it went wrong,
so that the next time will be better. I think we agreed the scout would indicate
when to decelerate. That did not come through properly and had
to be relayed by Mission Control. Environmental conditions?
It is the route, you indicate a route. When you enter a town and come up to a control
stop, you indicate that the driver should decelerate.
We indicate they are nearly there. Mission Control indicates the speed, as we agreed yesterday
Come on, we agreed on this yesterday. Well not with me
Because of the delay of the flight case, and all the other delays, the pressure on the
team has greatly increased. We have been seeing that the last few weeks.
I think we did our best in dealing with that. We worked very *** Nuna 7, we really did.
The cost was the fitness and relaxedness of the team.
Maybe this makes us lose track of things sometimes.
We are just working very hard right now.
and you can keep working non-stop, but it is not
always fun to have to give interviews in the evening too and then get up at 8 again the next morning.
It is pretty exhausting.
I think Wubbo coming was necessary for the team.
Especially difficult for the team were the first few days the support crew was there.
I am going to do it just this once, but I am *** angry. Really.
What were you thinking, bringing me here with this disease and not telling me anything?
What is up with that? You, you, you, you, you, you. Shame on you.
This is just ***. And I am afraid you do this amongst yourselves as well.
Not daring to look each other in the eye.
Who you really are, the real problems, the real solutions.
Work with me, get that done. That is what has made me furious.
And it does not matter what caused it. Rubbish.
Besides, you do not have time for that. Three days.
In three days, that car has to run.
You cannot have someone thinking
"yeah, it might be my problem, but I am afraid to say it".
That will end up with someone driving off the road. That can just not happen.
You also really have to help each other. If there is someone doing a bad job, you lose.
It is not just everyone doing his or her own little task. That is not an option
You invested a year in this, right? Did an enormous amount of work.
And I think you can still make it work.
I think Wubbo also projects a certain calm -- makes everyone feel at home. Gives everyone
confidence in what they are doing. That definitely helped.
Had a very good meeting with the team this morning.
Had a talk with them and told those guys to really go for it.
No more *** about and just focus on one thing: making the car work and racing.
And than winning.
That car is amazing, the people are smart. It is all just a bit tough at the moment.
The car arrived late, there were electrical problems, there were problems with the battery.
But we are still getting it done, just in time.
Yeah, it went really well. We had a little rough patch,
things just notworking out. And today we covered a lot of kilometres.
Yesterday we drove 400 kilometres and today 500. "500 kilometres!"
We are really in high spirits, so awesome.
Today is the first racing day.
I am really looking forward to it. I can start first in Nuna, so I will be driving
from here straight onto the Stuart Highway. And then the race starts.
So bring it on.
Phew! It was hot, but really cool, too. We passed a lot of teams and it went really
well. A few moments of stress along the way.
A little exciting, but good. So, just one more to go and we will be in first place
We are in the lead. We have just been told that Twente is about
20-25 minutes behind us. Another 20 minutes behind them is Tokai.
And behind them Michigan, and behind them the Belgians.
We just left them all behind on the first day already.
Just fantastic, love it.
We are seeing the first rays of sunlight coming in now.
And here is a neat little gauge. It shows how much power the car is using and
how much is coming in. And right now we are receiving just one watt
more than that the car is using. So, we are technically charging the battery now
Of course, we are hoping to get more in a few minutes
Then we can continue with an almost full battery.
Ladies and gentlemen, Tokai will be pulling up besides us.
Charging? Uhm... yes...
Thats code because the Japanese are standing beside us
It is already evening on racing day two. We are still in the lead.
The distance between Tokai, the number two, is very small.
It is very exciting.
I was very cold this morning, as I lost my sleeping bag.
That was a cold night. You slept without a sleeping bag? Dope...
Yeah, it was intense.
There were no sleeping bags left, I checked. There was nothing.
We are passing Alice Springs in one and a half hour.
We are also passing Kulgera and Coober Pedy.
We are just going to have to drive fast today.
Lots of wind, so it was tough going, but it went well.
We covered a good number of kilometres and I think we even drew ahead of Tokai a little,
so I am happy. Are you going to win?
Yeah, we are going to win. But we really need to give it our all.
I expect we will be doing very well again. We still have a good headstart on Tokai.
About 15 minutes at the moment. It is still exciting. We are still receiving
a lot, much more than expected. So in a moment we are going to back out there,
give it our all and race as fast as we can.
300, 330, 340 any higher bids?
It is the final day and the car is charging. It is cloudy, but the sun has just come out,
so we should be able to jam in the plug for two minutes.
We were not expecting any sun, so this is a very welcome surprise.
My strategy is driving to the finish line now, which would be much easier if the sun
would just come out from behind those clouds. We cannot really be passed by anyone if we just keep driving 85 kph.
To get there we need just a little bit more
energy and that is coming along right about now, as you can hear.
This makes me happy.
Yeah, we are going to win!
We are world champions, yeah!
Great, first place!
What an amazing present you brought me
It is incredibly emotional for me as well.
Five months ago I did not even think I would be around anymore.
And slowly I felt better and the question came up: would I still be able to come along?
As you can see, I am standing right here. Fantastic, and as a wonderful present we also win!
Yes, very awesome. I am a world champion for the first time.
It is incredible to be here.
The secret of Nuna 7 is our team effort. We did everything we could to produce the best car.
And together with the support team, who came a few weeks ago,
Our 40-person strong team delivered the best race possible.