The mindset behind the engineering
The thinking that turned Nuna 13 into a high-performance system
Solar racing demands more than technical skill. It challenges engineers to hold the full system in mind, even as each decision narrows their options. To keep moving forward, the team must never lose sight of the ambition that drives the build – performance under real-world conditions. At Teijin Aramid, we recognize that kind of thinking. Progress depends on clarity, not perfection, and on the discipline to make trade-offs with intention.
That mindset shaped Nuna 13. With tougher rules and less time, the Brunel Solar Team didn’t just design a car. They redefined how to build one.
When Nuna 13 first came to life on the track at Zandvoort, Partnerships team member Jans van den Nobelen watched quietly. “Oh wow,” she said. “This is actually really cool.”
That moment reflected more than performance. It marked the outcome of months of decisions, shaped under pressure and guided by clarity. What the team built was not just a car but a coherent system, shaped by shared thinking from the beginning.
Every choice had consequences
The early stages of Nuna 13 were shaped by constraints. The battery capacity was capped at just 3 kWh. The solar array is larger than in previous years – 6 m² compared to 4 m² over the last decade, making the 2025 car about 1.5 times bigger. And the team had two months less than in previous years to bring it all together. They couldn’t afford to optimize parts in isolation, as every design choice affected something else. From the start, every decision was guided by a clear ambition: to build a system that performs as one.
“What impressed us most wasn’t the outcome, but the thinking that made it possible. The team moved from complexity to clarity with a level of discipline and cohesion that speaks to real engineering maturity”
Huib Kwint, Global R&D Program Manager, Teijin Aramid
Ideas were shared across domains. Designs were challenged, refined, and tested through open collaboration. But as the schedule tightened, the process had to evolve, and consensus gave way to alignment. Decisions had to be made quickly, and they had to hold.
“You can’t keep adding performance in one place if it breaks something else,” explains Technical Manager Thijmen God. “Sometimes good enough is actually better.”
That mindset carried through the entire project. The team didn’t rely on standout features or last-minute breakthroughs. What held Nuna 13 together was coherence – and the discipline to choose early, then move forward with confidence.
An unexpected advantage
Not every decision was made early, though. One of the most striking ones came later and changed everything about how the car handled. Nuna 13 is the first car in the team’s history to feature fins. The design introduces a new way of using them that has never been applied before in solar racing. What they found was even better than expected.
We added a second fin to the car, and it really had an impact on the performance. It was all in the name of stability, but it also gave us something we had not expected: negative drag.”
Daan van den Dries, Chief Engineer, Brunel Solar Team
That result emerged in the wind tunnel. Under specific crosswind conditions, the airflow did not resist the car; it contributed to forward motion, allowing the car to glide on the wind. Like every component on Nuna 13, the second fin contributed to the entire system.
From theory to reality
For months, Nuna 13 existed as sketches, CAD models, and simulations. Then one day, it became real. There were still problems to solve. There always are. But by then, the mindset was already in place – one of clarity and trust. The team had learned to make decisions with focus and to build not just for performance, but for purpose.
The result is more than a solar car. It reflects a shared ambition, brought to life by a team that thought with clarity, acted with purpose, and built trust through every decision.
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