Engineering with uncertainty
Inside the moments that taught the Brunel Solar Team how to make decisions in the face of uncertainty
Uncertainty is part of engineering. Especially when you’re building something that hasn’t been done before. It’s not just about how a system performs under ideal conditions, but how a team responds when the variables change. At Teijin Aramid, we look for that mindset in every partnership and every material we support. Because real-world performance isn't proven in the lab, it’s revealed in moments like this. It was not part of the plan…
The car was already on the track at Zandvoort when the rain began. Visibility dropped. So did the signal from the onboard systems. The team watched as the screens went quiet. No telemetry. No driver feedback. Just the sound of rain on carbon fiber and the realization that someone had to act. There was no checklist or simulation for this situation. Pull the car in too early, and they would lose valuable test data. Wait too long, and they’d risk damage.
"You have to show the team it’s under control. Even if, inside, it doesn’t feel that way.”
Daan van den Dries, Chief Engineer, Brunel Solar Team
So, he gave the signal. It didn’t feel like a major call, but it was because anyone can make the right call when the answer is clear. The real test is knowing how to act when it isn’t.
The pressure tested more than the car
The early weeks of the project were filled with possibilities. But as the calendar closed in, ideas that once invited iteration had to be locked down. The shift wasn’t just about working faster. It was about knowing when to stop. “We had more to do in less time,” explains Daan. “And that means you start making calls before you’re ready.”
There was no time to search for perfect answers or evaluate every option. Every decision came with consequences: a late change could mean discarding hours of focused work, and a compromise often meant setting aside an idea that once felt essential. “There were moments where everyone was just… tired,” reflects Jans van den Nobelen, Partnership team member. “Not physically, but mentally. You could feel that pressure hanging in the room.”
Engineering had become a test of character. And that test came early – and unexpectedly – on a small incline at Zandvoort.
The hill was small but the consequence wasn’t
The first real test for the team didn’t come from a dramatic failure. It came from a gentle hill.
During early testing at Zandvoort, the car encountered a slight incline that the simulations had not flagged. The tuning was off, and the code was not holding in real-world conditions.
"Real-world performance is often shaped by small, unexpected variables. That’s where ambition is tested – in how teams respond when things don’t go as planned. It’s the kind of thinking we look for in every partnership."
Huib Kwint, Global R&D Program Manager, Teijin Aramid
The issue was subtle, but it mattered. Because, if a small hill could expose a gap, what else might they have overlooked? For months, the team had refined performance in models and tested strategies in software. But now the car was on the track, and things weren’t going as planned.
It required the team to rethink how they responded when outcomes differed from expectations. Judgment was no longer a matter of discussion. It had become part of the job. And Zandvoort had more to teach.
What broke was the illusion of certainty
The team knew rain was coming and almost canceled the test day, but chose to go out anyway to make the most of every opportunity. As the telemetry cut out, they could do nothing but watch. No data. No comms. Just a car on a wet track, and no way to see what it was experiencing.
Daan gave the signal to bring the car in. It wasn’t a decision made with certainty, but it was the right one in that moment. “That’s when I realized I could do this,” he says. “That we could do this.”
From then on, the team stopped waiting to feel ready and began working as though they already were. The hesitation lifted, and in its place came a new kind of confidence, built through action.
This is where they became engineers
There is a side of engineering that rarely gets discussed. It doesn’t appear in documentation. It can’t be found in CAD files or simulation outputs. It happens in the spaces between, when a decision needs to be made and there is no clear answer.
“Sometimes you spend hours on something. But in the bigger picture, it doesn’t add value. You have to learn to walk away from your own ideas.”
Thijmen God, Technical Manager, Brunel Solar Team
That is the part no one prepares you for.Learning to speak with clarity when others hesitate. Taking responsibility when no choice feels certain. Moving forward when the outcome is unclear.
By the end of testing, the team had taken form. What began as a group of individual students had become a unit that could operate in ambiguity, with shared intent and steady focus. They did not have every answer. But they had learned how to think, how to act, and how to trust one another along the way.
This is what it means to engineer in the grey... The team built more than a car; they learned what it takes to move forward without having every answer and to keep shaping the outcome with each decision that followed.
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