"The previous racing season was one of the most successful in the team's history. The eForce team showed its two eForce monoposts at six races, in Switzerland, Italy, Hungary, Germany, Croatia and last but not least at home races in the Czech Republic. All in all, the team gained many valuable placings in individual disciplines: eight first places, six second places and four third places," described the team captain Tomáš Krejčí. "In the overall team ranking, eForce has now moved up to 17th place globally, 9th place in Europe, and holds first place in the Czech Republic," said Krejčí, a student at Faculty of Mechanical Engineering who also works at the Department of Electric Drives and Traction at FEL CTU.
The prestigious ranking is led by the team from Universität Stuttgart, with Nagoya University in second place and the bronze going to New Zealand - to competitors from the University of Auckland. According to another eForce member, Jan Cába, the team from CTU was ranked 48th at the end of 2021. It jumped a respectable 30 places. "But the rankings have not been updated much during the covid pandemic," said Cába, who is in charge of eForce's promotion.
The current challenge? Two formulas in one!
Last year, the Prague team "broke" the record for the number of races in which its piloted and autonomous formula participated. This season will also be very busy for eForce members, and with a new addition. In fact, the team, which has so far raced an electric piloted formula and an electric autonomous formula, is working on combining these cars into one. "The formula will thus be able to run both with and without a pilot," Krejci pointed out.
The team is reacting to the fact that the organisers of Germany's most prestigious race, Formula Student Germany, have decided that only one racing category will remain - autonomous electric. In order to continue to race in the world's top competition, eForce must build a formula following to these rules. "Our team would then like to build on its success in the 2023 season. At the beginning of July, it will defend its first place in Switzerland. After that, they will take part in races in Italy, the Czech Republic and the most prestigious races in Germany," Krejci concluded. The team will introduce the new formula car this spring.
This academic year, the eForce FEE Prague Formula team consists of over 60 people. Students can test their knowledge of technology, electrical engineering, electronics, IT and management in practice while planning and building the formulas. The first electric piloted formula was built by former team members in 2010. The next big breakthrough came in 2020, when eForce, despite the challenging conditions and limitations due to the covid-19 pandemic, managed to build and operate the first fully autonomous formula in the Czech Republic.
