CTU students were ranked 17th in the global ranking of the Formula Student competition. In the same ranking, the country is ranked ninth in Europe and – logically – first in the Czech Republic.

Formula Student is the largest international academic competition in the field of technology that competes with more than 800 university teams from all over the world. They race in vehicles designed and built by the students themselves.

This competition was created in 1981 in America and since 1998 it has begun to spread to Europe as well.

It now includes dozens of plants on every continent (except Africa and Antarctica). Since 2010, teams can also compete with vehicles powered by pure electric energy. In the same year, the first team in the Czech Republic, eForce FEE Prague Formula, was founded, which is subordinate to the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the Czech Technical University in Prague.

Competition is not just a sports competition, where speed is the determining factor, but other criteria are also evaluated. Car design, performance, budget planning and marketing strategy.

“However, in the end, the key is the 22km race, where the riders change halfway. It also has the largest points allocation. It is in him that decisions are usually taken. If you don’t complete it, you have no chance of getting a good placement. But static disciplines also make up a relatively large portion of the overall evaluation, around 30-40 percent. It was important to maintain the design of the car, understanding it from a design and production perspective,” explains team member Jakub Štulík.

Currently, eForce is also the only Czech team that has a functional electric drive formula with autonomous driving. “Right now I am standing in front of this formula, we are racing in the Czech Republic with autonomous driving. Due to problems with the gearbox, we now plan to leave only the parts that were piloted in Croatia, especially here they do not even compete with autonomous cars,” Jakub Štulík explains the situation.

We connected with him at a race in Croatia, at electric sports car manufacturer Rimac’s test circuit, located near Zagreb. This is a strictly piloted race for both electric and combustion teams. These two categories will then be announced separately.

Teams must build a new car in competition every year. “In the regulations of most races, for example, it is written that the chassis must change noticeably every year,” added Štulík. According to him, the team is trying to make sure that even old cars can still be driven.

The eForce team currently has more than 60 members. “However, not many of us take part in the race, now there are 18 people in Croatia, usually there are more than us who take part in the race in the Czech Republic, around 30 people,” said Štulík.

Apart from Prague, the University of Technology in Brno also has a team in the field of electric formula, and they are also trying to develop a similar car in Pilsen. In the latest ranking section, besides those already mentioned, we also find teams from Ostrava and Liberec.