"Italy was a great success in terms of results," said Bc. Marko Matoničkin, head of EFORCE’s autonomous section and the team’s spokesperson, commented on the final race of the season, held in September. "We won both the autonomous category and, after adding up the points from both sections, the combined category as well. We also came first in both the manual and autonomous Autocross disciplines. So once again, we showed that we have the fastest car over a single lap," Matoničkin said. While 40 teams competed in the manual Autocross category, there were 12 teams in the autonomous category. EFORCE also won the gold medal in the manual Autocross category at Formula Student Germany.
The team also took first place in the autonomous category at the August Formula Student Spain competition, where it additionally won the individual autonomous disciplines of Skidpad, Acceleration and Trackdrive. These disciplines test how well and how quickly the single-seater can go through the bends, its ability to accelerate along a 75-metre track, and, in the flagship Trackdrive discipline, its ability to complete 10 laps quickly and without errors. Each knocked-over cone adds penalty seconds to the overall time.
Marko Matoničkin noted that this year’s season was particularly demanding. The team had to tackle a number of technical problems under significant time pressure, while also competing in two races back-to-back and entering both autonomous and driver-controlled competitions at every event. "I was a little worried that the team members’ motivation might start to drop — after all, spending 14 days abroad is quite a lot. But I think we managed to get through the season with dignity," Matoničkin said. He added that the team’s results this season will secure at least their current 12th place in the global ranking of 484 teams. The team recently climbed from 17th place to 12th and may move up by a few more positions.
Last year, the team enjoyed a highly successful racing season with its CTU.25 car. The highlight came in August, when it won bronze in the autonomous category at Formula Student Germany (FSG), Europe's most prestigious Formula Student competition.
EFORCE Prague Formula has long been the most successful student Formula Student team in the Czech Republic. The current CTU.26 car, unveiled by EFORCE in May at the Prague Planetarium, is the third and final car—an evolution of the team’s current-generation race car. For 2027, the students will have to design and develop a completely new car "from scratch", and they have already been working on it for several months.
Photo Credits
Photo 1: FSATA – Ondřej Cabrnoch
Photo 2: FSG – Kai
