Last Friday evening, we had the pleasure of presenting our new race car for the 2026 season in the AachenMünchener Halle at RWTH Aachen University: the eax05. Together with numerous guests, including the Rector of RWTH Aachen University, the Managing Senior Engineer of ika, Dr.-Ing. Torben Dittmar, Dipl.-Ing. Richard Frohberg from IKV, representatives of our partners such as Knorr-Bremse and Schaeffler, as well as friends, family members and alumni of our team.
After a brief introduction to Formula Student, our team history and our achievements so far, we gave insights into the development of the eax05. In particular, we presented the challenges of the past months and the innovations of our new vehicle. A special moment was the unveiling of its name: our eax05 bears the name “Katrin” in honour of Katrin Göppner, who has supported us with great dedication this season and represents Schaeffler as a long-standing partner of our team.
The eax05 is our 24th race car and the fifth vehicle of the Merged Car era. In its design, we have implemented numerous far-reaching innovations. Thanks to a specially developed folding mechanism, the LiDAR sensor required for autonomous driving can cover a field of view of more than 300 degrees without obstructing the driver’s line of sight. The newly developed rear wing and revised underfloor, in combination with the front wing, generate an overall downforce coefficient of around 7.0. In addition, a DLC coating is being used in the steering gear for the first time, allowing us to further optimize the design consistently towards lightweight construction.
As numerous areas of vehicle performance were optimized simultaneously during the development process, close collaboration between the individual departments was of crucial importance. Throughout the development process, the technical leads held countless cross-departmental discussions and worked together to explore possible solutions. Over the past five months, almost 70 team members from more than ten fields of study and over 15 nations worked with great dedication to manufacture the new vehicle, ultimately making it possible to present the eax05 on stage in a ceremonial setting. As a next step, we will further finalize the vehicle systems and enter the testing phase before Formula Student Czech begins on 19 July.
During the event, the first chairman of the association emphasized that the eax05 was “not just any race car”, but represented “thousands of hours of work, sleepless nights and many decisions” that may at times have been questioned from the outside, but ultimately always led to the right outcome.
A huge thank you goes to all sponsors, institutes and alumni who have supported us along the way. Without you, none of this would have been possible.
We look forward to a successful 2026 season!
