IRIS In Focus: ETS Winning ONE.2 FWD insights

Welcome back for the second in my IRIS in Focus series.

The ETS season finale held at Wiener Neustadt in March 2026 saw the first ETS victory for IRIS. The ONE.2 FWD of Matheo Buchhalt qualified on the round-by-round pole position, and nail-biting 3rd final led sealed the win. This is a behind the scenes insight into the technical FWD set up and this memorable event from an IRIS point of view.

The FWD rules at ETS continue to evolve, and the switch from MR33 V4 to V5 additive has influenced the choice of bodyshell. It is now the MonTech Civic which is the “go-to” bodyshell, and Matheo had chosen this in a distinctive shade of pink which you couldn’t miss on track. New bodyshells are on the list for the upcoming ETS season, and it will be interesting to see if any become as popular as the Civic had become.

This meeting marked the ETS debut for the new RUDDOG RR2 series of LiPos. With fixed gearing, handout motors and an RPM limit you are looking for a battery which maintains a high voltage through the race. Matheo chose the 5000Mah RR2 “shorty” LiPo which was perfect for the FWD class.

Matheo’s FWD was fitted with the RUDDOG Racing RR1406 HV Low Profile Brushless Servo.

A base carpet set up using an aluminium chassis had been extensively tested by the IRIS Austria team (affectionately known as “Team Bookstop”). The Wiener Neustadt carpet was laid on a glossy floor, so moved around more than the ETS carpet at the previous Daun round which has a tennis surface as the floor. With the grip changes this brought, a stiffer internal shock spring was found to help with turn in and rotation. Going up to a 500k diff also helped with corner exit speed.  

The set up had noticeably less chassis roll than the other FWD cars at the sharp end, and cornered flat through the long sweeping corners of the track layout. Matheo said “the set up was really fast and easy to drive”, and it has been posted on the IRIS Discord server. 

The qualifying came down to a shoot out between Kevin Schmid and Matheo, with the 3rd and 4th rounds being the decider. I watched the heats track side with gasps at the early pace from Matheo. Andreas said:

“What a performance from Matheo, I still remember Q3 and I was wondering...who is Matheo annoyed with? Because damn...he is flying.

His average Laptime, was 0.015 slower than the fastest lap of the second car and 0.053 faster than this years overall ETS FWD Champ.”

With Kevin taking final leg 1 on Saturday night, it was down to the last two A final legs. I exchanged a “good luck” handshake with Max Mächler the Awesomatix Team Manager. Matheo kept his cool and drove away from the field to take what was a well-controlled and richly deserved overall win. I was watching trackside with a couple of good friends who helped calm my nerves.

After the 3rd and deciding leg there was a queue of IRIS team members waiting to congratulate Matheo at the bottom of the rostrum. I saw Andreas behind him, so waited until the designer had enjoyed the moment. There were emotions and a few tears. Out of nowhere the idea to let Matheo celebrate the win came to me, so I sent him to do that and stood in for him at marshal point 1. My best idea of the weekend in hindsight!

This was also the 100th ETS meeting, so IRIS had extra reason to celebrate the milestone. The final words go to Andreas:

“The weekend was so much more than the first victory, which for sure, was the icing on the cake.

We have had a great team for a while now and many races with great atmosphere within the team. But this race was for sure the best we have ever had.

Many thanks to all of the guys.

The guidance of my Team Managers + Martin Reiser, did however make the additional difference.

So, yes, I am happy, for sure. Mainly for Matheo more than for myself.”

I will cover what it’s like to race with IRIS and be a Team Manager at the European Touring Car Series in a future article.

Mark Burgess
IRIS UK Team Manager
May 2026