Eric Lefter-Gabriel, from Piatra Neamț to Solis team manager
Piatra Neamț and Cluj-Napoca, Profile: Eric Lefter-Gabriel
Read the original article Mesagerul de Neamț, in Romanian
Mesagerul de Neamț profiles Eric Lefter-Gabriel, 27, from Piatra Neamț, son of the former FC Ceahlăul goalkeeper Radu Lefter. He went to the Colegiul Național de Informatică, then studied Power Electronics and Electric Drives at UTCN's Faculty of Electrical Engineering, followed by a master's in Advanced Electrical Systems. He is now a second-year PhD student in power electronics.
“For me, that race was the moment I caught the “bug” completely: building the best solar electric vehicle we could, one that would let the project reach the podium and go head to head with the best”
Eric Lefter-Gabriel, former Solis UTCN team manager
He joined Solis in 2021, mainly to link his bachelor's thesis to the project, which Professor Ștefan Breban launched in 2018. His first race was the iLumen European Solar Challenge in Belgium in September 2022, where the vehicle completed 150 laps of Zolder, about 600 km in 24 hours. That race, he says, is when he caught the “bug” for building a competitive solar vehicle.
At the end of 2022 he was named team manager, just as the team set out for Australia without knowing what shipping a five-metre vehicle on a tight budget would involve. He tells the paper about the 2024 race at Zolder: the vehicle rolled onto its side after a driving error, and a battery fault caused by the incident stopped it after 137 laps.
In Australia in 2025, he says, Hyperion ran steadily until the last day. After a tornado warning and a short stop, a very strong gust pushed the vehicle off the road and into a boulder, with less than 300 km of the 3,000 still to go. No one was hurt. The vehicle was taken by truck to Adelaide, where the team was allowed to cross the finish line officially.
After three years in the role, Lefter-Gabriel handed the team manager job to his colleague Bianca Dinis and helped set up an administrative office to support new generations of students. He has moved from the energy industry into research at the university. His goal for 2026 is a podium at the race in Belgium, and his dream, he says, is to see Solis in first place one day.
Summary written by the Solis team from the article published by Mesagerul de Neamț on 10 May 2026. The original: “Povestea nemțeanului Eric Lefter-Gabriel și a proiectului Solis - Stiri Neamt”
