The new Formula E season opens in Valencia, with an unpredictable outcome as has been the tradition in the last nine championships. The hunt officially begins for Jaguar and Porsche, whose powertrains won the teams’ and drivers’ titles respectively in 2023, the latter designed by Jake Dennis. The most credible pursuers are DS-Penske and Maserati, both on the rise at the end of last season. Season 10 in particular presents itself as a continuation of the previous one, with cars identical in specifications and approved powertrainswith the exception of the important variable given by the return of the pit stops.
Tenth anniversary
Celebrating ten years of history is a goal that is anything but obvious for Formula E, which in the space of a decade has acquired the name of world championship and is now among the main categories on the international scene. The protagonists in 2024 will once again be the Gen3, profoundly advanced and not comparable to the Gen1 with which it all began, but not even with the latest Gen2. Drivers continue to define third generation single-seaters as a revolution compared to the previous one, which instead presented themselves as an evolution of the first cars.
The Valencia tests therefore offer a crucial opportunity for teams and drivers to continue to know and learn how to exploit the single-seaters extremely complex to interpret and develop. It is no coincidence that the balance of power changed repeatedly last season, with Maserati-DS doing very well in testing, followed by Porsche’s outburst at the start of the championship, which ended with the rise of Jaguar.
Fast charging
One of the big themes on the eve of the tenth season is the return of pit stops to the race, after five seasons of absence. If with the Gen1 the drivers returned to the pits to change cars, the Gen3s will instead undergo a rapid charging pit stop, nicknamed Attack Charge. The novelty should have made its debut last season, but the various youth problems of the new generation of single-seaters have invited the organizers to tackle one theme at a time and postpone everything for a year.
In certain E-Prix the cars will return to the pits for a 30 second quick charge at 600 kW of power, via a connector attached to the rear axle of the single-seater. Overall, the stop should allow the battery to recover 10% of its charge. A race simulation with Attack Charge will be carried out during the Valencia tests. The objective is to understand how the pit stops will influence the strategies, the race dynamics and consequently the show.
The hierarchies
The results of the last E-Prix of Season 9 tell of one Jaguar as the first force, both in the guise of the official team and Envision-Racing customers. Among the Porsche-powered drivers, the only one to keep up the pace was Jake Dennis, who later became world champion at the wheel of the Avalanche Andretti. The official cars, however, paid for the lack of pace in qualifying, with their starting grid positions limiting their ability to express their full pace in the race.
However, three months have now passed since the grand final in London, an enormous period of time in which software development can rewrite the balance of power. The powertrain control algorithms are the basis of the management of energy recharging during braking, with an influence also on the traction and dynamics of the car, so much so that they deserve the name “chassis control software”. It is no coincidence that DS and Maserati, the two Stellantis brands, despite sharing the same powertrain, are protagonists of two different paths, each developing their own software in-house.
In home DS-Penske optimism transpires that they have understood the origin of some of the difficulties suffered at the end of the 2023 championship, after a central quarter at a high level. The question is how much the Versailles team’s progress is sufficient to close the gap to the top of the class. All eyes also on Maserati, growing in the second half of Season 9, achieving a victory in Jakarta. Finally, among the actors to be monitored, motorized vehicles stand out Nissan. The Japanese manufacturer can now count on a team that has been profoundly reorganized over the last two years, the benefits of which will also have repercussions on the McLaren customer team.
The Valencia tests
The only pre-season collective testing session is taking place at the Ricardo Tormo circuit in Valencia, scheduled for Tuesday 24th, Wednesday 25th and Friday 27th October, before the start of the championship in January. New to the 2023 tests is the obligation for teams to field a rookie driver in at least one of the sessions scheduled at Ricardo Tormo. Among the famous names stands out Robert Shwartzman, a driver in the Ferrari orbit in Formula 1 but who in Formula E is with the DS-Penske team.
One might think that the Spanish racetrack is not very representative in terms of asphalt and curve geometry of the city circuits where Formula E races compete. In recent years, however, the championship has welcomed an ever-increasing number of permanent routes. For example, the Season 10 calendar includes the facilities in Portland and Mexico City, as well as one between Misano, Imola and Vallelunga for the double Italian stage.
As per tradition in any test, the times will offer some timid references on the hierarchies on the field, but not knowing the work programs, any conclusions would be premature. In the 2022 tests, for example, Maserati was the fastest, only to find itself in great difficulty at the start of the championship. This year the Gen3s are at an advanced stage of development, which is why the changes in the balance of power will be less sudden, but the three months that separate the tests from the first race they leave the door open to quite a few surprises. The most interesting comparison will therefore be the one with the times of 2022, which will allow us to appreciate how much software development has increased performance. The reference in Valencia is set at 1’25”127”, a record held by Guenther’s Maserati.
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