FE | DS Penske is ready to leave for Sao Paulo

After Mexico City in mid-January, followed by the two races in Saudi Arabia two weeks later, the teams put their cars aside for six weeks. This long break was unexpected at the start of the season and was the consequence of the cancellation of the Hyderabad match. For the French manufacturer DS Automobiles, entered in the championship with the American Penske, this situation has generated some frustration.

The French-American team had scored important points and finished on the podium once, but seemed to have found the rhythm that would allow it to take on the Jaguars and Porsches, which dominated last season.

The result is that everyone is left wanting to do more and is now eager to get back to fighting. “We miss the adrenaline of racing,” says Eugenio Franzetti, head of DS Performance, the DS automobiles department that develops the DS Penske single-seaters. “We are really happy to be back in the championship, especially because exciting races await us.”

For Formula E, this pause was also detrimental in terms of media coverage, especially since Formula 1 and the World Endurance Championship had not yet started in February. So the Formula E teams turned to the media with photos and videos from the start of the season and even the 2023 championship, in order to remind their fans of the good times of past races.

For DS Penske, Stoffel Vandoorne's pole position in Sao Paulo for the championship's first appearance in Brazil was a moment of choice. A moment of choice and auspiciousness because the Brazilian circuit, located in the neighborhood where the traditional carnival celebration takes place, is the next event on the calendar. Meanwhile, the engineers and pilots did not remain idle.

Eugenio Franzetti, DS Performance Director

Photo by: DPPI

The rest of the season… and next year!

It's not easy for teams to stay in a racing mentality during such a long break. For some team members it was an opportunity to take a few days of unscheduled rest and get off to a great start again. For others, however, it was an opportunity to see what could be done to the car from a regulatory point of view, but also to prepare for the future in a more serene way.

In fact, from 1 January the teams are no longer authorized to carry out private test sessions with the 2024 single-seaters. They have therefore concentrated on next year's cars. “We drove for several days in Calafat with our Gen 3.5 single-seater,” says Eugenio Franzetti. “It wasn't complete yet, but we were able to work on it. We also welcomed a new engineer [Phil Charles, della Jaguar] and this break between races helped us integrate him better into the team and start working according to his methods.”

“Our drivers remained under pressure, because between the physical test sessions and the simulation sessions, this time with this season's car and circuits, they were put to the test. It was a real team effort, which it allowed us to consolidate our objectives, which are above all to bring both cars into the points at every race. For us it is as important as winning.”

After a six-week break, the championship now features nine races at six venues between mid-March and the end of May, meaning one or two races (for doubleheaders) every fortnight.