Then, following a public unveiling of the
full vehicle at the end of September, SRT ran the car with a quarter power
battery installed to ensure everything was working properly: “It was a bit late
and we wanted to show people we could run the car! We weren’t able to run it
for a very long time, but we wanted to make sure the battery was communicating
with the ECU of the car, which was talking to the inverter of the motor.
Basically, we wanted to ensure we were able to power the car and have it
running.”
It
is on the Ferté Gaucher race track located near Paris that the first tests of
Formula E’s Championship official car
Track testing took place in February 2014,
with the majority of runs made at the La Ferté-Gaucher racetrack outside of
Paris, and sessions at Circuit du Luc in southeast France and at Monteblanco in
Spain, using the full 28kWh battery rather than the quarter-power unit used
previously.
The finishing stages of the testing
schedule, for which nearly 4,000km (2,485 miles) was covered on track, focused
on tire development in partnership with Michelin, which is providing bespoke
rubber for the car’s 18in rims.
Much to the team’s relief, there were no
major mechanical or aerodynamic problems. But a minor motor-cooling issue
required some improvement, as Gouzin reports: “Most of the electronic
components work at cold temperatures. It’s difficult to cool them down because
there is not much difference between the air temperature and the component
temperature. We thought the motor specification we had would be okay, but then
we realized it was difficult to cool down so we worked on that with McLaren.”
The first official pre-season testing took
place at Donington Park, UK, which is also home to Formula E’s new headquarters
(see No Place Like Home), just as E&Hclosed for press. Three further test
days are scheduled before the opening round, which will be hosted in Beijing,
China, on September 13. All 10 rounds of the new championship will be one-day
events contested in city-center locations worldwide.
Finger on the button
The Spark’s power comes from a 200kW
electric motor coupled with a 200kg traction battery. FIA rules stipulate that
maximum power will be allowed during practice and qualifying. During races, the
133kW power saving mode must be applied with the push-to-pass system
temporarily allowing maximum power for a limited time. In addition to this
restriction, the amount of energy that can be delivered to the motor generator
unit by the rechargeable energy storage system is limited to 30kWh.
The
battery pack at the heart of the SRT 01E’s engine is provided by Williams
Advanced Engineering. Fitting the battery into a single-seat car was one of the
project’s major engineering challenge
No place like home
All Formula E teams have now moved into
their new headquarters located at the Donington Park racetrack in the UK. An
ambitious development project saw the site constructed in just 15 weeks. It
sits in Donington’s Western Paddock, just 100m from the circuit’s Melbourne
Hairpin. Each team has a 280m² warehouse containing a 16m workbench, equivalent
to what they’ll have in their tents at the races. The necessary office space
and storage supports Formula E’s operational staff.
Originally
part of the Donington Hall estate, it was created as a racing circuit during
the pre-war period when the German Silver Arrows were battling for the European
Championship.
The new site complies with the ‘Very Good’
BREEAM sustainable construction standards and with the UK government’s Low
Carbon Economy and the National Planning Policy Framework requirements.
Of the decision to have the headquarters
located at Donington, Alejandro Agag, CEO, Formula E, says, “We looked at
different places around the world but we decided to come here because of its
heritage and all the [motor racing] companies located in the area. There’s a
lot of talent available in suppliers, engineers, and mechanics – people that
could work here. East Midlands Airport and its DHL hub are next door; DHL is
our logistics partner so it made perfect sense. This location also gives us
good access from the garages to the racetrack, which is very important.” Around
150 new jobs will be created at the facility, for which Formula E holds a
three-year lease, with the option to extend that to five.
Donington’s own administrative headquarters
are also located at the hub. Donington Park owner Kevin Wheatcroft says of the
facility, which represents approximately US$8.5m worth of investment, “This is
the first real phase of [further] developing the circuit. We now need to look
at addressing the entrance to the paddock, making it more usable and visually
better. We also need to look at what is required in terms of support for
Formula E, for example hotels, and in around six months’ time we’ll know if
they need more space.”
