Formula E Formula E 2015/2016 Updates

[Dash Racing]

It's too bad Jaguar was vetoed for the extra freight cost. Maybe as the series settles in more, gets processes streamlined further, or manages to do away with needing two cars per driver, other teams will be able to join the series?

 

[Dash Racing]

From Current E, we have some more driver confirmations:

Team	Retained	In	Out
Abt Schaeffler Audi Sport	Lucas di Grassi Daniel Abt
Amlin Andretti	Simona de Silvestro	Scott Speed?	Jean-Eric Vergne
Dragon Racing	Jerome d'Ambrosio
DS Virgin Racing	Sam Bird	Jean-Eric Vergne	Jaime Alguersuari
Mahindra Racing			Karun Chandhok
NextEV TCR	Nelson Piquet Jr.	Oliver Turvey?
Renault e.dams
Team Aguri	Salvador Duran?		Antonio Felix da Costa?
Trulli	Vitantonio Liuzzi
Venturi	Stephane Sarrazin	Jacques Villeneuve	Nick Heidfeld

 

[RasputinLives]

Chandhok set to part company with Mahindra ahead of second Formula E season

That conflicts the above. Not seen anything about De Silvestro either.

 

[soccerman17]

Would Jaguar not be the ones paying the freight costs?

 

[RasputinLives]

From what I understand the freight costs are covered by the entry fees because Formula E ship all the cars together in a low emissions styley. Because of the fact each team has 4 cars thats 40 cars being transported. The 11th team would have made it 44 and due to the extra cars freight costs would go up as would bills for extra facilities at the tracks and therefore entry fees would go up.

I think the thinking was that its better to keep the costs down at the moment.

 

[RasputinLives]

InsideLineMedia

 

[Dash Racing]

Chandhok set to part company with Mahindra ahead of second Formula E season

That conflicts the above. Not seen anything about De Silvestro either.

I think the table format screwed up. You're absolutely right.

 

[RasputinLives]

Sarrazin has now been confirmed at Venturi now. Why on earth they would keep him when he was pretty much the worst driver on the grid last year I don't know.

In other news I'll be off to one of the final tests at Donnington on the 24th or 25th! Hurrah.

 

[RasputinLives]

Also Amlin has entered into a partnership with Andretti

Andretti confirms Amlin partnership for second season of Formula E

The article suggests Andretti will run 2 of the drivers who drove last year. Plenty to chose from then! Although I'm guessing not Frank Montangy.

I'm hoping Matty Brabham gets a drive somewhere.

 

[Dash Racing]

That article would tend to agree with the Current E article that Andretti's second driver is Scott Speed.

I hope Matty Brabham gets a drive too, I like him an awful lot. He's a good driver who should get better with experience, and to be honest, it's good that he shows some emotion when he messes up, it means he cares, so he'll try not to make the same mistake twice.

 

[Dash Racing]

So, the first day of Donington testing is behind the Formula E teams, with only two teams, Amlin Andretti and Trulli not running any laps. Heidfeld put in his first appearance as Senna's teammate at Mahindra, and Vergne ran for DS Virgin Racing. The quickest time of the first day of testing is just over a second slower than the fastest lap in last year's testing, but it should be noted that there was a brief rain shower during the day's testing. The teams will probably ramp up as testing continues, so it's fair to say this year's cars could be faster than last year's.

Here's the fastest laps for the first day of testing:
1. Sebastien Buemi, Renault e.dams, 1:32.095s
2. Lucas di Grassi, ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport, 1:32.158s
3. Nicolas Prost, Renault e.dams, 1:32.286s
4. Sam Bird, DS Virgin Racing, 1:32.523s
5. Salvador Duran, Team Aguri, 1:32.549s
6. Bruno Senna, Mahindra Racing, 1:35.653s
7. Nick Heidfeld, Mahindra Racing, 1:35.700s
8. Jerome D’Ambrosio, Dragon Racing, 1:36.324s
9. Tom Dillmann, Team Aguri, 1:36.329s
10. Stephane Sarrazin, Venturi, 1:36.361s
11. Jean-Eric Vergne, DS Virgin Racing, 1:36.704s
12. Loic Duval, Dragon Racing, 1:37.987s
13. Nelson Piquet Jr, NEXTEV TCR, 1:38.052s
14. Jacques Villeneuve, Venturi, 1:38.176s
15. Jarno Trulli, Trulli, no time set
16. Simona de Silvestro, Andretti, no time set

 

[RasputinLives]

The times might also depend on what track lay out they were running. Last year on some days they'd put a temporary tyre chicane in just before going up the hill (I think to give it more of a street circuit feel) but then on others it wasn't there. Obviously it would have an effect on the times.

E-Dams topping testing times again. Never seem to convert it into track performance though.

Poor old Team Aguri are the only one's running the entirity of last years car bless em.

 

[RasputinLives]

Buemi heads morning session from today too

 

[Dash Racing]

You might be right about a different track layout, since now, Buemi's time is consistent with last year's mid pack times.

Villeneuve's second on the timesheet, and with an improvement of 5 seconds over yesterday's time. Given that Sarrazin's time is so close to Villeneuve's today, I'm inclined to think Villeneuve needed to get used to the car, or needed more work on the setup. A two second improvement for Sarrazin because he was quicker than Villeneuve yesterday could be explained by greater familiarity with Formula E cars.

Mahindra have very similar times to yesterday, but I suspect they have a little more in the car than that. Virgin shows a little improvement, but I think it's safe to say they too have more in the car.

 

[Bushi]

Quite some difference in sound for some:

 

[Dash Racing]

It's so fun to hear the differences in sound on many of the cars. Mahindra's reminds me of an electric train with its lower pitched but unmistakably electric sound. Renault e.dams reminds me of the swoops in the Knights of the Old Republic game. Virgin sounds like large jet engines spinning up (one of my favorites for sure). ABT sounds like my mom's old washing machine spinning up for the dry cycle (probably my least favorite). NEXTEV sounds like an electric city bus, and sort of similar to Mahindra. Andretti sounds surprisingly unchanged from last year, there are differences, but I think they're very subtle differences. Aguri of course sounds like last year's car. Venturi sounds a bit jet engine, a bit electric bus. Dragon's sound is a bit unique, sort of like a breathy chord of large military plane mixed with steam whistle.

With the cars all sounding so different, it's going to make watching the races fun, because as we get more familiarity with the sounds of the cars, we'll be able to make educated guesses on which car will come into shot next, just by sound. We're also going to get some rather cool (and probably not so cool) mixes with cars running side by side.

 

[RasputinLives]

There is a rumour that two of the teams have got so little done on their own power trains that they are going to have to resort to going back to last years car. As long as they have declared this before the end of testing they are allowed to do it.

The insider who said it doesn't say which teams but as we've barely seen Trulli on the track you would have to assume they are one. Each team has been given 6 development days prior to this testing session and Virgin have used all of theres so it doesn't look like them. Venturi look well along and as Dragon are using the Venturi powertrain that rules them both out. E-Dams are Renault so its no way them.

The teams who have done the least testing other than Trulli appear to be NEXTEV and Andretti. Piquet seems to confident for it to be NEXTEV so I suspect it might be Andretti who are struggling with the new equiptment. With Vergne jumping ship the wheels do appear to be coming off the Andretti electric wagon which is in complete contrast to Jay Penske's Dragon team that looked buried at one point but is now pushing it with the front runners.

 

[FB]

How can the Andretti car have a misfire?

 

[Dash Racing]

If it is the Andretti team that hasn't made the most of its development time, that would explain why their cars sound so much like last years.

 

[Dash Racing]

"Group of Death" for Formula E? - Current E

Formula E may revamp qualifying for season 2, giving drivers in each group one fast lap, with the fastest five advancing to a final hot lap session to determine their final grid position.