here

2014
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3
A lot has been said about that last corner crash.
What a script. Prost had led almost every lap of the race from pole position.
One corner remained between the blue and gold of the e.dams-Renault and
champaign celebrations. Heidfeld had other ideas. He’d been catapulted into
second position following a particularly good pit stop, and had gone about
hunting Prost down, sector by sector, lap by lap.
left hand corner. Now or never. Heidfeld, in the glossy black and blood red
of the Venturi machine, pulled to the left and accelerated hard. He was going
for it. All out. All or nothing. Last of the late brakers.
Prost looked the wrong way. He looked the wrong way. The Frenchman
glanced into his right mirror and then swung sharply left, a pre-emptive strike
against any dart down the inside. The problem was, Heidfeld had already
made the move and was alongside.
Contact. The collision smashed the German’s suspension and sent him
skating along the tarmac out of control, right into the sausage kerbs which
launched him into the air like a rocket.
In the pits, we heard the collective gasp of the crowd as Heidfeld hit the
with a slight delay. The timing screens only showed that Prost and Heidfeld
had stopped, and that Lucas di Grassi – who had been the face of Formula E
for so long – had threaded his way through the wreckage to pick up the win.
Cocooned inside the Spark-Renault, which looks like a racing car but must
have a tank somewhere in its family tree, Quick Nick escaped the incident
with just a bruised leg. Prost perhaps suffered more – the loss of almost
certain success, wounded pride and a 10 place grid penalty at the next race.
Their teams have been disappointingly grown up about the whole thing,
quick to emphasise that there are no hard feelings. A little bit of pantomime
would be good for the sport.
There was much more to the Beijing race than that crash, however. The
untested in this environment – held up very well, when they weren’t being hurled
into the barriers by drivers getting too aggressive with the track and coming
off worse. No one ran out of juice. There were no complaints about a lack of
noise (to the contrary, the pounding tunes from the DJ box irritated many).
many ways the event felt just like any other race day. And that is one hell of
an achievement.
Ross Ringham
Editor
Current E
[email protected]
@current_e
Lucas di Grassi:
Alain Prost:
Matt Brabham:
Marc Priestley:
What went wrong for Daniel Abt
Franck words
Sam Bird talks energy management
Virgin racing: Lotus connection
Amlin Aguri: critical cooling
How to drive the Spark-Renault
The Drayson story
Track build
Preparation
Race day
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7
I saw everything happen on the last corner.
After I knew both were okay,
I could celebrate my victory / / /
di Grassi, the Brazilian driver who made history
Audi Sport ABT man started the race in China from P2,
behind the e.dams-Renault of Nico Prost and in front of
his own team mate, Daniel Abt.
counts Spa, Monaco and Macau among his favourite
circuits. “It was a very good venue. There are places to
improve – we should have had a longer straight and more
places to overtake. But the track was very safe and the
Safety was underlined when Nick Heidfeld walked
away from the huge airborne smash that took out the two
lap was like a normal last lap of the race. I had to manage
my energy; I knew that I was not going to be able to
it would be an opportunity to overtake one or both of
them. I was something like two seconds behind – then I
saw everything happen on the last corner. I managed to
was if Nick was okay. After I knew both were okay, I could
Many were not surprised to see the red, yellow and
green ABT-liveried cars and the blue and gold of e.damsRenault leading the pack in Beijing. Both teams had put
on strong performances over the summer test sessions
and – according to dark mutterings around the paddock
– both have something of a headstart.
Lucas di Grassi
Audi Sport ABT
Grid: P2
Race result: P1
man who had been the primary development driver
for the Spark-Renault since its inception. Di Grassi did
step down before the car was running with its full race
battery, however, and he doesn’t think he’s any better off
than anyone else on the grid: “The only thing I did from
the beginning was advise on the sporting aspects of the
I think every driver that started the race in Beijing had the
The Prost-led French team has Renault as its sponsor, and
other teams are convinced that the manufacturer’s familiarity
with the car that bears its name must make for performance
by being with Renault. But we were able to catch up, and I
It seems that the Spark-Renault was pretty frisky to
circuit, which was a markedly different environment to the
championship is that you have to get everything done in
There’s no intra-team rivalry in the ABT garage just
di Grassi says. “We used more or less the same set up that
we used at Donington. We’re not going to change it much
during the year. We’ll improve it, but it will be small steps
from now. Daniel used a bit too much energy, but he had
about the rest of the season: “ABT is an excellent team. We
are working very hard at the moment to improve the car
for the next event. We are discussing every week what we
should do, what we shouldn’t do, where we should improve.
I’m sure that for the next race we’ll be even stronger. We
have to learn from our mistakes but we’ll also keep our
strengths. With the team that I have behind me, for sure
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The way it happened – it was the worst race
of my life. That’s my son / / /
Working with my son is nice on one side, and
and I’m still driving. He’s been very successful. He’s
a proper driver and he’s recognised as such today. I don’t
talk about the driving. I put myself in a different position
in the team – I look after the politics, the organisation, the
marketing. I only comment if I see something really strange.
I don’t want to interfere.
We have done a good job in understanding the chassis
and energy system. It’s not a secret to say the two best
drivers in the series are Lucas di Grassi and Sebastien
Buemi. They come from endurance racing, and they had a
better understanding of the system at Donington. Nicolas
had a problem with one of his cars all through testing. It
was only solved at the end.
Alain Prost
Team principal
e.dams-Renault
He looked in the right mirror. He wanted to go left to
block. Nick decided to do some hard braking. Nico was
slower than he should have been, Nick was quicker. It’s all
these circumstances.
It was a brutal incident. Nicolas has suffered a lot. He’s
still affected, but he’s strong. The penalty afterwards was
even worse. But he has accepted everything. It is the best
with a bad end. And it was very hard – we had all these
people from Renault too. That’s motor racing.
Before Malaysia, there are not too many things the drivers
can do. They cannot test. We will try to understand the car
better, how it works at this type of track. We still have a
lot of things to improve in terms of set up and energy use,
and the radio is not working perfectly. There are problems
the lap time difference is very narrow. If you do a good
job you can be on pole; if you do an average job you can
be seventh or eighth on the grid.
It looks like we had a small advantage in Donington
and in Beijing. Nicolas was able to set up a fantastic pole
position even when he made a mistake in quali.
Winning the race would have been a fantastic day for
him and for me. The way it happened – it was the worst race
see how it goes. We have interest from other sponsors – but
we will not be changing our livery.
We had a lot of problems at Donington. That’s normal
– new series, new cars. We saw at Beijing that we had a
few little problems and a lot of good reliability. That was a
good surprise. When you use motor racing for development,
It was a bad accident. Two laps before, I was listening
to the radio, which wasn’t working very well. I said, “Shit,
a possibility as the series opens up – next year, the motor,
then the batteries. If the series works well, we’ll have
constructors and full development. We are ready. Renault
is ready. It’s still early days – but there are a lot of things
more energy that he could have used. But he slowed down
because he saw on the dash that he was on the limit.
problems in the last three or four months. If you’d had these
issues in normal road cars, that could have taken years.
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11
We weren’t looking to set hero times.
Testing was about extracting speed
from tight street circuits.
It was the right way to go / / /
My interest in Formula E goes back to when the
was heightened when Andretti Autosport became
racing and the technology behind it is intriguing. The series
is unique, and to be able to have a hand in developing it
was really appealing.
The drivers that had committed to the series really
is tremendous, with big names in racing from right around
the world. I really wanted to get among those drivers and
compete with them. It’s very rare you can get such an
opportunity as an up and coming driver; learning from
them will be invaluable.
The Beijing event was amazing. It was a real honour to
and to take it all in. I was assisting the Andretti team with
strategy, supporting the drivers – Franck Montagny and
Charles Pic – where I could. The racing was great, and that
big crash both brought global attention to Formula E and
showed how safe the cars are.
To compare the performance of the Formula E car with
an Indy Lights car, the initial response and power out of
corners is quite good – the power out of turns is comparable
to most racecars that I’ve driven and, if anything, is more
responsive. The main difference is top end speed, but the
teams are discovering new quirks with the cars each time
they take to the track and analyse the data.
The powertrain noise of the Spark-Renault racecars is
quite different and takes some getting used to – that goes
for both inside and outside of the car. In the cockpit, you
are constantly changing between the different engine maps,
to adjust the power available and therefore the battery
Matt Brabham
Andretti Formula E
batteries last as long as possible. It can be hard to keep
up with all the changes you can make as you are driving.
The tyres and weight of the car don’t change. However,
you have to alter your braking technique due to the energy
regeneration systems. The regen only affects the rear
battery charge. This can cause an imbalance between the
front and rear brake bias, which can be tricky.
In terms of getting the maximum from the Formula E car,
there is a lot of guessing going on at the moment, which
is natural due to the infancy of the series. This is leading
using the available energy to set the fastest race time. In
preseason testing at Donington Park, in the UK, it seemed
as though every team took a different approach; it was
surprising how quick and how slow different teams were
in certain segments of the track.
I took part in the testing sessions and it felt to me that
Andretti had one of the strongest set ups and strategies.
It felt like our team was able to get on top of the car and
systems before most of our competitors. The focus for the
team was always very direct. We weren’t looking to set hero
times. Testing was aimed at extracting speed from the tight
Formula E street circuits, like Beijing, which means ignoring
Franck coming in second and Charles in fourth – indicate
that it was the right way to go.
As the season goes on, the competition will get closer
To some degree, you could already see that happening
in Beijing.
I am not sure if I will get the chance to race in a Formula
E event yet. We’re still some time away from the next race
(Malaysia, in November). Of course, as a racecar driver, you
always want to race whenever you can, but I’m thankful just
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13
In qualifying, drivers effectively only had one
lap, so they weren’t taking too many risks.
If you mess up that one shot, you start at
the back. That’s a disaster on a street circuit.
lap and get all the way round than go for a hero time
and lose the car into the wall. That’s what happens in
them: “Just bear in mind that if you put it into the wall,
the cars, they’ll get closer to the limits. Street circuits
are all about weighing up risk versus reward.
In Beijing, mechanical set up was almost
secondary to the cooling and energy
management side, which is contrary to normal
race practice. In Formula E, you don’t need
to – and can’t – do much to warm the tyres up. They’re
not slicks. I don’t think we need the warm up lap: drivers
were just going as slowly as possible to conserve energy.
Brake temperature
to control. They’re carbon brakes, and they’re
open. There are no brake ducts on these cars.
In more traditional motorsports, like F1, you
can open or close apertures on the ducts to dictate
Overall, it was a really good fixture and very
well planned. The track turned out to be pretty
good, too. The aerial view did make the circuit
look a little dull, but it had lots of wide braking zones,
which encourages overtaking manoeuvres, and some tight
city centres, but the racing was very exciting. Even coming
into the last lap, no one knew who was going to win.
The aggressive sausage kerbs came in for criticism,
manner and you’re limited on options.
The biggest problem was the way that one of the
kerbs launched Heidfeld’s car into the air. That could have
been catastrophic.
Prost wallops the wall on
the way to pole position.
to slow racing drivers down – give them an inch and they’ll
take a mile. Sometimes you have to accept the risk once
you’ve minimised it as best you can. Racing these days is
generally incredibly safe.
We didn’t see the effects of Fanboost, but there are
only a few teams that have done much with social media,
even though there are very few restrictions on what they can
post. They’re all starting from a base level and competing for
fans, on a feature that translates into a direct performance
advantage. That’s still a big area of opportunity for teams
to get to grips with: in F1, teams would spend millions for
that sort of power boost.
I’ll be in the studio for the second race, and we’ll
explain a lot more about the technology and about how
the series works. There is a lot more lap time to be had
with these cars. The drivers don’t yet have a full handle on
energy management and we’ll see a lot more of the drivers
in second and third making a real run in the closing stages
were often too cold, leading to frequent lock ups over
the varied surfaces of the circuit. That surface issue is
something you can’t avoid in street circuits. Teams would
them warmer, but I presume that hasn’t been included
by Spark to keep things simpler and therefore cheaper.
The teams have still got a lot to learn. Some
turned up better prepared than others. Some
were still chasing their tails. There was a
shortage of spares, particularly gearboxes,
because drivers kept clattering into walls. Radio issues
teams to communicate real-time data to drivers out
on track. The drivers were on their own.
current-e.com
Drivers are permitted 28kWh in each car, and no
more. Any over or under use cannot be shared
between a driver’s two cars.
We set each driver a target in kWh per lap, based on
how many laps he’ll be doing in the stint. That comes up on
the steering wheel display and is automatically recalculated
each lap by the software in the car. For example, on this
particular lap the driver can use 2.4kWh, but uses a little
less. At the end of the lap, the screen will update and show
that he can use a little more on the next lap.
The problem we had in Beijing was that the readout
it means the driver can easily get it wrong.
Because the safety car came out early in the race,
everyone used less energy than they thought, and did
some extra laps. But the software doesn’t know that the
safety car is there, only that the driver has used less energy
than planned. We cannot update the data from the garage
and there was no radio for huge sections of the race.
We have a systems engineer for each driver, whose
job it is to look at the energy consumption. But we don’t
get full telemetry – that goes to the FIA, and then the FIA
shares some parts with us – and what there was wasn’t
working properly. It is only when the car came in that we
could plug in an Ethernet cable and download the data
to see what had happened.
This is all a challenge. In Beijing, because the radio
and telemetry weren’t working properly during the race,
the drivers were completely alone. There were no backup solutions, so it was easy for a driver to misjudge the
energy readouts and use too much. That’s what happened
to Daniel. As a result, he went a fraction over the permitted
He has complete responsibility for what he does in the
car, but he has to be helped by the data and the team.
We just have to work on it – the driver has to work on it,
the team has to work on it.
There are improvements to be made before Putrajaya.
15
“I was very happy to
be on the podium in
Beijing, especially as it was
championship. Formula E is
very different from any other
series and, because each
track is designed for every
event, it will be like starting
all over again every time we
get to a city. It is a strange
and challenging situation for
the drivers and everyone, but
we started well and can do
Daniel Abt
Audi Sport ABT
Grid: P3
Race result: P10
Franck Montagny
Andretti Formula E
Grid: P8
Race result: P2
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17
“The cars are all the same, so you must train the drivers properly, have slick
the information. It’s one thing to collect the data, but if you can’t analyse
“The batteries are all the same; no battery is better than another. But
there are a lot of mechanical things – motors, gearboxes, differentials,
tyres – where there can be very small differences between one car and
measuring energy and power output. Jaime’s car was using a lot more energy than
stint at the levels we wanted him to do. We knew the race was over for him; we
Beijing was really good
fun. The circuit was
fantastic. It had a good feel to
it and it was challenging. Our
pace over the weekend was
pretty strong. I only got two
under yellow and the other
one I made a mistake on. It all
happens so quickly. Qualifying
twelfth in this kind of
championship is not going to
cut it. If you want to win, you
need to be on the front two
rows of the grid. In the race, I
really looked after the energy
lap I was conserving, doing
as little as possible with the
throttle application. On that
0.1kWh left. That was a bit
terrifying. Conserving energy
was a bit easier in Beijing than
at testing at Donington. There
were fewer long straights and
high speed corners, and the
track was shorter. Everything
on my car ran perfectly. The
guys at Virgin did a super
job and the car was super
reliable. We learned a lot and
I expect us to be much more
Sam Bird
Virgin Racing
Grid: P12
Race result: P3
of the day. It’s a really busy schedule. One tiny mistake can ruin a session.
We have to maximise every minute on track. To do that, your operations in
the garage have to be very good. We have some people from WEC, from
GP2, and we have a deal with Lotus F1. We made a big mess at the pit stops. We
had a system based on the timings; in theory, it was perfect, as precise as it could
be. Then the screens went black two minutes before the pit stop. We had to do it
completely blind. We did surprisingly well with Sam. Jaime’s stop was disastrous
last one. Normally, the track gets better session after session. Sam did an
okay lap but we thought he would be destroyed by those coming later.
The tyres are such a hard compound – they’re basically road tyres – they
don’t leave nearly as much rubber on the circuit as you would expect. Even in GP2,
there’s a huge amount of rubber on the track after an hour of running. All the teams
slower in Beijing. It’s a mix of things – less grip, tighter chicanes. We don’t know
the surfaces before we get to the race. We have two extremely good drivers. If we
can sort out Jaime’s mechanical issues, there’s no reason why they both shouldn’t
To measure the pit stop time, we use the time keeping system
(transponder in the car and loops in the circuit). We then know
precisely when they enter the pit and when they exit it. Teams have then to
calculate the time the driver must stay in the garage taking into account the
maximum and minimum speed allowed in the pit lane for their pit-in and
Benoit Dupont
Sporting manager
Formula E
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19
All sorts of things went wrong. But
everybody had the same thing.
It could have been a lot more
so far from base, is a big achievement.
have to put the car into the highest power
map and then pull the paddle. She set up
the systems but didn’t quite get it all right.
The plan was to use it on the longer straight.
Takuma had a software problem, something
to do with the down shift. He stopped and
restarted the car, which sorted the issue. But
then he was nowhere, so he said “Let’s go
Katherine’s penalty wasn’t for using too
much energy, despite what the Formula E
series organiser has published. She crossed
the pit exit line too soon and got a drive
through penalty, but she hadn’t completed
the drive through when the race ended.
We need to increase our qualifying
speed. Our race pace is reasonable. It’s
similar to what happened in one of the
private simulations at Donington. Antonio
didn’t have a good quali and but did well
in the race simulation. We’re doing a lot of
Mark Preston
Team principal
Amlin Aguri
Beijing showed us that Audi Sport ABT and
e.dams-Renault are the two fastest teams, followed
by a group that includes Andretti, Venturi, Virgin
and Mahindra. At the moment, Amlin is still two or three
seconds a lap off the pace. But just about every other
team is either an expansion of an existing team – such as
Andretti, Audi Sport ABT or e.dams-Renault – or is being
run by an experienced team – such as Campos with China
Racing, Super Nova with Trulli GP or Carlin with Mahindra.
We went from nothing to fully equipped.
system, which provides radio and telemetry from the car.
It’s a digital system. There’s a little blue box that sits on
the left hand side of the cockpit, just behind the driver’s
shoulder, and repeaters around the track. Katherine’s was
Cooling could be an issue in Malaysia, where the ambient
temperature is going to fairly high.
Over the summer, Spark has gone away, analysed and
We knew he had stopped on track, and then the next we
knew, he was in the pits. Teams are paying a lot of money
for a system that has never worked properly.
The one thing that everybody is keeping an eye on is
temperature window for operation and for charging. The
been out for a run, the battery will be in the high 40s, but
When the car is moving, it keeps the battery relatively
cool. In the garages, we were using blowers to push air
through dry ice, down a tube and into the radiator ducts.
That pulls the temperature out of the core pretty quickly.
as possible, but there are compromises. In Beijing, where
drivers were clonking walls, they were bending suspension
There were no global
telemetry problems
in Beijing. Some teams had
data to get the information
they wanted. I’m sure it will
be better from the second
Benoit Dupont
Sporting manager
Formula E
leading edges of the upper and lower wishbones to protect
the brake pipes and wiring for things such as wheel speed
and tyre pressure sensors. In F1, you’d run those inside
the wishbones.
Cost control is a big part of this series. What F1 spends in
a weekend, we spend in an entire season.
That Nick was able to walk away uninjured from that
crash shows that Spark has built a bloody safe race car
and that the organiser built a very safe circuit. The catch
fence did 100% of its job perfectly. The battery casing was
damaged, but that’s designed to absorb and dissipate
energy. The battery itself was still functioning perfectly.
I think Nico Prost reacted out of instinct, not out of
probably accepts it was a rash move. I can understand the
desperation. These guys work hard and race hard. It was
a moment of poor decision making.
Venturi will have to build a new car from scratch in
Malaysia. That will take a lot of work. The body has to
be rubbed down and made good, all of the looming and
pipework has to be installed – and they’ll have to build it in
a pit garage rather than a proper workshop. It’s quite a job.
Alejandro and his team deserve massive credit. Unless
And as the technical regulations free up from season two,
In Malaysia, the main
worry is super high
temperatures. All sorts of
weird things will happen.
Williams assures us it will
have no effect on the battery
temperature, but we were
already running hot in
Beijing, and Putrajaya will
Hopefully that will also
mean that the tyres will work
better, and we can get more
Sylvain Filippi
Virgin Racing
current-e.com
ignition switch from position 0 (everything off) through position one (which
engages the 12V system) to position two (which arms the high voltage
system). Wait a few seconds for the systems to prime.
21
Named for and headed up by Lord Paul Drayson,
a former British science minister and a racing
fanatic, Drayson Racing Technologies was a critical
member of the early Formula E storyline. The
forwards gears to choose from, plus reverse. A strip of coloured LEDs above
no conventional engine noise to tell you when to shift.
Two of the three large dials in the centre of the steering wheel relate to
regenerative braking, a means of capturing waste energy and converting it into
electricity to recharge the battery. One dial controls how much energy you can
harvest when you press the brake pedal; the other sets regen levels that are
triggered with a paddle behind the steering wheel above the gear upshift.
brakes. I tried that going through the Cramer curves and down into the
old hairpin. It’s a place where you don’t want to hit your mechanical brakes
and lose too much speed, so you pull the paddle and use the regen to
slow you down just enough to take the corner.
Energy is only returned from the rear axle in the Spark-Renault – which
means that what you do with those two dials alters your brake balance
considerably. Every time you adjust the regen, you also need to change
of the cockpit, near your knee.
The powertrain gets hot quickly, and when you reach a pre-set
temperature, safety systems cut in and knock off all the regen. That
happened to me in a car that had no warning systems. Coming into a hard
braking zone, I pulled the regen paddle – but suddenly I had no braking.
I hit the footbrake, but because the balance was all the way forward to
counter the regen, I locked up massively.
The third main dial changes the torque maps – how much power is
delivered when you push the accelerator pedal. There are six notches,
all of which are programmable by the teams, within guidelines set by the
series organiser.
The grip of the tyres means that you can get on the throttle much earlier
in corners than you could normally. So you come out of a corner and give
it two or three seconds of full throttle – and then lift off slightly once you’ve
built up speed, to help conserve energy without losing pace.
At Donington, some drivers were turning down the throttle map dial
instead of lifting, but that means that you’ve got to turn it up again in time for
the next corner – as well as juggling the two regen dials, the regen paddle, the
mechanical brake bias and gear shifts.
In a conventional racing car, you don’t normally change the throttle maps
It seemed an even better match when
Qualcomm came on board as a founding partner:
the chipmaker also supplies the wireless charging
technologies under its Halo brand that Drayson
had already integrated into
its high performance electric
vehicles.
The team had secured
technical staff and had
It was increasingly clear that there
– Alexander Sims. The plan
was that Drayson would
sell Qualcomm’s wireless
charging systems to other
race teams from the second
year. Everything looked set
between owning a racing team and
supplying other racing teams
with wireless charging / / /
the sport’s Donington Park technical HQ, there
was a Drayson board above one of the garage
doors but a conspicuous absence of Drayson
personnel (we counted one person in a Drayson
shirt. And no, it wasn’t the man himself).
Shortly afterwards came the announcement
Trulli was taking Drayson’s place, and the sign
was replaced with one bearing the Italian’s name.
So what happened? “It was increasingly clear
between owning a racing team and supplying
explains Drayson. “We’re heavily involved in
learning from the experience of integrating the
20kW system in our B12 race car. From that, I
became absolutely convinced that there’s a great
business to develop here, using motorsport to
accelerate the development of the technology.
I had to make a decision. What was going to
be more important: owning a racing team (and
you know how passionate I am about racing) or
developing the business? I took the decision to
The business has already got stuck into
cutting cables in Formula E. The company
was responsible for installing Qualcomm Halo
3.3kW wireless charging systems to the BMW
i3 and i8 safety cars in time for the Beijing race,
and is working with Trulli GP to design similar
applications for the Spark-Renault.
“Trulli will be using wireless charging on
opens up in the second year, people can bring
designed for the race car, and integrated with
the electric drivetrain and the chassis to provide
The competitive advantages aren’t yet
immediately apparent to us under the existing
sporting regulations, although the absence of
cables may persuade the FIA to permit drivers
to change cars in the pit lane rather than in the
garages, which could make for faster car swaps.
“Teams like Trulli don’t want it if it isn’t going
boyish grin. “I’m really excited to be working with
Trulli. It’s a great platform for demonstrating this
NO DRIVER
TEAM
01
11 Lucas di Grassi
Audi Sport ABT
02
09 Sebastien Buemi
e.dams-Renault
03
02 Sam Bird
04
08
+1.024s
Karun Chandhok
Mahindra
+1.283s
Franck Montagny
NO
+1.602s
DRIVER
TEAM
01
02
08 Nicolas Prost
11 Lucas di Grassi
e.dams-Renault
Audi Sport ABT
03
66 Daniel Abt
Audi Sport ABT
04
06
04
+0.261s
06
+0.330s
23 Nick Heidfeld
Venturi
Virgin Racing
28 Charles Pic
Andretti
28 Charles Pic
Andretti
09
09 Sebastien Buemi
e.dams-Renault
10
10 Jarno Trulli
Trulli
10
99 Nelson Piquet Jr
China Racing
11
30 Stephane Sarrazin
Venturi
11
06 Oriol Servia
Dragon Racing
12
88 Ho-Pin Tung
China Racing
+2.902s
12
02 Sam Bird
Virgin Racing
13
99 Nelson Piquet Jr
China Racing
+3.209 s
13
Jerome d’Ambrosio Dragon Racing
14
Takuma Sato
Takuma Sato
Amlin Aguri
21 Bruno Senna
Mahindra
03 Jaime Alguersuari
Virgin Racing
23 Nick Heidfeld
Venturi
+4.642 s
18
18 Michela Cerruti
Trulli
+4.841s
19
06 Oriol Servia
Dragon Racing
16
Katherine Legge
20
Amlin Aguri
+9.913 s
88 Ho-Pin Tung
Katherine Legge
16
1:42.200s
+0.106s
Andretti
09
14
04
Mahindra
03 Jaime Alguersuari
+1.689 s
TIME
Franck Montagny
08
Audi Sport ABT
LAPS
Karun Chandhok
Andretti
QUALIFYING RESULTS
PRACTICE 1 RESULTS
Virgin Racing
e.dams-Renault
66 Daniel Abt
08
POS
1.41.934s
Nicolas Prost
Jerome d’Ambrosio Dragon Racing
06
TIME
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KPH
+0.483s
POS
04
04
Amlin Aguri
+1.929s
China Racing
+3.082s
Amlin Aguri
+3.169s
18 Michela Cerruti
Trulli
04
18
10 Jarno Trulli
Trulli
00
-
-
19
21 Bruno Senna
Mahindra
00
-
-
20
30 Stephane Sarrazin
Venturi
00
-
-
NO
TEAM
LAPS
TEAMS’ CHAMPIONSHIP
POS
TEAM
21
Bruno Senna
Mahindra Racing
02
11
Lucas di Grassi
Audi Sport ABT
03
88
Ho-Pin Tung
China Racing
Franck Montagny
Andretti
66
Daniel Abt
Audi Sport ABT
+0.831s
10
Jarno Trulli
Trulli
+1.116s
04
06
03
23
30
02
Audi Sport ABT
26
03
Virgin Racing
04
Dragon Racing
14
Mahindra Racing
10
China Racing
04
e.dams-Renault
03
08
Venturi GP
02
09
Amlin Aguri
02
10
Trulli GP
00
TEAM
POINTS
06
+0.483s
Nick Heidfeld
Venturi
11 Lucas di Grassi
Franck Montagny
Audi Sport ABT
02
Franck Montagny
Andretti
03
Sam Bird
04
Charles Pic
12
Karun Chandhok
10
Jerome d’Ambrosio
08
Oriol Servia
06
+41.968s
08
Nelson Piquet Jr
04
+43.896s
09
Nicolas Prost
03
Venturi
10
Stephane Sarrazin
02
11
Takuma Sato
02
12
Daniel Abt
01
13
Jaime Alguersuari
00
14
Nick Heidfeld
00
Michela Cerruti
00
Katherine Legge
00
Ho-Pin Tung
00
18
Sebastien Buemi
00
19
Jarno Trulli
00
20
Bruno Senna
00
02 Sam Bird
Virgin Racing
04
28 Charles Pic
Andretti
06
08
09
99 Nelson Piquet Jr
30 Stephane Sarrazin
China Racing
Nelson Piquet Jr
China Racing
10
66 Daniel Abt
Audi Sport ABT
28
Charles Pic
Andretti
11
03 Jaime Alguersuari
Virgin Racing
12
08
Nicolas Prost
e.dams-Renault
12
08 Nicolas Prost (P)
e.dams-Renault
Karun Chandhok
Mahindra
13
23 Nick Heidfeld
30
Stephane Sarrazin
Venturi
14
18 Michela Cerruti
06
Oriol Servia
Dragon Racing
18
Michela Cerruti
Trulli
16
Katherine Legge
Takuma Sato
18
Amlin Aguri
Katherine Legge
+4.148s
+4.830s
Amlin Aguri
19
02
Sam Bird
Virgin Racing
20
09
Sebastien Buemi
e.dams-Renault
+42.821s
16
88 Ho-Pin Tung
Takuma Sato (FL)
18
09 Sebastien Buemi
19
10 Jarno Trulli
20
21 Bruno Senna
(P) Started race on pole
+31.664s
Dragon Racing
99
14
06
Mahindra
11
+1.818s
+19.301s
Jerome d’Ambrosio Dragon Racing
06 Oriol Servia
+1.260s
+1.438s
Lucas di Grassi
03
Karun Chandhok
RACE RESULTS
PRACTICE 2 RESULTS
02
KPH
01
10
13
Location: Beijing, China
Date: 13.09.14
Track Length: 3.44km
Turns: 20
Race Laps: 25
Virgin Racing
01
1:41.341s
Jerome d’Ambrosio Dragon Racing
08
09
Jaime Alguersuari
TIME
TIME
126.2
+2:00.613
122.8
24
+1 lap
126.9
Venturi
24
+1 lap
126.9
Trulli
24
+1 lap
Amlin Aguri
24
+1 lap
120.1
China Racing
23
+2 laps
113.8
Amlin Aguri
e.dams-Renault
Trulli
Mahindra
(FL) Fastest lap of the race
21
14
-
-
02
-
-
-
-
-
DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP
NO DRIVER
01
POS
DRIVER
POINTS
Andretti Formula E
POS
POS
TEAM
01
16
18
23
23
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COMPONENTS
Consortium lead: Spark Racing
Technology
Integration: Renault
Chassis: Dallara
Motor generator unit: McLaren
Batteries: Williams
Motor control unit (inverter): McLaren
Transmission: Hewland
ECU: McLaren
Dampers: Koni
Wheels: OZ Racing
Brakes: Alcon
Tyres: Michelin
Inverter
TECHNICAL DATA
180kW (Fanboost)
Chassis: carbon/aluminium survival
monocoque; carbon and kevlar
honeycomb structures
Transmission:
sequential paddle shift
Drive: rear wheels only, no traction
control permitted, regenerative
braking via rear wheels only
Brakes: bespoke carbon package
Tyres:
MGU
Transmission
Battery safety cell
Illustration by Craig Scarborough
Battery capacity: 32kWh (as
manufactured); 28kWh (permitted use)
Battery weight: 200kg (cells alone);
320kg (including safety cell)
Power: 200kW peak (practice and
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The circuit was amazing: it was narrow and
scary when walking it, never mind driving it!
I’ve always been impressed with the skill of
racing drivers: millimetres from the walls, two or three
The wireless charging systems that we installed allowed
for instantaneous release of the BMW safety vehicles.
There was no unplugging. The safety car drivers only
pad, look at the dashboard display, and when you see
a green circle, stop.
The cars were parked at the end of the pit lane.
The charging pads were just part of the background.
But as soon as cars were positioned over them, they
sprang into life.
The i8 was used three times – before the race start,
for the Senna incident right at the beginning of the
The i3 medical car was released for that crash too. It
left the pit lane about 10 seconds after he landed – as
soon as the crew saw the incident, out they went. The
Graeme Davison
Vice President, technology
Qualcomm
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Heidfeld goes to the inside line...and they
Jack Nicholls
World feed commentator
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