Diriyah Formula E Notebook – Part 2

The first free practice session was punctuated by the usual dusty track (a legacy of local construction work on the perimeter of the track) and a stoppage for Sebastien Buemi’s Envision Jaguar which appeared to suffer a problem with its RESS. The session was extended by 12 minutes with Oliver Rowland topping the times on a lap of 1m15.400s. That was almost exactly five seconds slower than the corresponding session last season.
The usable energy for the Diriyah EPrix has been set at 38.5kWh for both EPrixs this week. The first will take place over 37 laps and the second at 36. This compares to the 39 lap events that took place last year when the useable energy allowed was 40kWh.
Pascal Wehrlein is recovering from illness but was at the circuit on Thursday for team and media duties. The Mexico City EPrix winner missed the annual Charity Gala Dinner on Wednesday evening. “I had a virus for a few weeks and I’m just getting over it but I am feeling much better now,” he told FEN.
Former DS Techeetah senior engineer David Ladouce has started a new role at Nissan this weekend and will act as Chief Engineer within the organisation. The former ART GP, Citroen and BMW engineer worked with Antonio Felix da Costa and Stoffel Vandoorne predominantly in recent seasons.
David Beckmann is Porsche and official reserve driver this week in Diriyah as Andre Lotterer is making his Formula E TV debut as an expert analysis alongside Dario Franchitti and Karun Chandhok. Zane Maloney is again on hand for Andretti as its official reserve.
NEOM McLaren test and development driver Taylor Barnard is on site at Diriyah for the first time in his new role. Barnard was racing in a Middle East regional championship in Mexico City and believes that his experience with the team will be a “really useful experience in developing lots of new skills throughout the year.” Barnard is likely to fill one of the two McLaren seats at a planned but as yet not officially announced rookie test at Berlin in May.
Cyril Blais, the new Chief Engineer at Maserati MSG, reckons that the challenging off-season for the team with both team principal James Rossiter and previous chief engineer Jeremy Colancon leaving the team has re-grouped the squad beneficially.
“What you have to remember is, on a technical side, we didn’t lose that many people actually,” Blais told FEN. “It’s not a one person team and you can see that the rest of the team, 90% stayed the same. It shows that people think ‘ahh you lose key personnel, you lose one two guys, the team is finished’. That’s not the case.
“For sure it destabilised the team, for sure it’s not something we wanted or we were looking forward to, but people who have been here there two, three years, maybe not as much senior position, but they’re part of the team and they can deliver. If you give them an opportunity, then they can deliver.”
Oliver Rowland has told FEN that he “doesn’t feel like from a driver perspective I’m particularly rusty” as he effectively has half a season less running than the vast majority his competitors.
“Throughout last year, these cars are so complex now and the systems are changing, you are just having that experience of trying new things, working out what works for you and what works for the car and for the tyres.
“I feel like last year was a big learning curve for everybody, and just missing that second half of the season and understanding ‘ok this worked, that didn’t’.
“Now it’s more like, for example in Mexico, I probably went in the wrong direction with some stuff based on my feedback. Post Mexico you analyse it and say, ‘oh ok, I probably shouldn’t have done that, we won’t do that in the future’ and ‘we’ll be careful of that’. I think that’s the element that I’m just lacking that six months at the moment; to know exactly ‘in this situation this is what the car requires and this is what I need to do.”
NEOM McLaren’s Jake Hughes told FEN that he largely expects a hybrid saving and hierarchical race in Diriyah compared to the turgid opening race in Mexico City earlier this month.
“From what we’ve seen on the simulator so far we’re definitely not going to see a Portland race or a Berlin race, even a Monaco race to some extent,” said Hughes.
“We will see a busy first half of the race, I would anticipate. There are more overtaking opportunities here, obviously biased towards one particular corner in general, and we will probably expect to see halfway through the race where people have saved enough energy that it will become a little bit locked, as we like to say. Overtaking might become more and more difficult as the energy we’re saving increases our targets lap on lap and the coasting period becomes smaller and smaller.
“I think that’s a mixture of the usable energy we have to use but also the cars are, even if they’re homologated the same package as we had last year, they’re so much more efficient than they were this time last year because teams have figured them out, us included.”
Jaguar TCS’s Mitch Evans said to FEN that he and other drivers were “a bit surprised with the amount of laps and the amount of [energy], the lack of coasting we’ll be doing,” for the Diriyah E-Prix.
“We’re expecting maybe a change after Mexico because it was not the most exciting Formula E race ever, but it’s not been the case. I think we’re all a bit surprised, plus the race on Saturday is even shorter.
“It’s a bit of a concern because we want to showcase the energy management side, it’s a real quality that we have in this category, but we’re going to almost be taking that away. It’s a bit of a shame, I’m sure other tracks will be different, but I was expecting maybe them to rethink things after Mexico.”
Nick Cassidy is taking some momentum from his best ever result in Mexico City (3rd) to Diriyah, another circuit where he has a modest record results wise. His previous best result was sixth claimed last season.
“My best result in Mexico had been ninth and I hadn’t been strong in Mexico previously,” Cassidy told FEN. “I’d say here I’ve been strong on pace over the years just haven’t had a result. Probably the confidence thing for me is that every other track after this one, I’m feeling pretty good. So, let’s see what see what this weekend brings.”
Mahindra is expecting to be able to track test its new 2025 powertrain in May according to team principal, Frederic Bertrand. He told The Race’s Formula E podcast last week that the team were “aiming to run in May, if not sooner.”
CBX, the promoter of the 2024 Diriyah E-Prix, announced the Diriyah Company as a partner for the upcoming Formula E Diriyah E-Prix taking place on the 26th and 27th of January, Rounds 2 and 3 of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship.
Carlo Boutagy, the founder and CEO of CBX, said: “To witness the start of the project five years ago and see its development, culminating in the sales of the first residential properties in Diriyah, makes me very proud. We are very lucky to have the stunning Bujairi Terrace as a backdrop to our race which tells the rich story of the Kingdom through a multitude of vendors in arguably one of the most beautiful settings in the world. I hope the Formula E community have the opportunity to visit during their time in Diriyah.”
The annual Diriyah EPrix charity dinner raised a significant amount of money for several causes. Among these is the Charitable Society of Autism Families which helps to provide platforms for people living with autism. An auction at the event included a chance to drive a Gen3 Formula E car on the Diriyah circuit with two drives being taken for $100k each, while a signed Cristiano Ronaldo Al-Nassr shirt collected $120,000. So far, more than $1.8 million has been raised from the auction and additional donations.
Formula E has maintained its position as global leader for sustainability in sport, topping the Global Sustainability Benchmark in Sport (GSBS) report, the Sustainable Championships Index (SChI™), and the Sustainable Motorsport Index (SMI).
GSBS, the independent sustainability rating organisation, named Formula E top in four of the five award categories for sustainable performance from amongst the world’s leading elite sporting organisations, published in its annual report this week. The report included a comprehensive analysis of 55 of the most influential organisations in the sports industry, including: FC Barcelona, Manchester City FC, Real Madrid, the Premier League, Formula 1, NFL, WWE, Chicago Bulls, Boston Celtics, NY Yankees, Los Angeles Lakers, and UFC.
Envision Racing’s remarkable Recover-E initiative last year won the Most Inspiring Campaign award at The Race Media Awards held in London yesterday. Recover-E saw Envision shine a spotlight on the global issues of e-waste. The unique car was officially launched live on flagship BBC programme ‘The One Show’ and also featured on legendary BBC Children’s TV show Blue Peter.
Maserati has a new global Chief Marketing Officer – Giovanni Perosino. He started his career at Lancia in 2001 where he worked for the late FIAT CEO Sergio Marchionne. He then worked for Volkswagen Group and Audi, before joining Lamborghini in 2019 as Chief Commercial Officer. Since 2022 he has worked as Chief Marketing Officer at ITA Airways, before being brought to the Trident by Maserati Brand CEO, Davide Grasso.
The ERT Formula E Team has announced a new partnership with the international water brand, Icelandic Glacial. The company’s logo will run on both cars’ sidepods throughout the 2024 ABB FIa Formula E world championship campaign.
“We are excited to be partnering with the ERT Formula E Team as they embark on this exciting new chapter,” commented Reza Mirza, Group CEO of Icelandic Glacial. “Their unwavering commitment to innovation and sustainability aligns perfectly with our brand’s values, and we are confident that this partnership will be mutually beneficial. We look forward to collaborating with the ERT Formula E Team to deliver exciting initiatives that will foster environmental stewardship, engage fans, and showcase the exceptional qualities of both our brands.”
Among the guests in attendance at the PIF partnership announcement in London on Monday were actor Idris Elba and Olympic athletic legends Sir Mo Farrah and Daley Thompson.
Thompson had a fleeting motorsport career in the early 1990’s when he competed in several production saloon car championships, famously rolling a Peugeot 106 at Donington Park in 1993!
Among the celebrity names at Diriyah this week will be Hollywood actor Adrian Brody, who also attended the 2015 Monaco EPrix, Portuguese footballer Ruben Neves and 1990’s boyband irritants The Backstreet Boys, who are playing at the traditional race concert on Saturday.