- Formula E CEO Jeff Dodds told Formula E Notebook (FEN) that the Tokyo EPrix has a multi-year contract and that the strong desire is for that to be seen through.
- “The plan is to be here, multi-year,” he confirmed. “I haven’t felt an energy around a race like this one before with the energy in the city, the people that are attending, the speed at which the tickets sold out, the activations from the manufacturers, and the announcements.”
- “I’ll do whatever I can in my power to make sure that we come back here every year. But we also rely on the Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) wanting to continue to support a race in Tokyo,” concluded Dodds.
- Governor of Tokyo, Yuriko Koike will visit the Big Sight circuit on race day. She has been instrumental in allowing the event to take place alongside the Tokyo Festival which is encompassing the Tokyo ZEV Action initiative that has been organised by TMG.
- Off the back of Nissan’s Thursday announcement that it has committed a long-term future to Formula E, Jaguar’s James Barclay told FEN that it was “a bit too soon for me to say [if Jaguar will follow with a Gen4 commitment].
- “But we have said for a long time that we have a long-term commitment to Formula E. That hasn’t changed; we do very much look at this as a long-term approach.
- “As long as all the key terms are right for us then we have no need to change that approach as a business. We’ll announce in due course our intentions, but from our perspective as long as the key fundamental terms are correct our interest here is long term,” added Barclay.
- Vietnam has recently entered the fray to host a Formula E race in the future. The country was set to host a Grand Prix in Hanoi in 2020 but plans were scuppered by the global Covid-19 pandemic. It is not clear if a similar location is planned for a potential Formula E race.
- RB F1 Team driver Yuki Tsunoda will pay the Formula E paddock a visit tomorrow. The Japanese driver is in his home country ahead of next weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka.
- Dr. Anish Shah, the Group CEO of the Mahindra Group and the Managing Director of Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, the parent company of the Mahindra Group will make a rare visit to the Formula E paddock tomorrow. He is believed to be in discussions about the Indian manufacturer’s future in Formula E with team principal Frederic Bertrand and Formula E executives.
- FEN understands that Robert Shwartzman will again test for the DS Penske team at May’s Berlin rookie test. The current AF Corse WEC driver, who shares a Ferrari 499 with Robert Kubica and Yifei Ye is also in line to drive in the extra free practice session at Misano in two weeks’ time.
- Reigning Formula E champion Jake Dennis has expanded on what he calls “an inconsistent start to the season” by detailing some of the issues he and the Andretti team have been facing.
- Dennis told FEN that getting used to some updated Andretti software has contributed to his feel for the brakes on his Porsche-powered car.
- “Everyone has the same brakes, so ultimately the feeling we have is all done through software. We’ve made hundreds of iterations from London last year to this year. I haven’t really been involved in any of them because we don’t’ really do any testing so any time we get new software it’s progressed so much,” he said.
- “It’s challenging at times to adapt my driving and not having any testing and not having any testing in between the races makes that difficult. Whereas some of the manufacturer teams have that luxury.
- “I’m confident that the direction it’s going towards will be ultimately better, it’s just right now in this transition phase with no testing it is making my life more difficult than it was last year,” concluded Dennis.
- World Championship points leader Nick Cassidy detailed to FEN that he is expecting a tough second half of the season “because I’m thinking that maybe as a manufacturer, Misano, Shanghai and Portland might be tracks that don’t really suit us, too well and they’re all doubleheaders.
- “The single header races are not really weighted to us as much as last year. I look back at the Sao Paulo where we needed to score high and that’s why I was so disappointed,” added the Jaguar TCS Racing driver.
- “When I look at the overall kind of overall perspective of the championship, I’m more thinking about performance and how we can fluctuate track to track what do we need to do to optimise performance in different scenarios, development, that kind of thing.
- Hankook have confirmed some details of its new for Gen3Evo tyres that will be run for the final two seasons of the rules set.
- Hankook’s Director of Motorsports, Manfred Sandbichler, told FEN that “we have already finished some tests with good results. The target is clear. To generate more performance and more grip.
- “What we’ve learned now and what my engineering team learned is that we made a good step forward. It will not be a massive one but a step, which especially the driver feels. We will have a higher grip level, and so far, we get really good comments from the drivers.”
- Several potential new manufacturers to the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship have recently visited races. Representatives from BYD, Hyundai and Geely have all taken in races recently, with Geely, which counts Lotus among its brands, having guests at the Tokyo ePrix this weekend.
- Sao Paulo victor Sam Bird has alleged that it was in fact his NEOM McLaren teammate Jake Hughes who instigated the bet laid down to Bird’s engineer Stephen Lane to dye his hair platinum when the NEOM McLaren team won a race, mimicking Bird who went blonde in January.
- “It wasn’t me; it was Jake [Hughes],” a recently platinum-dyed Bird told FEN.
- “Jake was the one who threw him under the bus and then the media team have got hold of this and gone ‘you’re going to have to do this now because there are too many people on our social platforms saying that it needs to happen.’
- “But I also threw him under the bus after the race in Sao Paulo. Big time!”
- A special Nissan Tokyo EPrix preview podcast featuring Tommaso Volpe and Oliver Rowland from The Race is available to listen HERE.
- International karter Sita Vanmeert is the first confirmed female driver for the 2024 NXT Gen Cup season as the electric junior championship gets ready to race on the FIA Formula E bill for the first time at Misano next month.
- “I’m stoked to make my racing debut in NXT Gen Cup and face a season racing on iconic circuits like Monaco and Hockenheim. It’s going to be a great next step in my career and especially to race 100% electric.” said Vanmeert
- Misano held the official 2024 NXT Gen Cup pre-season test days this week, with eight sessions spread over Tuesday and Wednesday. All drivers took part in an E-safety course, seat fitting, weigh-in and had eight available test sessions throughout the two days.
- The Top Six times from the Misano test were as follows:
1 – Jonathan Engström – SWE – 2:00.154
2 – Calvin De Groot – NED – +0.137
3 – Enzo Hallman – SWE – +0.517
4 – Max Van den Doel – NED – +0.780
5 – Lukas Stiefelhagen – NED – +0.932
6 – Emilian Carde – FRA – +0.999
- Formula E has announced Taittinger has became the Official Champagne of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, starting this year.
- The bubbly will be served in the EMOTION Club premium hospitality section at Formula E races and at gala and other special events throughout the tenth anniversary season. Previously, Mumm Cordon Rouge and Moet had been Formula E suppliers.
- Double F1 world champion Emerson Fittipaldi will be back in the paddock for a second consecutive race tomorrow as a guest of Formula E Operations.
Header image: Spacesuit Media
