- Formula E Notebook has learned that the 2024/25 ABB FIA Formula E campaign could start in Sao Paulo on December 14 before taking in Mexico City and a possible new venue, likely to be in North America, in January.
- A draft calendar will be submitted to the FIA World Motorsport Council for ratification in June. It could see the second Tokyo ePrix being run on May 17. This could be part of an Asian triple-header of events that includes races a Shanghai and a return to Jakartra in June, each straddling the 2025 Le Mans 24 Hours.
- The Race reported earlier this week that a possible move from the London ExCeL Arena to Silverstone might be on the cards in 2025, with a possible April date for a double-header event at the Home of British Motorsport. Click HERE for the story.
- Jack Aitken will be replaced by F2 driver Paul Aron at Envision for the extra free practice session tomorrow. Aron will join Joel Eriksson in the Envision Racing team for the Berlin double-header in May. Aitken has been ruled out of the Berlin rounds due to a clashing IMSA race at Laguna Seca over the weekend of 11-12 May.
- Plans to address what many believe will be serious track limits violations for the races this weekend are being put in to place by FIA race director Scot Elkins and his team. FEN understands that the FIA could implement extra kerbs at the Turn 8/9 chicane and potentially tyre-walls on the run off areas to deter drivers from taking advantage of cutting corners.
- Abt Cupra’s Lucas di Grassi went around the track with Elkins on Thursday morning to survey the track with areas of concern believed to be exit kerbs at some of the turns. High kerbing is generally not used primarily on the prominent motorcycle racing designed Misano World Circuit. A final decision on what strategy the FIA may implement to deter track limits is expected after the Rookie Free Practice, FP1 session and drivers briefing on Friday evening.
- DS Penske teammates Stoffel Vandoorne and Jean-Eric Vergne, as well as Abt Cupra’s Nico Mueller, only arrived at the Misano track on Thursday morning having come direct from a test of the new-look Peugeot Hypercar at Paul Ricard.
- Nissan driver Oliver Rowland only arrived at the Misano track late on Thursday afternoon after reporting in ill from his hotel room earlier in the day. The Tokyo EPrix runner-up is expected to be present tomorrow, although the team has cover in the shape of official reserve and rookie Free Practice runner Caio Collet.
- The steering problem that affected Sam Bird’s Tokyo EPrix was “more an operational issue, human error, rather than anything else” NEOM McLaren team principal Ian James told FEN.
- “It wasn’t affecting the performance of the car at the time but with the information that we had it was the right thing to do to bring him back in and make sure we resolved the issue.
- “With anything like that where you’ve got a question mark over steering you don’t want to take any chances.
- “[The quick release on the steering] wasn’t clicked in properly but he’d reported that there was an issue with the steering and he’d tried a number of different things to correct that.
- “It didn’t work and at that point the right thing to do it to bring the driver in.”
- A senior executive from Yamaha told FEN at Tokyo last month that the company will not be pushing for future individual battery development after announcing its Formula E entry in conjunction with Lola.
- “We have no intention of developing our own batteries in the future, but we will involve ourselves in selecting which manufacturer’s battery is used [for our electric motors]” said Heiji Maruyama Managing Executive Officer and Director, Yamaha Motor co., ltd.
- “If we can have a Japanese driver in the race, I think it would make it more exciting. In today’s Formula E, there are no extremely strong drivers or teams that you could call ‘heroes’, but everyone is closely matched. Everybody has a chance. Having Japanese drivers out there competing against the best is something I want to look forward to.”
- Formula E CEO Jeff Dodds says that he is optimistic that Misano this weekend will prove to be a success and that the venue can stay beyond its initial one-year deal as a Formula E host.
- “The infrastructure is fabulous and there is a very passionate motorsports crowd there,” Dodds told FEN.
- “The commitment of the leadership team there at the Circuit Misano has been unbelievable. They are throwing themselves and making sure this is a highly successful event. I think, mixed bag when you talk to some of the drivers, about what that circuit will be like. They don’t know.
- “I’m optimistic about the venue, it’ll be interesting if we chat after the race to kind of do a moment of reflection: what was the structure like? What was the set up for the teams like? What sort of TV experience was it? Was it a great race or were there track limits and it wasn’t a very good race?
- “I think it’ll be really interesting to review it. But the key thing as well is we get 20,000 people there.”
- Dodds elaborated to FEN his overall thoughts on the balance of street and permanent circuits on the Formula E calendar, after The Race recently reported a probable deal with Silverstone to host future races.
- “For us to showcase the car, it’s almost the opposite strategy to Formula One now because we also need circuits where we can showcase full potential of the car,” he said.
- “So, as we get into Gen3.5 and Gen4, 0 to 60 in probably under two seconds with the potential to go over 200 miles per hour, you also need tracks you can show that off on, and that’s quite difficult on a street circuit. It’s difficult on a street circuit unless you’re going to pay tens of millions in building one that’s capable to do that.”
- Plans to re-animate the Cape Town ePrix are on course according to one of its key founders, Iain Banner.
- The ‘Mother City’ hosted a race in February last year but did not appear for a second race in this year’s world championship and again won’t for 2025. However, Banner told sometime Formula E presenter David Coulthard and ex F1 team boss Eddie Jordan on the Formula for Success podcast this month that: “We pulled off a coup doing it the first year, it was a very large sum of money, we had to do the CapEX (Capital Expenditures), which is get the track built,”
- “Secondly, the barriers, the fencing, the bridges, the tech Pro system inside the track. Having spent that money, we then had to on top of that fund, a very large sum operationally need to put the race on.
- “We will do it again. But we’ve needed to build this ecosystem first. We just had our second staging of our first investment project for $600 million (12 billion Rand), a very good outcome and we’re getting traction.
- “Straight answer, we didn’t have the money to do it in year two. But we will have it in the future. I’m only going to do it again when we can sustain it and do it year on year, so it’s a 20 year initiative,” Banner concluded.
- Nissan’s Formula E Chief Powertrain Engineer, Tadashi Nishikawa believes that despite differences in manufacturer powertrains in Gen 3 that recent software upgrades are the reason why the competition is closer this season.
- “In Season 9, we always noticed the difference between the powertrains on the grid in terms of efficiency and overall performance,” said Nishikawa.
- “However, this year, I don’t see such a gap. The four top manufacturers are very closely matched. These developments are encouraging, because we are seeing a positive impact from the software updates we’ve brought in for Season 10. The car is better in terms of easier energy management, which helps the drivers a lot, reducing the gap relative to the other teams.”
- The full line up of drivers for the extra Free Practice (FP0) session at 14.30 on Friday afternoon:
- Jaguar (Sheldon van der Linde)
- Envision (Paul Aron)
- Andretti (Zane Maloney)
- Porsche (Matt Campbell)
- DS Penske (Robert Shwartzman)
- Maserati (Yann Ehrlacher)
- Nissan (Caio Collet)
- NEOM McLaren (Taylor Barnard)
- ERT (Mikel Azcona)
- Abt Cupra (Tim Tramnitz)
- Mahindra (Jordan King)
- Seen in the Misano paddock on Thursday were 2012 GP2 champion Davide Valsecchi and Andretti Extreme E driver Catie Munnings.
Header image: Spacesuit Media
