Monaco Formula E Notebook – Friday

• FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem made a rare on-site visit to Formula E on Thursday evening at the Gen3Evo launch, also addressing the Formula E team principals meeting on Friday morning and attended the Jaguar Gen4 confirmation on Friday afternoon.
• Andretti Formula E team principal Roger Griffiths told Formula E Notebook that the President had “got behind Formula E” and that he was “very supportive of what the championship was trying to do.”
• “Personally, I wish the (Gen3Evo) car that was presented last night was what we had two years ago. That would have been a great starting point. I think from an aesthetics point of view this car is a good step forward and it looks more like a racing car and a little less cartoon-y,” added Griffiths.
• According to Formula E Gen3 Evo test driver Bruno Correia, the new-look car that was officially unveiled last night “will be a game changer on the medium and slow corners.”
• The Formula E safety car driver told Formula E Notebook that “exiting from the apex to the exit and the way you will apply the power with the front wheel tractioning (sic) will be the game changer.
• “In wet conditions it will be much faster too, you can exit the corners more rapidly,” added Correia “That’s the main difference. On the brakes, it will remain the same, high-speed corners I don’t feel that will have so much relevance unless you are sideway but I think that will not be the case! The speed exiting the corners, that will be quite a big change.”
• Correia also went on to agree with most race drivers’ opinions that the Attack Mode will now be less redundant than it has been so far in the last 18 months with the present Gen3 car.
• “Absolutely [attack mode will be more effective]. We always have the energy management to take in account, but because you have more power and you extract more from the battery you need to have evaluated that.
• “But I think that the car is becoming faster, with better grip, the overtaking will also be a little more difficult so the relevancy of the attack mode on these conditions will be super important. And we will actually be promoting what the attack mode is for – to make a change on the position and on the race.”
• James Barclay opened up to FEN about Jaguar Land Rover’s decision to continue being a registered manufacturer in Formula E in to the Gen4 era of the world championship.
• When asked about the challenge of the all-electric discipline and if Jaguar could look at additional programmes in the future, he said: “It’s a bit like the equivalent of Formula One. F1 is still the pinnacle of ICE engine racing and it doesn’t mean that manufacturers don’t do other things, do they necessarily back away from Formula One?
• “You look at Ferrari in Formula One, they still race in other categories. So, for us, this is the pinnacle of electric racing, should it continue to be the pinnacle of electric racing this is the North Star.
• “I think that’s the strength Formula E has. As other categories electrify in the future, which I’m sure they will do, does that mean they’ll be relevant to us? Quite possibly. Does that mean we’ll shift our focus from Formula E? I can’t really tell you that right now, is the reality, but if Formula E maintains that pinnacle of electric racing it’s the place we’d want to be,” surmised Barclay who has been an ever-present with the Big Cat’s Formula E efforts since 2016.
• Jaguar TCS Racing’s Mitch Evans told FEN that he appraises his first half of the 2023/24 season as being “a disappointing start, it’s not the start I was expecting to be honest.”
• “I would have expected to at least get one win by now, I haven’t had one podium, it’s just been a really strange year or season so far,” added the Kiwi. “I go into every race wanting to win, but I kind of want to use this weekend as a re-set to change my momentum in the championship.
• “It’s a track that I’ve always done well at but I’ve never won at in the past so that’s always a big motivator for me every time I come here I’m like, it’s going to be this year, but I feel like you can’t force it.”
• TAG-Heuer Porsche driver and championship leader Pascal Wehrlein said the rivalry between himself and Andretti’s Jake Dennis has been “made worse in the media than it actually is.”
• “We are driving for the same manufacturer, there’s a fine line in terms of how we fight because ultimately we are driving for the same manufacturer but also in different teams,” he told FEN. “We work together, but in the end we also want to beat each other. It’s quite normal, normal competition. I think the relationship with Andretti is going well, we are sharing everything. The best for us would be for both of us to be in the fight for the championship in London and having to deal with it just between us.”
• Formula E CEO Jeff Dodds told FEN that the bad blood between Porsche and the FIA at present is a concern and that he and Formula E Operations will assist in attempting to smooth the waters after several heated Misano conversations between them.
• “I think they (the FIA) have got an almost impossible job,” said Dodds. “I will also tell you, even as the promoter, if there is ever a decision made on track, if someone loses out due to a decision on track or a driver loses out to a decision on track or a team loses out, trust me I get 25 WhatsApps immediately after the race.
• “No one believes the decisions are right, because in the moment it doesn’t feel great. I think the point on the Porsche piece about being singled out, which is kind of the language Florian used, obviously if that were true it would be really disappointing – I’m not sure I see it that way, I don’t see it that way.
• “I understand that Porsche will be really disappointed with a couple of the big decisions that have gone against them. We need to work through that together, and we’ll help where we can.”
• DS Penske’s Stoffel Vandoorne reckons that the Gen3Evo will be an improvement on the current Gen3 model and contribute to a more positive driving experience for the competitors.
• “We have manufacturer testing days so we’ve obviously tried [active front powertrain] with DS and It’s definitely a much nicer feeling in the car with the four-wheel drive, changes a lot the behaviour, the feeling in the car as well,” Vandoorne told FEN.
• “I think it will be a big change in terms of the racing as well,” added Vandoorne. “Especially if we don’t have it in 300kW and we activate it in 350kW it will be a massive difference. Up to, I don’t know, maybe two seconds a lap. That will make the racing quite interesting. It will definitely be [a better driving experience than the Gen3].”
• Nissan team director Dorian Boisdron told FEN in Monaco that the team looked in depth as to its procedures after Oliver Rowland’s retirement from the race on the final lap of the second Misano EPrix after looking as if he would take a double victory. His race was ended after a team error in the process of setting his energy target for the race was impacted by a separate problem on the grid.
• “Everything is linked to the problem we had on the grid so we focus mainly on fixing that problem and make sure it won’t happen again in the future,” he said. “Then in terms of process and operations, just minor adjustments to double check that we have no loop hole that can put us in trouble in the future. At the end of the day, we didn’t change major things and just make sure that everyone is aligned on the original process.”
• New Mahindra performance director, Jeremy Colancon, has told FEN that working with team principal Frederic Bertrand was a key factor in him arriving at the team last autumn from the Maserati MSG team.
• “It was big part of the motivation because I like to work with people that I know and I have good confidence in, so clearly with Fred we already a good relationship and this was really important for me,” said Colancon.
• “But it’s also the project that was really attractive in the way they want to evolve in the future. This kind of project is what I like and I came for this. I think I’m not the only one as I’m sure we will have some more good people here also in the future.”
• The Maserati MSG Racing announced a partnership with luxury watchmaker Bianchet in Monaco. The collaboration, which was described as ‘ignited by intense passion and fused with a mutual desire to push boundaries, marks a new era of luxury and bespoke performance’ saw Maserati MSG drivers Jehan Daruvala and Maximilian Guenther presented with a timepiece each.
• DS Automobiles and Penske Autosport are celebrating ‘the prestige and glamour’ of the renowned principality. The French manufacturer and its American partner have come up with a unique livery to mark the occasion. In a shade of jet black and with a gold logo the livery is reminiscent of the famous 70s and mid-80s Lotus colours via its sponsor JPS.
• Indycar entrant Beth Paretta was in the Formula E paddock on Friday and caught up with her former charge at the Indy500 in 2021, Simona de Silvestro. Paretta is the CEO of the Paretta Autosports team which also ran selected IndyCar races in 2022 with de Silvestro scoring a best finish of 18^th at Mid-Ohio.

Header image: Spacesuit Media.