Berlin Formula E Notebook – Pre-Race

The FIA has reduced the Attack Mode timings at Berlin this weekend to six instead of the usual eight minutes of 350kW running. The measures have been approved after advice from spec battery supplier Fortescue WAE.
In a statement supplied to FEN, the FIA stated “The duration of Attack Mode for the Berlin E-Prix has been reduced as part of the normal and continuous process of cars life cycle monitoring. The Sporting Regulations have been specifically designed to allow for this flexibility in format.”
Speaking on the reduction of attack mode duration, Nissan’s Sacha Fenestraz told FEN he thought it was “a shame that attack mode is only reduced to six and four minutes in the races, six for the first race and four for the second or vice versa. A bit of a shame, it was eight always.
“There are some issues, reasons why they’re doing it. Hopefully it doesn’t stay like this for the whole season because the eight minutes, it could be beneficial but in this track not as much. In Shanghai, Portland it’s extremely beneficial so if they put it down to four and six minutes it’s not that nice,” concluded the Franco-Argentinian.
Antonio Felix Da Costa was fastest in the first practice session in Berlin by setting a best time of 1m02.289s lap ahead of Sergio Sette Camara and Stoffel Vandoorne. Pascal Wehrlein’s Porsche brought out a red flag that increased the session by ten minutes after a technical failure saw the car stationary on track.
The Berlin EPrix circuit has a new look this season, with the changes aiming to compliment the Gen3 cars upon review of the racing from last year. With less corners (now 10) and a slightly shorter distance (2.25km), FEN spoke to some of the drivers about their thoughts on the updated layout and received mixed opinions.
“I think they could’ve done a better job, overall, in some of the corners, like last corner, some of the stuff I would personally change. But it’s decent – it will be a good track for the racing.” Said Lucas Di Grassi.
Dan Ticktum added: “I famously said a couple of years ago this was my least favourite circuit I’ve probably ever driven, but I think this layout is a lot better. So, whoever’s designed it, good job.”
“The layout seems interesting;” said Sacha Fenestraz. “I think last corner here they’ve managed to copy paste a bit what we’re going to have Shanghai Turn 1 with a long corner that we have here, but here is a long left, Shanghai is a long right. I think the idea is very similar to what we’re going to experience in Shanghai.
“The rest I think is going to be very interesting for overtaking and the race. Qualifying won’t be as important as it was in Monaco, here it’s very wide, it’s not as narrow as Monaco. We’ll see, but I think as I said qualifying for Saturday won’t be as important as for Sunday. Of course, the energies are different and I think Sunday’s race is going to be a lot quicker just because we have more energy for the whole race.”
Edoardo Mortara’s crashed Monaco survival cell has been sent back to Dallara for repairs necessitating the Italo/Swiss driver to use the spare monocoque the team shares with Abt Cupra for the upcoming Berlin races. The official cause for the accident has still not been publicly disclosed.
Hankook conducted a day of testing at the little known Anneau du Rhin test track near Mulhouse in France the Thursday after the Monaco EPrix, concentrating on wet weather running with the Gen3Evo demo car. FEN understands that former BMW and Mahindra driver Alexander Sims conducted the running.
FEN understands that the issues that stopped Jehan Daruvala from taking the attack modes in Monaco, and ultimately led to him being penalised for not doing so, were not found after the Maserati MSG team undertook a major investigation after the race. The team is believed to have fitted new transponders as a precautionary measure for Berlin this weekend.
Ahead of their first Formula E race weekends, Jordan King and Paul Aron spoke to FEN to discuss their feelings and expectations for the Berlin EPrix double header.
“I’m feeling good. I have prepared a lot for this,” Aron explained. “Ever since I ran in the car a month ago basically, in Misano, I’ve been in contact with the team doing a lot of simulator and preparing as much as I can, studying all the systems on all the plane flights, so in that sense I think I’m well prepared.
“The team has made it very clear there is no expectations here, I think they know it is not easy to jump in without ever running or having run in a championship like this.”
Nyck de Vries’ replacement King said: “I’m feeling pretty good, pretty happy, feel quite relaxed – I’m sure the nerves will start to build up and I’ll get more and more nervous.
“Expectations, I can’t really answer that because I’ve not done it yet; I’ve got nothing to compare to. Clearly the team want some success, we haven’t scored points yet so that would be a great achievement but I’m under no disillusion how tough that will be.”
FEN has discovered that the FIA is speaking to several specialist clothing suppliers, among them Alpinestars and OMP, about possible extra protective options for racing gloves. Possible trials of a new product could take place later this year in an effort to mitigate more the potential of drivers suffering hand injuries which have occurred to several drivers over the last 16 months.
Maserati MSG rookie test driver Nicolas Pino is one of the few drivers in the 22 rookie field to have recently got some testing ahead of next Monday’s event at Tempelhof. The Chilean got time in a Gen2 car at the Varano track in Italy just before the Monaco EPrix and before he was confirmed as a Stellantis young driver.
Formula E CEO Jeff Dodds told The Race Formula E podcast last week that an exclusive all-female test could be in the offing in 2025 and has been put to teams to gauge the feasibility for such an event. Formula E held something similar in 2018 at Diriyah when the likes of Jamie Chadwick, Carrie Schreiner, Tatiana Calderon and Pippa Mann tested.
Dodds said: “We’re trying to find ways with the FIA to get more women into seats for rookie testing. We’ve got Marta and Alice [in Berlin rookie test] which is great but what we’re actually discussing with the FIA as we move towards Valencia, is there an opportunity for exclusive women’s rookie testing, so a separate session or day where it is only women.”
You can listen to the podcast HERE.
Dodds also told FEN that discussions with manufacturers have taken place regarding the potential addition of design cues on cars in the future to help further identify branding for individual OEMs.
“We have had those conversations with some manufacturers, not all of them by the way, but a couple of the manufacturers feel strongly that they’d like to have their own design cues into the car,” he said.
“If we can do it, I would be completely open to it, if we could allow them to introduce a subtle design cue from their car – that could be branding, but it could also be a design cue – if there’s a way of doing it that doesn’t affect performance that everyone is comfortable with, definitely open to it.”
Nissan chief Tommaso Volpe told FEN last month that he believes Fenestraz will at least get on a par with new team mate Oliver Rowland soon. The Franco-Argentinian has scored 64 points fewer than his teammate in the first half of the 2023-24 campaign.
“It’s surprising [that Oliver is so far ahead of Sacha], nobody was expecting to have this gap, but I think the first person that is putting pressure on himself is Sacha,” said Volpe.
“At the same time, we are confident [Sacha’s performance] will come back. I’m sure he’s perfectly capable to do what Ollie is doing as well, it’s just that he has to put all the pieces together.
“The team has grown a lot, our operations are more complex, there’s much more going on in the preparation of every race so he probably still has to adapt to the new context,” concluded Volpe.
Andretti’s Norman Nato told FEN after the Monaco EPrix that he was “frustrated” by recent races that have seen multiple contacts.
“We came in Monaco for more and so far qualifying is our weakness, Jake and myself, a couple of races now where we’re struggling a lot in qualifying now, and it costs points,” he said.
“At the end it’s really risky to start at the back; lose a front wing like Jake did, like I did. It’s a shame because in races we always have a decent pace but today, generally, we were lacking.”
On Nato’s future with Andretti, Team Principal Rodger Griffiths said: “We’ve not made any decisions as far as season 11 goes and what the driver line-up will be other than Jake is going to be in the car. We’ve given Norman a timeline, he’s well-aware of it, he’s a professional, he knows what he has to do.
“We don’t tell him ‘you have to score X points by a certain point’, I don’t want to put any more pressure on him. I think if we do that, the relationship will go backwards. So, we’ll let him do his talking on the racetrack.”
Felipe Drugovich and Nicolas Pino will test for Maserati MSG on Monday, and the teams head of engineering and new deputy team principal Cyril Blais reckons it will prove to be a useful preparation for the remainder of the season.
“We have a fantastic opportunity to refine our package for the final three race weekends of the season,” said Blais. “Our target for Berlin is simple, and it’s the same as always: maximise our track time in practice, perform well in qualifying, drive an intelligent race, stay out of trouble and then hopefully, we can be in for a good set of results with both cars.”
Pino’s United Autosports WEC squad mate Gregoire Saucy will join Pino at the test on Monday having signed up for the NEOM McLaren team to replace Sam Bird substitute Taylor Barnard who is now ineligible for the rookie test after making his Formula E debut in Monaco last month.
Saucy told FEN that he “did the sim on Monday so saw the track. I think the most difficult thing, as they told me, is the brakes, so we need to adapt with the brakes.
“As there is some good wide corners there it will be interesting for me to come back in a single seater and to see what we can do, to work with the team and to learn this car. It should be nice.”
Robin Frijns, Sebastien Buemi, Nyck de Vries and Nico Mueller will all attend Sunday’s race even though they are unable to drive. The quartet will travel to Berlin from Spa on Saturday evening and be on hand for their teams during the second day of action. They will fly in to Berlin on Saturday evening along with Envision test driver Dries Vanthoor and Porsche reserve Andre Lotterer.
ERT test driver Marta Garcia told FEN in Monaco that she was “trying to learn as much as possible, trying to understand a bit how the car works, how they manage the race, how they manage qualifying.
“I’m looking forward to see how the race is to understand a little bit more, to be with the engineers and asking questions if I don’t understand anything. I’m happy with these two days, I think it’s going to be helpful for the test.”
The Porsche Taycan Turbo GT will become the new Safety Car for the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, debuting in Berlin this weekend. The Turbo GT features enhanced power, range and faster charging, with the optional Weissach package enabling acceleration from 0-100km/h in 2.2 seconds and a top speed of 305 km/h, alongside an Attack Mode inspired by Formula E technology.