Drivers ‘Direction Change’ Concerns
Formula E Notebook founder Sam Smith revealed over the Jakarta weekend that drivers have articulated concerns about the lack of clarity on the one defensive move rule and that the weekend’s events have further highlighted a need for added clarity.
Details of the revelation that some senior drivers met privately with race director Marek on Friday morning prior to the official drivers briefing can be read HERE.
Extra guidelines from the FIA regarding Article 8.1 which dictates Change of direction (also encompassing ‘moving under braking’ comes under Chapter IV of Appendix “L” of the International Sporting Code are set to be outlined for the next rounds in Berlin.
Reduced Attack Mode for Next Season?
Debate has already begun about the possibility of how the divisive Pit Boost sporting ingredient will be used for the future in Formula E. The topic was discussed at a recent Formula E Teams and Manufacturers Association meeting held in Paris last week, and it is understood that a possible reduction in Attack Mode to run alongside the Pit Boost stops could be adopted for the final Gen3 season in 2025-26.
Speaking to FEN from Jakarta last week, CUPRA KIRO deputy team principal Russell O’Hagan said he thought that this option is being assessed.
“I would think we’ll probably see it in Season 12 (2025-26), but potentially with a reduction of maybe down to one Attack Mode,” he said.
“If you look at the technology, it’s massively impressive in terms of the transfer (of energy) to the car in such a short time. So, I think from that side, it’s been really interesting. I think for the sporting format, it means it’s a lot. So, to have a 40 minute race, 45 minute race with two attack modes and a pit boost is a lot.”
Formula E bosses are set to evaluate the data both sportingly and from a media and fan standpoint after Berlin and London before making a final decision on Pit Boost’s future. FEN conducted a poll on its Twitter feed just before the Jakarta EPrix with 75% of fans stating they would like Pit Boost kept for races next season.
Women’s Test Troubles
A possible testing clash with F1 Academy could impact the Formula E female-only test at Valencia in late October should F1 Academy confirm its own testing in Bahrain close to the planned pre-season Formula E testing week in Spain. This is provisionally pencilled in for 27-31 October. That may present a logistical challenge for some competitors being able to make it to the Valencia running in time to take part. Several women competing in F1 Academy this season are also expected to again run in the FE test. These include Ella Lloyd, Chloe Chambers and Alisha Palmowski.
Porsche Juniors at Berlin?
TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team could utilise one of its official junior drivers at the official Berlin rookie test next month. Porsche Super Cup racer Theo Oeverhaus joined the Porsche programme last year and was the youngest ever driver to start a DTM race at Nürburgring in July 2022. Oeverhaus is the protégé of former BMW factory driver and 1996 F3000 champion, Joerg Mueller. Additionally, Alessandro Ghiretti is also understood to have the possibility of testing in Berlin toofor Porsche.
Andretti meanwhile is likely to have regular reserve and development driver Jak Crawford in the car again for Berlin, while Frederik Vesti, who ran with Mahindra last May is known to speaking to the team about the test and also the possibility of a longer-term deal with the U.S team in Formula E.
Jakarta Race Debrief
Stoffel Vandoorne will undergo medical checks on his back in Monaco tomorrow after his significant accident at the Jakarta EPrix. The Maserati MSG driver is believed to have suffered a 20G+ impact after losing control of his car when a suspected FPK issue triggered a battery shutdown. This is believed to have left him with little braking capability.
The cause of both Vandoorne’s shunt and teammate Jake Hughes’ stoppage is understood by FEN to have been caused by the same root issue and a complex series of failures. The main theory is that an overheating front-powertrain affected the 12-volt battery, which in turn cut off the battery rendering the braking obsolete. FEN understands that the emergency brake was deployed on Vandoorne’s car but did little to stop his substantial impact with the wall.
“We started to have a lot of alarms on the dash quite early on,” Vandoorne told FEN. “I think the battery, FPK, I don’t know, something was probably overheating, let’s say. At some point the whole thing just failed and we lost the brakes, so it was a big hit. I’m just glad that it wasn’t more severe than it was.”
With the DS Penske cars suffering issues early on via Jean-Eric Vergne hitting the back of Mitch Evans’ Jaguar and Maximilian Guenther getting suspension damage in his brush with Oliver Rowland’s Nissan, it meant Stellantis Motorsport scored no points in Indonesia. This is only the second time since the start of Gen3 this has occurred, the other occasion being at the Homestead race in April.
The clash between Pascal Wehrlein and Oliver Rowland late in the race saw no further action from the race stewards, which at the time surprised Rowland, who told his engineer that the attempt by Wehrlein was “a bit silly, if I get a pen for Guenther then that guy needs the same.”
Just prior to the contact Wehrlein told his engineer Fabrice Roussel that he believed the Nissan driver had been “driving so dirty.”
FEN caught a transcript of the conversation:
PW: ROW is closing the door; he’s driving so dirty it’s insane!
FR: Yes and I cannot do anything about it so eyes forward…..once again we are not racing him, let’s use him to progress.
PW: Yes it’s a drive through is what it should be.
FR: Lets concentrate on what we can do now, better than complaining on the radio.
Edoardo Mortara’s second place in Jakarta was his first visit to a Formula E podium since he won the second Seoul EPrix in August 2022. The Italo-Swiss shadowed eventual winner Dan Ticktum in the final laps but radioed through to his engineer Tom Davis on the penultimate tour to state: “I’m not risking it.”
“I think that we should have got both cars on the podium,” said Mortara after the race. “I was lucky and unlucky, let’s say. Before the second attack mode, I was in front of Dan and I think that if there are no interruptions, probably we would have had a good chance of finishing in front of him. But we were also very lucky, as the two guys in front of us (de Vries and Dennis) stopped.”
“In the end this is Formula E and a lot of things actually are happening,” added Mortara. “I believe that when you finish on the podium here, that means your day was quite good. I felt that there was definitely more potential in the car like in qualibut in terms of pace, I also felt very strong. We showed really good potential today.”
NEOM McLaren scored its third double points finish of the season as Sam Bird followed Taylor Barnard home in sixth and seventh positions respectively, after an initially troubled race.
Bird didn’t activate the attack mode transponder loops despite looking as if he had cleared the lines perfectly. Investigations were on-going as to why it didn’t trigger the extra 50kW of power. Additionally, Bird suffered damage from contact early in the race Bird fought back strongly to take a hard-earned seventh place.
Barnard ran third early on but then fell back after losing momentum with his attack mode activation after a Full Course Yellow was deployed and he lost the majority of his 350kW mode. The 21 year-old though continued his impressive points scoring collation taking his eighth points scoring performance from 12 races and consolidated his fourth place in the standings.
Nick Cassidy’s fifth place was the Kiwi’s fifth points score from the last six races but he was ultimately distraught after seeing both of his attack modes compromised by Full Course Yellow and Safety Car periods. The Jaguar TCS Racing driver had been able to pass Dan Ticktum in the mid-phase of the race and, with better energy figures, would have been in contention for back-to-back Formula E wins had his poor luck with the race suspensions not intervened.
Cassidy’s disappointment actually began before the race when he was issued with a 20-place grid drop for the first Berlin EPrix as his No.37 Jaguar I-Type 7 took on fresh inverter components after qualifying in Jakarta.
The state of the track surface and the constant dust and dirt that the drivers had to contend with was not popular across the running at the pop-up Ancol circuit last week.
“It’s not great,” remarked Griffiths. “But I don’t want to race on billiard smooth circuits everywhere either. That’s the fun of doing street tracks.”
“It was very peculiar in FP2. The way the track surface reacted. The way we were starting to get grit and stones up there,” added Griffiths. “And we couldn’t get in within three seconds off the lap time that was set earlier in the session. Yet, it was supposedly drier, so the surface got super greasy. It needs a look at.”
Stats of Interest
Oliver Rowland’s non-score in Shanghai and then one point in Jakarta is his worst two races combined points collation since the Mexico City and first Diriyah races in January 2024 (discounting the two Portland races he missed last June) where he failed to score in each. The Nissan driver has a chance to wrap up the title in Berlin next month as he enjoys a 69-point advantage over nearest rival Pascal Wehrlein, with 116 points to play for.
Nico Mueller’s podium appearance was only the second of his 58 EPrix career to date. His first came at Valencia in the infamous energy/zombie race in April 2021 when he grabbed second place on the final lap despite a drive-through the pits and a spin through the gravel.
Mitch Evans’ points famine continued to 11 races in Jakarta after he was compromised by damage inflicted by Jean-Eric Vergne hitting him in the early stages. Rear bodywork snagged on his left rear tyre damaging it severely and causing it to run hot for the remainder of the race.
Since winning in Sao Paulo last December, Evans has gone 320 laps without registering a point. Never in Formula E history has a driver won a race in a season only to remain on 25 points until seasons end. F1 witnessed a season in 1980 when the late Jean-Pierre Jabouille’s only points scored over the course of the campaign were from his victory in the Austrian Grand Prix.
Dan Ticktum’s 25 points after his first ever Formula E victory pushed him from 10th to fifth in the drivers’ standings. The British ace has scored all of the teams’ 80 points so far with teammate David Beckmann’s best result being 13th in Tokyo.
CUPRA KIRO are ninth in the teams’ rankings having usurped Envision Racing in Jakarta. Had Beckmann taken 50% of Ticktum’s haul this season the team would be sitting in sixth position and just a point in arrears of Mahindra. Ticktum won his first race after 60 starts, the most a driver has competed in before sealing their maiden win. The next driver on that list is Alex Lynn who took 40 races to achieve his first win which came at London ExCeL in 2021.
Ticktum has also been the highest Porsche powered driver in the points for three of the last five races (Tokyo, Shanghai 1 and Jakarta). His 80 point tally this season is almost double than his entire points collation in the three seasons prior to 2024-25, which stands at 41 across all of those campaigns.
Numbers for ‘Mountain Challenge’
Formula E’s innovative film entitled Mountain Challenge, which saw James Rossiter descending a 1000 metres down a French alpine road, achieved a total impressions count across social media of 1,883,545 according to a recent report seen by FEN.
The daring demonstration was carried out in collaboration with Google Cloud, as Formula E’s GENBETA prototype development race car descended 1,000 vertical metres down a French alpine road in ‘free-wheel mode’ and through regenerative braking alone amassed enough energy to complete a full lap of the legendary Circuit de Monaco.
FIA’s Inflation Nation
The FIA has increased the fee for competitor entries for next season from €123,030 to €135,825 for next season. The dates for entry have also been altered, with applications needing to be submitted by September 19, 2025 for the 2025-26 campaign. A published list of teams will be published on or before September 27.
Jakarta Pod Bods
The race Formula E podcast this week will feature CUPRA KIRO team owner Jeremy Tarica talking at length with hosts Andrew van de Burgt and Sam Smith about the team’s breakthrough win in Jakarta. The podcast will be available this Wednesday. You can download and listen to all The Race’s podcasts HERE.
