Jeddah Debrief/Corniche’s Future
Formula E CEO, Jeff Dodds, told Formula E Notebook last weekend that racing on the longer version of the Corniche track was a possibility for next season when Gen4 will be introduced.
“We will look at it,” confirmed Dodds. “Maybe the long circuit or a revised configuration of the long circuit. Maybe we keep shorter, tighter tracks with more regeneration, but we can also use long tracks and just show what the Gen4 can do at top speed. The speed on this track would be well in excess of 200mph. It’s a proper beast of a car and Jeddah would be a great place to showcase this.”
“We are so privileged to come to Jeddah because it’s such an incredible facility,” added Dodds. “In the end, the Ministry of Sport will come to us and either say they are moving motorsport to Qiddiya and this becomes the new home of motorsport in Saudi Arabia. Or maybe they say we are going to do F1 in Qiddiya and FE stays here in Jeddah at this amazing facility here. In the end, they put on such an incredible event for us, whichever it is, we will be delighted to be here. I’m super relaxed about this.”
Pepe Marti issued a full and frank apology for twice using the word ‘retard’ in a brief radio rant after a late-race incident with teammate Dan Ticktum in Saturday’s race. The CUPRA Kiro driver snapped at his engineer Michael Lee that “I may be a rookie but I’m not a retard. That is a retard move.”
Marti immediately apologised both on the radio and then after his media commitments at the track, saying: “I would also like to deeply apologise for the language I used on the radio today. I chose my words terribly. Unfortunately, I cannot take back my words, but I want to publicly express my deepest apologies for my behaviour.”
CUPRA Kiro team principal Russell O’Hagan added that “it’s not something we see from him very often. He holds himself to a very high level, we hold him to that level, and that’s something that should not happen. It won’t in the future that’s for sure.”
Dan Ticktum told Formula E Notebook that he thought Marti’s lunge was “probably a bit over the top.“
“I’ve watched it back. He wasn’t miles behind. I’ve seen worse but he was quite far back and I think for a last lap move on the dirty part of the track into a very tight chicane is a bit over the line,” added Ticktum.
“I don’t necessarily believe in different engagement rules for teammates as much as teams want us to.But I think there comes a time like we haven’t had the best start to the season, either of us, or as a team, fifth and sixth, whether we’re that way round or that way round, it doesn’t make really any difference to me or whatever but I certainly wasn’t going to let him pass.”
Pascal Wehrlein agreed that potentially taking an earlier attack mode in Saturday’s race might have meant a bigger points score.
“Yes, I think that was kind of the idea of many of us when we saw how the race developed,” said the points leader when FEN asked him if in hindsight an earlier first attack may have paid dividends.
“I know that some of the cars which finished behind us, I think, began with even more towards that strategy,” said Wehrlein who finished eighth but maintained his 100% points scoring run this season. In fact, Wehrlein’s last non points score was at Jakarta last June when he was classified 11th.
“Today, just in the way of yesterday, it was perfect. Today, what we had in mind was not ideal, but still good enough to score a couple of points. We will learn from that and do better,” concluded Wehrlein.
Oliver Rowland managed to fightback from a difficult Saturday where he took a lowly 17th to claim a second row start and his third podium of the season with third on Saturday evening.
“They changed a lot of stuff last night,” Rowland told FEN. “We changed a lot of the hardware, so I think we changed pretty much everything you’re allowed to. I had more performance, so I can’t really complain too much.
“Obviously the race was miles better than yesterday. In quali I’m still not 100% happy, but I was able to do the laps, so that’s important. I just think we’ve got a few gremlins that we need to delve through in terms of some updates that we’ve made that I think have gone backwards.”
Nissan filed a petition of review regarding the contact that Oliver Rowland had with Taylor Barnard’s DS in Free Practice 1. Rowland received an official reprimand for the incident but Nissan deemed new evidence the competitor gathered of the collision to be notable. The FIA decreed the petition as a whole was admissible and it was thrown out just before the start of the Saturday race.
Zane Maloney said that he “100% didn’t agree” with the decision not to penalise Pepe Marti on Saturday for the lap one accident that ended his race with broken suspension.
“I just got put in the wall and I mean, there’s not much else to be said,” Maloney told FEN.“Of course, I don’t think Pepe saw me, so he came across to the right to overtake Nick(Cassidy). But I was there.”
Keeping Jeddah Tidy!
The second of the two Jeddah EPrixs was a rare non-penalty event where the stewards did not penalise anyone across the 30 lap race. Only Nyck de Vries actually served a penalty for changing hardware overnight after an inverter problem on Saturday. But there were no sanctions for contact or regulatory infractions.
FEN believes that the last time such a race played out with no penalties applied was the second of the 2023 London EPrixs won by Nick Cassidy’s Envision Jaguar.
Japanese Concerns
There is creeping concern in the Formula E paddock that Japan could fall off the Formula E calendar next year. A new deal for the race at its present location of Big Sight in the Ariake district is needed beyond this summer’s races in addition to question marks on whether the location could be made suitable for the Gen4 cars anyway.
Nissan team principal Tommaso Volpe told Formula E Notebook that “needless to say, it would be very bad (not to race in Japan) because we are the only Japanese car brand and I believe it would be not good for the championship in general,” said Volpe.
“But I don’t think other brands are happy not to race in Japan, which is such an important market for motorsport and for the automakers, so I’m confident they are trying to find the solution and I think for the championship it’s important to have a race in Japan,” added Volpe.
“We also know that Formula E is always a little bit complicated to find agreements, especially with city centre racing, let’s say we stay confident until the final calendar is confirmed.”
FEN understands that a significant title partner for the two Tokyo EPrixs this July is set to be announced this week. Formula E CEO Jeff Dodds will attend the launch of the announcement in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Commercial Agreement Close
The new commercial agreement between Formula E Operations, the official promoters of Formula E, and the teams entered in the all-electric world championship for Gen4 is close to being finalised according to Formula E CEO, Jeff Dodds.
“It’s got to be imminent as we’re in the final throes of the agreement and it’s been a very collaborative process,” said Dodds.
“But it has to be soon, because those cars are on track in December. Every team has agreed a manufacturing supply agreement, so those bits have already been done, largely. The commercial agreement is the final piece of the puzzle.”
Future Gen4 Fun?
Formula E retains the possibility of introducing a possible ‘push to pass’ boost button system for Gen4, although plans for any introduction of this technology are far from being agreed. The FIA’s technical manager, Vincent Gaillardot, told Formula E Notebook at Jeddah last week that a lot of scope exits for going reasonably radical on the sporting format for Gen4.
“FEO ask us the maximum flexibility, so when we performed the validation of the product we try to look 360 degrees,” said Gaillardot.
“What it will be at the end we don’t know but we try to have the more severe duty cycle to look on sprint race, on long race, on whatever power, so we have a wide range. Validation is performed like that within a defined limitation. It is still not decided, it’s standard discussion but there are some possibilities, there are some flexibility.
“We’ve been very aggressive during the validation pushing it to the limit ready to make sure we have this flexibility, so let’s see now.”
Lucas di Grassi thinks that the introduction of torque vectoring in Formula E is already “late” and thinks that it is a “natural” addition to a future rules set within Formula E.
“For me it’s already late, because all the sports cars in the future will have torque vectoring,” the Lola Yamaha ABT driver told FEN recently. “And if you allow interaction control, like you are allowing in Gen4, you should allow torque vectoring. It makes way more sense. Even if you don’t have full torque vectoring, you can actually say there is a 50% torque corridor.
“The FIA can come up with the rules. But for me, in the future, it’s natural to have in an electric car, one motor accelerating and braking in a single wheel. It is much better than actually having a mechanical diff.“
Lindblad’s Flying Visit
New Racing Bulls F1 driver Arvid Lindblad was in Jeddah on Saturday supporting his manager and mentor Oliver Rowland. The Anglo/Swede is testing at the nearby Bahrain International Circuit this week as he readies to make his Grand Prix debut in Melbourne next month.
Execs on the Corniche
Axel Plasse, director of Alpine Hypertech, made a surprise visit to the Formula E paddock. Axel Plasse replaced Bruno Famin last September and is in charge of sport activities at Viry-Châtillon. He reports directly to Alpine CEO, Philippe Krief.
President and CEO of Nissan Motor Corporation, Ivan Espinosa, also visited the paddock to support the Nissan Formula E Team. Espinosa’s last visited at the Tokyo EPrix last May when Oliver Rowland scored his fourth and final win of his championship winning season.
Brett to Sweat!
Jaguar’s longtime videographer and director of its filmed content, Brett Keaveney and friends, is raising money for the Alzheimers Society, Crohn’s & Colitis UK and Target Ovarian Cancer charites in May 2026 by running the entire length of Spain (1,400Km)!
From the northernmost point down to Tarifa in the South – as a continuous relay, one of the team us always be running, while the others juggle navigation, food, sleep, logistics and keeping the energy up. The squad aims to complete it in just five days.
To help support Brett and his quest click on the donation page HERE.
Linktree which features charities HERE.
TheBurntChip triumphs in Evo Sessions, Hammond shunts
Sunday’s EvoSessions2 saw TheBurntChip (Josh Larkin), driving with Jaguar TCS Racing, beat teammate Behzinga in the final at the second edition of Formula E EVO Sessions, securing victory by just 0.421 seconds with a time of 1:28.212. The Señor Frogs team, led by Calfreezy, put in a dominant display over QuickStars, led by Vikstarr, as they ran out 18-5 winners.
The top three fastest drivers on the day were TheBurntChip (Jaguar TCS Racing), Behzinga (DS PENSKE) and WillNE (Mahindra Racing).
Izzy Hammond, content creator and daughter of former Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond suffered a sizeable accident at Turn 13. She emerged unscathed from the accident which destroyed Zane Maloney’s car.
FEN will have features on the event across the next week hearing from some of the protagonists who took part in the event at Jeddah Corniche yesterday.
Georgia Williams contributed to this report
