Amid the raucous nostalgia of Goodwood’s annual Festival of Speed jamboree, a machine altogether quieter and more futuristic took to the Duke of Richmond’s fabled front drive.
This year’s FoS was chosen as the ideal event for the public unveiling of Formula E’s much-trailed GEN4 car and in the hands of Dan Ticktum, its performance did not disappoint.
On Festival Friday, Ticktum ascended the hill climb course within three seconds of the record set by Max Chilton in 2002, driving the McMurtry Spéirling fan car, despite having previously tested the car for only half a day and never before having driven at Goodwood.
And the word chosen by the ever-forthright Ticktum to describe this beast of an EV? “Alarming.” His reaction to the brute power of the car which is the poster child of Formula E Season 13, was similar to that of all those who have driven it: “It’s alarming, but in a good way,” he elaborated. “It’s really, really, really fast. I drove it before on a permanent track, and it felt bloody quick. But when everything’s a bit tight and bumpy, as it is here, it just it feels ridiculous. It’s so fast.”
The Gen4’s power alone isn’t its defining characteristic, reckoned Ticktum. But the combination of 600kW (roughly 800 bhp) of electrical urge, with relatively light weight, permanent four-wheel drive and Bridgestone slicks formulated specifically for this event, have made it a missile. “I’ve driven some very fast cars, so I’m rarely surprised by anything,” he said, “but this is just so fast.”
Jaguar Racing also brought their GEN4 car to Goodwood, driven by Fernando Barrichello, but it was run only for show, not go. Rubens Barrichello’s 20-year-old youngest son was nonetheless wowed by the performance on offer: “The car is amazing,” he said. “I have driven it once before and it has evolved massively in the time since that first run. As soon as you jump in and go full power for the first time, it’s an instant shock. It’s such a big kick and the electrical response is so quick, and it just keeps on going. That’s the most impressive thing. And it’s so controlled with the four-wheel drive.”
Formula E CEO Jeff Dodds enthused about the reception for a car that makes him feel “like a proud dad.”
“When I arrived three-and-a-half years ago,” he said, “it was the first car I was able to have input into, alongside the FIA, so I feel very proud that we’re launching it. I feel proud that the reaction to it has been super-strong – from the drivers mainly, and they’re the harshest critics. When the drivers are talking positively, I feel really good, and I feel proud of the fact that its runs in the early stage of development are showing incredible promise.”
Dodds stressed that Formula E’s own GEN4 chassis, as driven by Ticktum, lacks the powertrain sophistication and intensity of technical development that teams’ own cars will soon enjoy.
But one unmissable addition to the FE prototype was the fitment of slick tyres, courtesy of Bridgestone, who replace Hankook as the championship’s tyre supplier at the end of this season.
The rubber used at Goodwood was bespoke for the FoS weekend, and FE’s official line is that there are no immediate plans for slick tyres to be used in the championship.
Dodds was equivocal: “There is definitely a tyre evolution plan,”
he said, “and while flying an aeroplane around the world full of tyres is not particularly on our wish list, as a fully sustainable championship, you should expect to see, over the life of GEN4, not just one, but probably multiple evolutions of the tyre. And it’s fair to say that those evolutions will be going more towards slicks than further away from them.”
James Rossiter, GEN4 ambassador and sporting advisor, cautioned, however, that slick tyres were potentially a blind alley for a championship that prioritises energy efficiency in pursuit of peak performance.
“Slicks would allow these cars to brake later, corner faster and accelerate more quickly to their top speeds,” he said, “so we’d be consuming more power and reducing the opportunities for regen. This isn’t necessarily going to be viable – I might have to have a chat with a couple of the drivers who are saying we should be on slicks.”
