What's new in Formula E ahead of its return?

Of course, the global health crisis has dominated every aspect of life over the past four months.

It's also triggered a chain of events in Formula E that kick-started the driver market into life, reshaped the next 12 months of racing, and forced the championship to introduce a raft of cost-saving measures aimed at preserving the future of its smaller teams. Here's the lie of the reprofiled land...

In, out, shake it all Abt

There were honourable intentions behind the plethora of online Esports competitions set up during lockdown, offering motorsport fans some form of entertainment while the real racing was on ice. FE presented its Race at Home Challenge virtual series, which ran in support of the UNICEF coronavirus relief fund.

Mercedes driver Stoffel Vandoorne was crowned champion, but the biggest talking point came when Daniel Abt was effectively sacked by Audi after he had a sim racer take his place in a race in Berlin. He was fined €10,000, donated to charity, but that wasn't enough to redeem him in the eyes of his employer.

Audi issued a statement that read: "Integrity, transparency and consistent compliance with applicable rules are top priorities for Audi - this applies to all activities the brand is involved in without exception. For this reason, Audi Sport has decided to suspend Daniel Abt with immediate effect."

The two-time E-Prix winner issued a full apology in a video uploaded to his YouTube channel, but confirmed that he and Audi had parted ways for good. That looked to end his 100% record of having competed in every one of the 63 FE races to date.

But the 27-year-old German will reprise his role, this time at backmarker team NIO 333, now that driver Ma Qinghua is unavailable to contest the remainder of the 2019-20 season owing to European and Chinese travel restrictions.

PLUS: Why Abt's deception left Audi with no choice

FE ever-present Audi has only ever fielded Abt and 2017-18 champion Lucas di Grassi, but fortunately it had a stellar replacement waiting in the wings. Double DTM champion Rene Rast, arguably the best driver outside of single-seater racing, will take the wheel of the e-tron FE06 for the rest of the season.

"I've been following Formula E very closely for a long time and am now looking forward to this new challenge," he said. "The demands on the drivers in Formula E are high: in addition to pure speed, it's also a question of efficiency, battery management and the perfect strategy - and all of this on tight city circuits, where things are usually quite turbulent."

Rast made a one-off FE appearance for Team Aguri in the 2016 Berlin E-Prix, his first single-seater race since German Formula BMW in 2004. The triple Porsche Supercup champion qualified 13th but retired from the race after a collision with Bruno Senna.
Fortunately, in addition to extensive sim testing, Rast was able to acclimatise to the open-wheel experience in a test at the Lausitzring last Friday. For now, he's only enlisted to round out the current season but, with the demise of the Audi DTM programme coming at the end of 2020, he's odds on to retain the seat next season.

PLUS: Why Audi's newest FE driver is almost a risk-free bet

Ex-Manor and Sauber Formula 1 driver Pascal Wehrlein will be absent for the near future. The Mahindra driver issued a brief statement on social media revealing his immediate departure from the team, which has since recalled former Jaguar and DS Virgin pilot Alex Lynn to the FE fold. In time, Wehrlein is expected to replace Neel Jani at Porsche to partner Andre Lotterer through the 2020-21 season.

Calendars like London buses

After a four-month wait to find out how the current campaign would end while FE was suspended, the championship issued two calendars in quick succession.

There will be six races held across nine days and on three different circuit configurations, all at the Tempelhof Airport in Berlin to conclude the 2019-20 season. These will take place over three double-header events- two of which are mid-week - for 5-6, 8-9 and 12-13 August.

To meet German government guidelines that remain in place until September, the races will be held behind closed doors and only essential staff and competitors will be granted access to ensure a site limit of 1000 people. As such, several team principals and, again due to travel restrictions, the Shanghai-based members of the NIO 333 team will be absent.

FE CEO Jamie Reigle said: "Since taking action to suspend our season in March, we have emphasised a revised calendar which places the health and safety of our community first, represents Formula E's distinct brand of city centre racing and offers an exciting conclusion to the compelling season of racing we had seen so far."

The announcement of the revised calendar also confirmed a delay for the inaugural Seoul E-Prix. Talks about a race in South Korea - which would pay a host fee to help stem the cashflow losses - had continued owing to the nation's rapid response to COVID-19.

And, although series co-founder Alejandro Agag reckoned FE might have to move to races on permanent tracks such as Silverstone due to lasting unease over public gatherings, the provisional 2020-21 calendar is rather conventional. Inner-city races are back.

Despite the calendar's name, there will be no races in 2020, but the new schedule does feature the return of the Santiago E-Prix, which will become the opening round on 16 January 2021. It replaces a double-header in Saudi Arabia, which now hosts a 26-27 February date.

Elsewhere, there's a return to Sanya in China on 13 March, after the 2020 race became the first major motorsport event to be cancelled because of COVID-19. Monaco returns on 8 May, subject to circuit homologation, as part of a five-week programme where the principality will host F1 and the Historic Grand Prix.

Seoul will finally make its FE bow on 23 May, while an eventual return to the United Kingdom, after Battersea Park last featured in 2016, comes with a double-header in London across 24 and 25 July.

Continued political disruption means Hong Kong drops away, with Marrakech and an inaugural race in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta also not included.

Prevention is better than cure

The FIA and Formula E have also outlined a list of cost-saving measures in response to the economic flux resulting from the coronarivus pandemic, which will further reduce the championship's environmental impact.

Coming into play next season, each driver's tyre allocation will be reduced by 25% per race. Team operational staff - those working in the FE garages at a race weekend - will be cut from 20 to 17, while only one remote garage of six people will be permitted.

A statement from the FIA read: "Together, these two decisions to restructure team format will therefore provide competitors with an opportunity to better manage their staff and will have a substantial effect on the carbon footprint of the championship by reducing the amount of people travelling to the events."

There will also be a limit on the use of brake discs and pads to reduce the costs of consumable goods. Additional restrictions impacting software, bodywork and sensors are still being assessed to lower non-essential expenses.

A Logistics Working Group will be created for next season to "optimise logistics costs significantly", and there will be a revised distribution of prize money to support the smaller teams.

The FIA statement continued: "This long-term plan for greater efficiency and sustainability will lead to the future introduction of financial regulations to preserve the competitive balance of Formula E and its viability. The aim is to ensure that each competitor can continue to challenge for race wins with increasingly reasonable and controlled costs, while Formula E remains the pinnacle of electric racing and retains its relevance for manufacturers through the engineering challenge it poses."

These all follow alterations to the current homologation cycle. Manufacturers are now only able to modify powertrain components once over the next two seasons. Also, the facelifted Gen2 Evo car has been delayed by a year until 2021-22 - although it could be scrapped altogether, with the Gen3 car set to make its debut for the following season.

Meanwhile, Williams Advanced Engineering has been handed the contract to exclusively supply the battery system for the 450bph Gen3 machine. The technology firm produced the Gen1 battery system - designed and built in under a year -used in the inaugural 2014 FE season and continued through to 2018. The current Gen2 deal was awarded to McLaren Applied Technologies and its battery partner Atieva.

The Gen3 regulations will also be supported by a brand-new tyre supplier. Out goes Michelin for the first time, to be replaced by South Korean DTM and W Series provider Hankook.