Why Formula E had to adapt or die

It was easy to feel frustrated by the FIA's announcement that Formula E will remain single-make, in terms of chassis and battery, beyond season five.

This championship is supposed to be a testbed for electric-vehicle technology, and all that seems to have happened of late is the downscaling of season-by-season power and energy targets and the postponement of more open competition.

In the Mexico City paddock last week there was a very consistent, unified rhetoric from leading figures: the long-term viability of the championship has to be safeguarded and the crucial target of a switch to single-car races for season five remains on track.

Mahindra boss Dilbagh Gill sums it up nicely: "We need to be sensible but at the same time be delivering on technology; push it, but don't set ourselves up for failure."

Flexibility over the roadmap is keeping Formula E alive. Right now, the series is not mature enough to cope with a costly technological arms race. NEXTEV TCR chief performance engineer Gerry Hughes says battery competition right now "would kill the series".

"You have to have a balanced approach," he continues. "The teams have got enough to do - building, developing and crash testing a new car while running the existing one.

"I think the FIA has done a good job mapping out seasons one to eight. They have to be careful they don't go too far ahead or behind."

The lack of progress following its initial roadmap might be frustrating at face value, but one of the series' biggest strengths is its refusal to compromise on keeping costs down just to save face.

"We were so ambitious in the beginning, now we are in the real world," Formula E CEO Alejandro Agag admits. "We would like the progress to be faster, but we are in a place in which we have to compromise between the dream and the reality.

"You have to stay flexible or it's not sustainable. It's completely new territory and you have to react to the things that are around you."

THE TECHNICAL DIRECTION

First, a recap. The championship was one-make in its entirety for season one. Powertrain development - the motor, gearbox and inverter - has been opened up for season two, with peak race power upped from 150kW to 170kW.

For season three, the regulations will be consistent. Power will then increase to 220kW for season four and 250kW for season five (that's 50kW fewer than the original target by this period). Energy capacity is likely to remain at 28kWh.

Throughout this period, a Dallara-built chassis and Williams Advanced Engineering battery, both overseen by Spark Racing Technologies, will remain common across all teams.

Season five is the turning point. For the 2018/19 campaign there will be a new spec chassis and a new spec battery. The chassis will allow for a better battery design, because WAE - likely to bid to remain the sole supplier - had to build the current product to fit a predetermined space after coming into the initial project late in the day.

With WAE technical director Paul McNamara anticipating "new thinking and new technology", and more design space opening the door for "optimum" performance parameters, the season-five spec battery should be an impressive step in terms of the power output it can cope with and amount of energy it can provide.

It also focuses on the championship's core target and avoids introducing a technological arms race too early.

"It's a big, big decision," explains DS Virgin chief technical officer Sylvain Filippi. "Freedom brings a competition element and some interesting inventions. But the big problem is it creates a big disparity between teams and budgets.

"This decision kills competition in a way. That's not great, but the upside is huge. It gives certainty to the championship and the manufacturers on budget and we can develop technology knowing what the battery is going to be like.

"The other option would have been to stay [at] two cars [per race] and increase the power like crazy. But the power is achievable today - you could have more power than an F1 car, one megawatt [1340bhp] for example.

"There's no big issue that electric cars are fast. We want to improve EV range. It's always that relevance that matters. We thought it was a more powerful message to go from two cars to one car, to target bigger batteries, more energy, faster charging."

ARE SINGLE-CAR RACES ACHIEVABLE?

The changes coming on the chassis and battery side bring the realistic prospect of single-car races for season five.

"Technically it's difficult - doable, but very challenging," Filippi insists. "And the challenge is not just a cost issue."

The cell technology does not exist, right now, to double output without doubling cell quantity. However, Filippi reports that on average capacity has improved by eight per cent each year and there are no signs of that stopping.

Therefore it's more than just a working assumption that the technology will be mature enough in time for one car per driver in season five, which McNamara backs up.

"The battery for season five will certainly need to be a significant step on from the technology we are currently deploying," he explains.

"It will have to deliver approaching double the energy and there will not be double the mass and volume to do it in.

"There will have to be an enhancement to the cell technology, but also to the way the cells are combined, packaged, cooled and controlled.

"We started an internal study in 2015 to look at the options for how to deliver a single-battery solution to complete the full race distance. The experience we have had so far, together with the work for the season-three battery, gives us confidence that the requirements could be met."

The battery tender, which is targeting maximum useable energy of 54kWh from season five, confirms doubling the current 28kWh energy limit is not what's required. That's because the new chassis and enhanced regeneration methods mean drivers/powertrains should be able to harvest more energy from season five.

As an aside, in reality the batteries are currently capable of providing 32kWh of energy anyway, to take into account depreciation over a season (they must be able to provide 28kWh at the last race, not just the first).

Should Formula E be getting there faster? One of the big arguments in its favour is the idea that motorsport accelerates this sort of development.

"It's easy to think we should be moving more quickly," accepts Renault's Vincent Gaillardot. "But we need to be careful changing the rules every year. If you're changing parts this homologation process means you could spend a fortune and not develop a lot. You need to make sure you give stability and then have a big step."

GREATER COMPETITION DELAYED, BUT NOT DEAD

Open battery competition should lead to huge technological strides, but the cost factor is significant. That's why this has been delayed until season seven, at the earliest.

The new battery tender, made public following the most recent FIA World Motor Sport Council meeting earlier this month, reveals a two-to-three-year plan for single-battery supply, starting in season five. And Gaillardot goes as far as to say "we are convinced that following season seven they will have a good opportunity to have more competition".

It's understood that the next rule cycle - batteries weighing 330kg, with 250kg of cells, with 54kWh of useable energy and a peak power output of 250kW - will again last four years.

So seasons five and six should be single-battery, then competition comes in for season seven - giving those who cannot, or don't want to, invest in battery technology at least two years with an in-date battery.

"On the battery side we will open it up," says Agag. "It's very expensive to develop a battery and it's better to do it jointly for now, one paid for by everyone rather than six or seven individual batteries. There's no money in the ecosystem to support that.

"The key is to keep the championship alive for the long, long, long-term and you only achieve that with strict control. You have to compromise. But the day will come."

Once Formula E hits that period of open competition, budgets could rise inexorably - Agag talks openly of 10million euros per battery in that world. That's a concern, but it's exciting and what the championship is supposed to be about.

Formula E came close to collapse in its first season before a top-end restructure involving Liberty Global and Discovery Communications becoming investors. So it knows very well how careful it has to be where financial management is concerned. Creating an environment in which it is not at risk is crucial.

How achievable is that in the long-term? It's impossible to know at this stage, but the unlikelihood of Formula E becoming an open-chassis formula in the near future has a big part to play too.

"If we got into competitive chassis it's electric F1," says Andretti team principal Roger Griffiths. "If there's sufficient money it might be possible, but you're going to go from a team structure of maybe 30 people to 100 people. So costs are going to escalate dramatically.

"We're not ready for that by a long shot and it's not the focus of the championship. The focus is electric powertrains. What better way to demonstrate you've got a superior electric powertrain over your competitor than if you're running the same chassis package and it's your powertrain in there?"

CHANGE IS STILL COMING

The bottom line is Formula E is getting where it needs to be as a technical exercise, it's just had to revise its targets. This season, the on-track action has been entertaining for the right reasons - out with the unreliable dodgems, in with the legitimate, engaging motor races. So if it needs to live off that for a year or two before its technology escalates, that's fine with the championship because it has the bigger picture in mind.

"If a technology breaks through we'll develop the roadmap faster," says Agag. "Right now we've delayed it, maybe we'll advance it. We're staying very, very close to the technology and as soon as it's available, it's in the championship."

The end goal is still in sight, the posts have just moved a little. The challenge is still there but at least it should be one the series actually sticks around to meet.

While a bolder technological element is still a few seasons away, the catalyst for serious development is just around the corner.

"When we have manufacturers all over the grid, development budgets go up and we'll have new technology everywhere," says Filippi. "There are some very good rules on the cost side to stop it getting crazy, but there's no limit on R&D.

"The ultimate electric car will have batteries everywhere, all-wheel drive, one motor per wheel... but that can't happen overnight. It's a budget issue and no one has ever done it before. The championship wants to do that, but it's all about timing.

"For the fans it can seem like a long way away, but for us it's tomorrow. And that's scary."