Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Evans: Jakarta E-Prix heat could result in a Formula E "endurance"

Jaguar's Mitch Evans expects Jakarta's first E-Prix to be an "endurance" with the heat and will force the Formula E teams to compromise with set-ups to focus on the race.

Mitch Evans, Jaguar Racing

Mitch Evans, Jaguar Racing

Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

With high temperatures expected throughout the event, the Jakarta circuit is expected to be a tough weekend for both cars and drivers and will require a high quantity of management for both tyres and batteries.

Evans reckons that the prevailing heat will require the teams to compromise on outright pace to be strong across the 45-minute race, and that even practice could be affected as the teams look to understand the demands of a new venue.

"I think just obviously with the nature of the heat, just physically it will be an endurance," Evans said.

"Even in the practice sessions, keeping the tyres in a good window so you can actually practice you know, proper test stuff, and get a good read for the car.

"It's going to be a lot of compromises throughout the whole day. Obviously, you know, qualifying is important but I think the race is ultra-important here because if you get it wrong, you can suffer a mess of it."

Mitch Evans, Jaguar Racing

Mitch Evans, Jaguar Racing

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

Evans explained that set-up work on mitigating any tyre problems from the heat was going to be a balancing act, suggesting that any focus in that area would have undesirable side effects in how the car handles.

Read Also:

He added that battery management would also shake up strategies, and that he wants to avoid the pitfalls of the Santiago E-Prix in season five where multiple drivers dropped off towards the end having had to manage battery temperatures.

"Yeah, obviously the set-up you can try and do, it's how much do you focus on that because you're going to start to induce a lot of understeer into the car and not get a return on the rear as well.

"So that is quite hard to find. And how we load up the rear tyres is very important.

"For battery management, it's going to come down to the approach from a team to try and find the most efficient way but without the biggest time loss to manage it.

"Like we saw in season five [in Chile], there was cars dropping off five to six seconds a lap at the end; we want to avoid that and how we do that while keeping composed and sticking to our guns.

"But it's not easy because you're already starting the race with a massive limitation and you know, to stick to your own strategy can be difficult because there's other guys on different strategies doing different things and then tapering off towards the end.

"You don't want to be sucked into that situation, so we'll see - but every team's sort of on top of it and it just adds another element to the energy management side that is pretty difficult."

Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation

Related video

Previous article Mahindra has 'got its act together' ahead of Jakarta Formula E race
Next article Jakarta E-Prix: Vergne leads DS Techeetah's late Formula E FP2 sweep

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe