Formula E races made longer for second season to challenge teams

The season-opening Beijing ePrix is set to run to 26 laps this season, compared to 25 in its first iteration, and Autosport understands other races will follow suit.

Peak race power has been increased for season two but the amount of useable energy from the Williams battery remains the same, placing a greater emphasis on efficiency and management.

Andretti Autosport boss Roger Griffiths says a one- or two-lap increase will have a significant strategic impact to the races this season.

"[It will] influence how the races are going to be run because they will be pushing us harder to get to the end," he told Autosport.

"We have a higher output but the same amount of energy - so it's going to be a challenge.

"Yes you'll want to make use of that 170kW but you'll have to be careful otherwise you'll run out of energy.

"There'll be a great emphasis on energy management. Extending the races makes the challenge even harder."

Griffiths expects his team's decision to revert to the season-one Spark SRT_01E will mean minimal efficiency gains for the coming campaign.

However, he also believes rival teams that have persevered with different powertrain technologies will struggle to achieve the required efficiency to maximise the higher race power output.

"That will be pretty challenging," he said of continuous running at 170kW.

"It was not possible last season to run at 150kW continuously, you had to coast, to regen - either you were using energy at too great a rate or it was overheating."