Formula E's new toys ahead of its second-generation swansong

There’s more than meets the eye to the upcoming eighth season of Formula E, as it awkwardly perches on the precipice of a switch to an all-new set of technical regulations.

The 2021-22 FE season has a similar stature to the 2021 Formula 1 season in that sense: outwardly, it’s a weird transitional year with no wholesale changes to any of the cars, and a placeholder for whatever formula we get with Gen3, since this year’s motors and other ancillary components were homologated last season.

But therein lies the secret that made this year’s F1 championship such a draw. Each team has been privy to an off-season to iterate and perfect their software, in a bid to squeeze every last bit of juice from their second-generation powertrains.

However, there’s still plenty of shiny new toys for the Formula E fraternity to play with – particularly in the new qualifying system that does away with the much-maligned four-group format. There, the championship’s top runners were railroaded into the opening qualifying group and left to contend with a considerably less rubbered-in track surface. It was rare that Group 1 runners would progress to the superpole shootout, and instead were forced to battle their way through the field from an artificially low grid placing.

The drivers with genuine pace are now rewarded in qualifying rather than pegged back in the new format. This is initially made up of two groups of 11 drivers – one from each team – and the drivers have 10 minutes to try to secure a place within the top four of each group. Those eight drivers then progress to a knockout stage, where the drivers are drawn into four duels. The fastest of each over a single lap will move into the semi-finals, in which they will once again battle for the best time to make the final – where the fastest driver gets pole.

That makes qualifying much more of an equitable session. Formula E trialled the format in Valencia testing – albeit loosely – in a realistic simulation of the opening part, before deciding to hand every driver a go at the duel. In the trial, group toppers Edoardo Mortara and Lucas di Grassi were thrust into the last tete-a-tete battle, with Mortara beating his new Venturi team-mate to the hypothetical spoils. Hopefully, the real McCoy should be less of a confusing experience.

A new qualifying format is among the changes Formula E drivers will need to get used to this year

Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Images

The opening stages, with a change in tyres allowed within the 10 minutes, should open up a much more tactical element to qualifying – rather than the slugfest that ensued in the final minutes of the group sessions where everyone ended up on track at the same time.

In addition, the preceding practice sessions will be shorter, giving the drivers a little less time to get their heads around the circuit. Although that may suit the older heads with the familiar venues, rookies and veterans alike will stand on level ground when it comes to the new additions to the calendar.

“I was quite vocal about [qualifying] last year,” reigning champion Nyck de Vries, who returns to defend his title with Mercedes, explained. “And I think, generally, the changes will lead to a kind of more consistent and stable qualifying result - I expect that we will see a bit more common group of people, teams and drivers, who are fighting in the top 10.

“I think the championship is designed in such a way that it's so tight that you don't need the outside help with the unpredictability to make it exciting. So I'm generally very positive.”

Formula E has also tidied up its power modes for this season, upping the standard race power limit from 200kW to 220kW, and pushing attack mode up to the qualifying limit of 250kW

Antonio Felix da Costa’s assessment was that “it's definitely in the right direction”, adding to de Vries’ critique that the old system ‘penalised’ the stronger drivers in the championship.

“We have so many other things in the championship that makes us very different to other series,” da Costa said, “you know, with attack mode. We're still racing drivers and we're still competitive and there’s a big investment from teams and manufacturers to produce a strong package and then just keep on penalising them with track conditions. I think this will make everyone happy.”

Rowland has made the move to Mahindra for 2021-22

Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Images

Formula E has also tidied up its power modes for this season, upping the standard race power limit from 200kW to 220kW, and pushing attack mode up to the qualifying limit of 250kW. This will give the engineers a bit to do in terms of optimising their package for a higher power range, ensuring that they focus on claiming as much payback from their regeneration maps and do the sums to ensure the cars can meet their energy targets.

That will also have to play concurrently with the new NASCAR-style overtime rule. Extra time has been introduced to replace the useable energy restrictions following a safety car period – which caused significant consternation at last year’s Valencia round. Now, for every minute spent under a safety car, 45 seconds will be added back on to the end of the race, introducing an element of energy management to caution-affected races in a far more palatable way. This was trialled on Tuesday morning’s race simulation at pre-season testing, which was ‘won’ by de Vries by a second over Mortara.

In addition to those reworked sporting regs, there’s been a few movements up and down the field too. The field has dropped to 22 cars now following the withdrawal of Audi, and thus third-season champion di Grassi has found a new home at Venturi in place of Norman Nato. Oliver Rowland’s switch from Nissan e.dams to Mahindra set a chain of further transfers into action, with Maximilian Guenther moving from the Andretti squad to replace Rowland at the Japanese manufacturer team.

In Guenther’s stead, Oliver Askew moves over from his bit-part IndyCar role to join Andretti. The American driver – the first US racer to participate in the championship since Scott Speed’s string of four races for Andretti in season one – got up to pace quickly in Formula E, getting well among the pack by the end of the second day of testing.

Askew explained that, from his transfer from IndyCar to Formula E, the method of hustling the car on a qualifying lap has been the biggest thing to adapt to – especially since the increased weight of the Spark chassis and limited flex in the Michelin tyre sidewalls has been a considerable change to IndyCar’s Dallara car and Firestone rubber.

“The way the car has to be driven on a push lap, like a quali lap, that's stood out to me the most,” Askew told Autosport. “And that's very different from what I'm used to; the IndyCar takes a lot of lateral grip and a lot of G-force into the corner. And this car just doesn't give you that at all. So the way in which you need to style and how you need to drive the car is very different.

“[The difference in tyres is] massive, and tyres are the most important aspect of the car. So in making those work properly, it's job number one. And yeah, just understanding like the construction of it, and which temperature window they best operate in.”

Di Grassi is one of a number of drivers to change team for this season

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images

Third in IndyCar’s rookie of the year award during 2020 – missing out on the honours to Rinus VeeKay and '21 champion Alex Palou – Askew has set himself the goal of ending his maiden Formula E campaign as the best newcomer.

“[My goal is] consistent point scoring; it’s very important in this series, and that's a very difficult achievement every weekend it seems, with how stacked this grid is,” he said. “And first and foremost, we need to finish as the best rookie. I think that'd be pretty cool. I know there's not an official championship for that, but for me there is! The team is very capable of providing a quick car and it's just up to us to execute.”

Expecting Askew to repeat Jake Dennis’ rookie-season heroics might be a stretch too far, especially since Andretti has lost its full backing from BMW, but he has the potential to acquit himself well in the mid-pack from the get-go.

Antonio Giovinazzi is arguably the big-ticket newcomer in the 2021-22 field, switching from the white-and-red of Alfa Romeo’s F1 team to that of Dragon Penske Autosport. He may find himself in a similar predicament to that he’s experienced in F1, with a team scant on resources and with limited potential to snare eye-catching results. Giovinazzi also lost the final day of testing, having had to hot-foot it to Saudi Arabia to see out his F1 career before Guanyu Zhou replaces him in 2022.

"First and foremost, we need to finish as the best rookie. I think that'd be pretty cool. I know there's not an official championship for that, but for me there is!" Oliver Askew

Although cutting a relaxed figure away from the stresses of F1, the Italian was well aware of the challenges facing him ahead of the season, explaining that Formula E was a “completely different” arena to anything he’s experienced before, and that he hopes to make up for his lack of mileage with a series of post-Christmas trips to the simulator.

“The car is really different from F1, or the cars I've been in over the last few years,” Giovinazzi explained. “[On Monday] I was really sort of confused and had a lot of things to learn.

“But the main issue for me is the braking, because [in F1] you can really attack so much on the braking because you have so much downforce as well. But here you cannot. So I'm struggling with this, but I remember when I drove in 2018 the first car, the Gen 1, it was the same.

“I will focus more on the sim to set up myself more on this car. But yeah, for sure the track is the track and before race one I will not have many miles for that. So it's like this, but I'm sure during the season I can improve. And this is my target. I have a team-mate [Sergio Sette Camara] that has some experience. It's great to see some data from the driver with experience and asking someone else and everything. But, it’s not many miles before the first phase.”

Giovinazzi faces a steep task adapting to the world of Formula E

Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images

Dan Ticktum also joins the Formula E grid for its eighth season, replacing the departing Tom Blomqvist at NIO 333 alongside veteran Oliver Turvey. For Ticktum, this is something of a lifeline after being dumped from the Williams F1 junior programme, with no other obvious opportunities to move up in the world of single-seaters. Turvey will provide stern competition, and a well-known benchmark for Ticktum to measure himself up against.

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Although reading into testing is largely a fool’s errand, it’s generally considered that Mercedes has retained the best package out of the box - with Mortara completing the final day with the fastest time of all. But, such is the nature of Formula E, it remains anyone’s game, and even with the reduced manufacturer involvement down the grid with the departure of Audi and BMW, their powertrains remain in use with Envision and Andretti respectively. It means software updates for those teams won’t be as forthcoming, but that shouldn’t affect overall performance quite so much.

Once again, it’s going to be an incredibly close Formula E season - and the current-spec powertrains will get their final opportunity to shine before the Gen3 regulations come into play for 2022-23. De Vries has a title to defend and will undoubtedly prove to be a resolute foe to anyone who challenges him – but the blend of talented youth and battle-hardened experience on the grid in relatively equal machinery should develop into a fantastic climax to the reign of the second-generation car.

Ticktum is among the rookie crop for the eighth Formula E season

Photo by: Andreas Beil