How Formula E's pre-season test venue provides confusion and clarity

A wide entry into Redgate, a brisk downward sweep into the Craner Curves and then a long climb up to McLean's and Coppice. Certainly for the first two fast and flowing sectors, the Donington Park Grand Prix circuit isn't especially representative of the narrow and staccato nature of the barrier-lined street tracks that Formula E frequents.

But the final sector - a very FE-like chicane of The Esses, the tight loop of the Melbourne Hairpin and then the slow Goddards left-hander to complete the lap - are a bit closer in characteristics when the circuit, sitting under the flight path of East Midlands Airport, played host to pre-season testing for the first three years of FE.

That meant the final times bore some resemblance to the eventual competitive order. Consistently the quickest pair in testing ahead of the inaugural 2014-15 season were e.dams driver Sebastien Buemi and Abt racer Lucas di Grassi. They would go on to score second and third in the final standings. The unpredictable fly in the ointment was Nelson Piquet Jr. He only contested the final day at Donington, setting the 11th fastest time, before signing full-time for China Racing and running out as the maiden champion.

Ahead of the all-electric championship's second season, it was a similar story. Buemi, di Grassi and Sam Bird for Virgin were the top performers. Buemi would be crowned champion of 2015-16, di Grassi second and Bird fourth in the points.

As for the third campaign in 2016-17, at Donington it was Jean-Eric Vergne and Buemi who topped the timing screens, with di Grassi only seventh and ninth across the two tests. Come season's end, di Grassi earned the title, Buemi was second and Vergne ranked fourth.

Did Donington Park give a definitive preview as to who would take the coming year by storm? No, but there were clear indicators if you were forced to stake a bet.

Getting a read of the year ahead has become even muddier since FE moved to its new pre -season testing destination: the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia. The MotoGP venue, which opened in 1999 and is not the work of Hermann Tilke, is conventional as modern race circuits go. It's representation of a street circuit is minimal. And, as far as FE is concerned, with plenty of painted run-off, track limits are somewhat optional.

Quickest at the track in testing in 2017 was NIO pilot Oliver Turvey, who ended the year in 10th. Fastest for BMW Andretti in 2018, Antonio Felix da Costa placed sixth in the points the year after. His replacement, Maximillian Guenther, was ninth the year after that.

It's even harder to look at the results from Spain and place a wager, as Jaguar Racing team director James Barclay notes.

"Look at Valencia from the past," he tells Autosport. "It's always actually quite difficult. The form from Valencia hasn't always been true to the form of the early races in the season or indeed the whole season. It's always difficult because it's so unrepresentative of the circuits we actually race on."

"Although the chicane did bring a little bit more relevance in terms of having a big braking zone into a very tight chicane, it was the one corner where you saw a very high number of crashes" Alexander Sims

Fans want a championship to be unpredictable and a wide-open title fight is a boon for series promoters, too. Few would desire the pre-season testing ranking to be a carbon copy of the points table at the end of play.

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But Valencia's relevance as a testing venue for FE has been diminished even further in the build-up to the 2020-21 campaign. When the cars grace the asphalt for the first day of running this Saturday, they won't be greeted by the added and artificial chicane on the main straight.

Used to simulate the tighter corners employed by street tracks, two were deployed - close to the pit entry and exit - when the Circuit Ricardo Tormo first hosted FE. The year after, it went back to a single left-right-left complex.

Now, with no chicanes in 2020, average speeds will be higher. Opportunities for hard regenerative braking will be fewer. What bearing the timing sheets have on the competitive order will be reduced to a greater extent, even with teams operating differing race simulation and energy management programmes added into the cloudy mix.

The justification for binning the extra cones is straightforward enough. The chicane was the site of many an expensive and arguably needless crashes. Bird brought out the red flags in 2017 at the site, for which Buemi called it "really bad" and "dangerous".

Even then, with the concrete chicane not employing the temporary kerbs bolted into the surface - which required permission from the circuit bosses - or using TecPro barriers as FE does during the season, how much it truly reflected a 'normal' FE track was debatable.

As new Mahindra Racing driver Alexander Sims says of the chicane's axing: "What we saw over the last couple of seasons was, although the chicane did bring a little bit more relevance in terms of having a big braking zone into a very tight chicane, it was the one corner where you saw a very high number of crashes.

"On reflection, having a big parts bill for the start of the season after a difficult off-season is maybe not what we need."

A Circuit Ricardo Tormo minus the added barriers also falls in line with modifications FE has made to its in-season circuit design. After Autosport learned of the FIA and FE's plans to eliminate chicanes after a spate of crashes during the 2018-19 season, series co-founder and chief championship officer Alberto Longo said: "We need to work much more together to avoid these non-natural chicanes that happen in some cities that cause red flags and big delays."

As a result, last season, the chicane that broke up the fabulous Peraltada right-hander at the end of the Mexico City lap was done away with.

Getting rid of such an obstacle at Valencia is indicative of this revised approach, giving the added benefits of cutting red-flag stoppages in testing and ensuring teams spend less on spares and repairs.

However, beyond the removal of chicanes, FE tracks haven't undergone a wholesale change in nature. Therefore, Valencia's relevance can still legitimately be questioned. And it has been by the drivers.

"It could be a situation where we have to go to a Plan B [in 2021] and a Plan B could be a higher-speed track than a normal Formula E track" Dilbagh Gill

Jaguar incumbent Mitch Evans tells Autosport: "We all know that it's not the best track, and track limits... well there aren't any, it's just the gravel. If you look back at the last few years, some teams that have been super quick there have been nowhere in the season and vice versa.

"Sure, there are some elements and some sectors you can look at and go 'Yeah, that has some relevance'. But especially now with no chicane, that was literally the only corner we could rely on to be representative. Now that's gone, it's literally just mileage."

New Mahindra signing Alex Lynn shares a similar sentiment: "To be honest, Valencia is not very representative in terms of a normal Formula E circuit or even a normal Formula E situation.

"Removing the chicane, I don't think it's going to change anything dramatically. It's still a circuit, still a race car. It will be pretty normal as usual."

Of course, Valencia isn't without merit. The global health crisis has pushed pre-season testing back by six weeks to the end of November and into early December. The east coast of Spain offers a location not only close to the European bases of the teams but one that also is likely to remain clear and dry and permit a healthy amount of track time.

As Audi introduces an all-new powertrain for the 2020-21 season, and the first one its designed in house, the mileage of pre-season testing - even on an unrepresentative track - will only aid durability and reliability. Same for NIO 333 and Mercedes and Nissan, too.

And what if the pandemic were to potentially rear its head once more next year against all hopes and wishes? Suddenly, Valencia might look like an inspired choice.

When the FE calendar was torn apart and seven countries fell off the schedule last year as COVID-19 took hold, permanent circuits were tooted by series co-founder Alejandro Agag to come into the fold if it was not possible to return to city locations.

Although the 2020-21 calendar returns to street tracks, who knows what might happen between now and FE's scheduled season finale in London across 24-25 July. If FE's hand is forced to traditional circuits such as Silverstone, suddenly the Circuit Ricardo Tormo is massively more representative.

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As Mahindra team principal and chief executive Dilbagh Gill alludes to: "It could be a situation where we have to go to a Plan B [in 2021] and a Plan B could be a higher-speed track than a normal Formula E track."

With a bit of overdue luck, hopefully such a situation won't come to pass. In that context, the unrepresentative nature of Valencia suddenly isn't such a bitter pill.

A bit of patience is required until the first four races - in Santiago and FE's first-ever night races in Saudi Arabia - have passed. Four races in, even with the topsy-turvy nature of the FE running order, we might begin to get a clearer view of the competitive picture.

That is until, under revised and cost-cutting homologation regulations, successive teams' champion DS Techeetah will bring in its delayed E-Tense FE21 car for the Rome E-Prix and muddy the waters once more.