How Season 8’s Regulations Have Changed Our Preparations

When Formula E’s eighth season got underway at the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Diriyah in January, a whole host of new technical changes were introduced.

Available power was increased, practice sessions were shortened and a new qualifying format brought a new lease of life to the world’s premier fully-electric racing series.

Together, this raft of changes restyled the way teams compete and here at ROKiT Venturi Racing, we’re no different to the rest of the field.

But how have Season 8's new rules and regulations enhanced competition and altered preparation processes? Our Chief Engineer and 2021 Formula E Engineer of the Year, Jérémy Colançon has the answers.

“The new changes are quite challenging for the whole team,” he said. “With practice being 15 minutes shorter, we have less prep time out on track before qualifying and the race.

“This means that in comparison to last season, we’re not able to complete the same run plans but overall, we are focussing less and less on the race just because qualifying is so important.

“To qualify well, progressing to the duel stages is crucial and because the new format brings more structure to the grid, performing well consistently is vital.

“Because of that, a lot of our time in practice is now spent looking at our one-lap pace and how we can execute qualifying perfectly.”

In qualifying, Formula E’s field of 22 drivers are split into two groups of 11 and after 12 minutes of hot lapping at 220kW, the top four fastest drivers from each group progress to the duels.

Using an elimination format, drivers must win their quarter-final and semi-final face off to reach the pole position shootout where one final hot lap determines the order of the front row.

“To get to the duels, we first need to be inside the top four in the group stages which is run at 220kW and this is the most important part of qualifying I think,” explained Jérémy.

“It’s quite a strange feeling because now if you are not at the top in FP1 or FP2, you are no longer worried, just because the 250kW lap is less representative of the first part of qualifying.

“Our strategy in qualifying needs to be carefully considered and we need to understand our plans and what we need to do while remaining quite adaptable.

“In 220kW we will need to repeat some laps and that strategy can change depending upon the weather. Understanding that and having the foresight needed can be a challenge.”

Because teams are completing more laps overall over the course of an E-Prix weekend while facing a restricted tyre allocation, tyre management is a crucial part of qualifying in Season 8.

Throughout the classification session, swapping tyre sets is essential to achieve success and brings a new element of strategy to Formula E.

“Tyre management is something that we also need to monitor closely during qualifying but a lot of our preparation for this starts in our workshop in Monaco,” Jérémy continued.

“We have good processes in place to work on the tyres and we collect data from Edo and Lucas when they are in the simulator. Our experiences from other tracks also help.

“When we’re at the track, ideally, we would validate our data during FP1 and FP2 but obviously because practice is now shorter, we are restricted overall.

“As the season progresses though, there will be a lot of repetition and this is something that will become second-nature with time.”

As a result of Season 8’s shortened practice window, preparations away from the track have increased importance and it is the work we do at our headquarters that can reap rewards.

Prior to a Formula E weekend, a large portion of our time is spent carefully scrutinising data while collecting key information from our state-of-the-art simulator.

From learning a new circuit to simulating long-distance running and strategy, it’s this preparation that can define our weekend and ensures that we are in a prime position come race day.

“The majority of our race preparation is done on the simulator and since I joined the team in Season 5, we have been working hard to improve our processes in this area,” added Jérémy.

“Sometimes there are small differences between the circuit virtually and in real life but even despite the reduced practice times, we haven’t changed how we operate.

“We haven’t changed the number of laps we do and for every race, we tend to do five times more mileage on the simulator than on the track.

“It’s a lot of preparation, for sure, but in Formula E just like in every aspect of life, the more prepared you are, the more likely it is to go well.”