Jérémy’s Notebook: 2022 Seoul E-Prix

A new circuit and performance parity go hand-in-hand and getting to grips with a venue early on is crucial to maximising a weekend. For the final time this season, ROKiT Venturi Racing’s Chief Engineer, Jérémy Colançon, provides the inside line on the 2022 Seoul E-Prix and the final weekend of Formula E’s Gen2 era.‍

Historic Data – The Seoul Street Circuit shares a number of characteristics with other tracks on the Season 8 calendar. The first section is quite twisty, similar to New York, the stadium section is like Mexico and the high-speed lateral corners emulate turns in Berlin and Marrakech. Because of this, we have high quantities of data from previous races which can help to shape our understanding as the weekend evolves.‍

Practice – Although Seoul is a brand-new circuit and, despite our limited practice time, our procedures will remain largely the same ahead of qualifying and the race. This is because we have already gathered a large amount of data from preparations completed in our simulator. A key area to pay attention to, however, will be bumps on the circuit to see how much the car is bottoming out.‍

Energy Management– The Seoul Street Circuit is very low in terms of energy sensitivity and we’re anticipating that energy recovery should be quite straightforward. At this stage, however, ambient temperatures are set to be quite high which may limit our battery efficiency, especially over longer distances. 

Overtaking – Because of the nature of the circuit and its low energy sensitivity, we anticipate that it will be difficult to overtake at Seoul. Timing Attack Mode perfectly will be very important and remaining adaptable in the event of a Safety Car or Full Course Yellow will also be key. We expect Turns 19 and 21 to be the best places to pass because of how strategically important it will be to lift and coast in this part of the track.‍

Rain – This weekend’s race will be extremely humid and although this won’t impact our car performance, we expect to see some rain. On both Saturday and Sunday, there will be rainfall during the day but it’s unclear as to whether we will face fully wet or changeable conditions. Because of this, we need to prepare to make sure that we’re able to effectively adapt to different weather.