The Notebook: Pre-Season Testing

Maserati MSG Racing’s Racing Director, Jérémy Colançon, is one of the leading technical figures in Formula E, and with four World Championship titles, he’s also one of the series’ most decorated.

As pre-season testing approaches, the two-time Engineer of the Year Award winner looks ahead to Valencia and pinpoints every detail ahead of this final window of running before the 2023 Mexico City E-Prix.

Final Testing Opportunity: Pre-season testing is our final opportunity to run on-track before the season’s start in Mexico City, so it is extremely important for the team. At the beginning, we will need to make sure that everything is working well, but it will be vital for us to add to our understanding of the new Gen3 car. It has more powerful regen systems, new tyres, and even a new aero package, and improving our understanding on this will be crucial.

Trial Race Day: On the second day of testing, Formula E will be holding a trial race, and this will be a very important chance for us to gather data and information. Because of the more powerful regenerative braking on the Gen3 car, we can now recover more energy than ever before, and this will lead to a lot of strategy variations. Adapting and trialling different philosophies in the trial race will be a good opportunity to test our processes, fight other cars, and understand how a Gen3 Formula E race will evolve.

Tactile Versatility: Given the limited track time we have before the start of the season; every day of pre-season testing will be vastly different to the other. This is because we have a lot of different items to test and to examine every aspect of performance, we will need to be efficient and versatile. Ultimately, we need to make sure that we have good processes and procedures in place and from there, continue to refine our performance and continue to understand the key factors of the Gen3.

Predictions Possible: Although Formula E can sometimes be difficult to predict, we believe that it will be possible to have a good read of the grid at pre-season testing. Initially, teams will be focussed on reliability running and any fast lap times early on could point to an initial advantage. Despite the Circuit Ricardo Tormo being different to traditional Formula E tracks, we have seen in the past that performance can transfer to other venues, such as Diriyah. It will be a very good exercise for every team.

Piecing the Puzzle Together: In Formula E, it’s difficult to hide performance to the extent that is seen in Formula One testing, but there is still a global picture that needs to be understood. Instead of a focus on direct lap times, Formula E testing is about piecing everything together to bring performance. This can mean that it can be difficult to follow, but because in-season development is not as prominent, the standings at Valencia should offer a clear perspective as to how the grid will line up.