Formula E teams have been informed that pitstops will definitely return to the championship for the first time in seven years at the next round in Jeddah, as the series commits to one of the biggest decisions in its history.
The questions now are whether the mandatory 600kW 'pit boost' stops for energy top-ups will add further strategic intrigue or confusion to already-complex races, and how they will affect the overall picture of not only the races where pitstops feature but the world championship fights.
Formula E's previous mandatory pitstops were for car swaps in its Gen1 era, when the battery technology did not allow the full distance to be covered by a single car without recharging. Getting rid of that was seen as a huge step forward for the championship's credibility, whereas the return of pitstops is now designed as a showcase for the potential of fast-charging technology.
Electric vehicles and fast charging are inexorably linked, as logical as the fuelling pitstops that have featured in multiple series since motor racing emerged as a competitive sport over a hundred years ago.
The pit boosting equipment, which is provided by current Formula E battery supplier Fortescue Zero (formerly Williams Advanced Engineering), has been tested in practice sessions at Formula E race weekends over the last two seasons in addition to run outs in private manufacturer testing since September 2022.
There have been issues that now appear to have been refined and there is a level of confidence now from the FIA, Formula E and the supplier that it can be used in a race. The final trial was carried out at Mexico City last Friday.
The FIA's Formula E head Pablo Martino said "all the results were positive, so the 22 charges were done without many big issues" in Mexico.
"There were, if I remember correctly, two instances that were related more to the operating part of the teams, rather than to the technical equipment. So, it's positive," he continued.
"The idea today is we are going to Jeddah, and we are going to put that during the race."
The teams have been informed that one of the races in Saudi Arabia will include boosting pitstops, and Martino said the FIA is now "quite confident" about that decision and that the only decision that remains is whether the pitstops will debut in the Friday or Saturday race of that double-header.
This is set by regulations to be communicated 21 days before the Jeddah event begins, which will be later this month.
Teams are still apprehensive over the deployment of the pit boosting idea but appear more ready to embrace the sporting and technical element now that some evidence of its reliability had been reached.
"We are supportive of the pit boosting but what we have been clear about from the start is that it has to be very robust equipment and we cannot have results dictated by failures from a spec or common component," Porsche motorsport boss Thomas Laudenbach told The Race in Mexico.
That pretty much echoes the paddock feeling over the new initiative which is set to be illustrated with multiple new graphics and predictive information on when the strategy will be deployed in races.
A tweak to the rules over how the pit boosting will be implemented was ratified last month at the FIA World Motor Sport Council.
Pit boosting stops will only be allowed to happen when cars have reached the maximum SoC (state-of-charge) for the 'attack charge pit boost window'. Additionally, to allow for more strategy options in races, the FIA last month agreed to loosen the restrictions over when the newly powerful attack mode can be taken in pitstop races.
That now means attack mode in a pit-boosting race can be taken at any time from lap two onwards, as opposed to the previous restricted windows which would have been notified to teams ahead of races.
“We realised in Jarama [testing] that the new attack mode system with the four-wheel driving traction provides so many advantages that we didn't want to lose that asset into the race by postponing the activation of that after the big boost,” said Martino.
“We didn't think there was a reason to do it differently in the races with the attack charge, so we just decided to propose a different scenario to the teams and all the teams agreed that it was the best way to move forward.
“That's why we proposed it to the FIA World Motorsport Council. And I think it's going to give us many ranges of strategies in the races with the attack charge.”
