The first public running of Formula E's Gen3 Evo car took place at Jarama on Tuesday afternoon with a two-hour session that was topped by Antonio Felix da Costa's Porsche.
The test moved to the circuit on the outskirts of Madrid after the devastating floods in and around Valencia last week made the planned pre-season test at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo impossible to host.
Da Costa, who scored more wins than any other driver last season but finished only sixth in the final standings, claimed a best lap of 1m29.220s on the full circuit of the former Spanish Grand Prix venue which also featured a temporary chicane on the start-finish straight.
This was erected for the purpose of adding energy management and regen opportunities for the new Formula E cars which will use all-wheel drive in defined parts of race weekends – qualifying group phases, the launch off the grid and at 350kW running when the Attack Mode is engaged.
It was initially planned to be a right to left configuration of the concrete and tyre wall complex but was changed earlier this morning to ensure it was not too close to the pit entry. The Race understands that drivers have been told that they must not cross the solid white pit entry line from right to left.
The FIA race director Scot Elkins had briefed the teams and drivers to also respect the kerbs at the track, especially at the Turn 4/Turn 5 section as the apex kerbs at Jarama had shown recent signs of deterioration which has been exacerbated by the four European Truck Racing Championship races held at the venue a month ago.
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Track time was broadly limited for the session due to the configuration being the most extreme energy target per lap, probably the highest ever in Formula E cars running at any circuit.
This meant that teams were limiting their running to look after aspects of their cars, particularly the duty cycles of the rechargeable energy storage system (RESS) ahead of being freighted to Sao Paulo next week for the season opener in December.
Part of the reason for the frugality of the running was also due to the surface of the track.
The new Hankook rubber, which is softer than the original Gen3 design and includes less construction materials in the sidewall in particular, meant that high levels of degradation from an early stage of any long runs this afternoon.
The session was incident free with only a brief stoppage for Sebastien Buemi when he got a warning light in his Envision Jaguar cockpit exiting the pitlane. Buemi’s team-mate Robin Frijns suffered several technical issues and only completed eight laps as the team initially struggled to clear the problems.
Behind da Costa came the customer Porsche 99X Electric of Andretti driven by Jake Dennis (below) who was 0.186s off the ultimate pace.
New DS Penske driver Maximilian Guenther - replacing Stoffel Vandoorne - placed third ahead of the leading Mahindra driven by Edoardo Mortara.
Also, with new teams this season, Vandoorne (Maserati MSG) and Nico Mueller (Andretti) completed the top six which was covered by 0.7s.
Making its return to international motorsport after an absence of 12 years, Lola had an encouraging start to its programme with Yamaha and Abt as Lucas di Grassi was 10th and Formula E rookie Zane Maloney finished 16th.
The newly named Kiro Race Co squad also made its public debut as Dan Ticktum and new recruit David Beckmann finished 15th and 17th respectively. Although not confirmed by the team, Ticktum will stay on with the former ERT squad in its new US owned guise, while Beckmann must wait until post-test to see if he will get a full-time deal.
Jaguar and Nissan were forced to sit out the session as part of the sanction they received last month for being deemed to have gone over the agreed cost cap which was implemented for the 2022-23 season.
They will join the rest of the nine two-car teams tomorrow morning for the second of six three-hour sessions that will be run this week.
