There were several ‘firsts’ in Formula E’s first London E-Prix at the ExCeL Arena – and there’s one, in particular, that may be taken to an even greater extreme in Sunday’s second race.
This event after all marks the return of Formula E in the royal docks area of the UK’s capital and thus makes it the first designated and sanctioned world championship race to occur there.
It was also the first time that a major motorsport event had used both an indoor and outdoor aspect to its configuration.
But it was a creative sporting decision on the application of the attack mode that caught the attention of the teams and drivers that really stood out.
By doubling the length of each attack mode boost, which gives an extra 35kW of power when armed and activated via the built-in transponder loops at Turn 16, the FIA followed through on a promise to add an extra dimension this weekend.
In the event, what it decided actually didn’t make a massive amount of difference.
And that in turn could trigger the FIA, in conjunction with promoter Formula E Operations, to go even more radical for this afternoon’s second London E-Prix.
Since just before the New York City E-Prix earlier this month, teams and drivers had been lobbying the FIA to reduce the amount of usable energy (52kWh) allocated for the ExCeL races.
The reason? Because the nature of the sinuous track and the reduced need for recuperating energy would have led to a flat-out race – which is regarded as increasing the risk of accidents and also contrary to the FIA’s preferred style of racing for Formula E.
The FIA and Formula E did react but instead of taking off the 8-10kWh that many felt would have created scope for a strategically interesting race, only 4kWh was trimmed off.
Many felt this would have little or no impact at all. But the powers that be, via the FIA’s director of Formula E & innovative sport activities Frederic Bertrand, hinted to The Race last week that it felt “there is to be some adjustment, and maybe we play a little bit with attack mode, particularly if we can help to overtake.”
Let’s call it attack mode bingo. Eyes down, let us explain!
Instead of the regular ‘two hits’ of boost for four minutes, it was declared there would now be ‘two hits’ of eight minutes. Powertrains and tyres would squeal and strategic planning would be enhanced, or so the theory went at least.
It didn’t really come to pass.
“I think the whole thing of attack mode should be about the more times you have to go there, so the more strategy it opens,” reigning champion Antonio Felix da Costa told The Race.
“It’s the last time that creates all the fuss.
“So it was still only twice like always, but they just increased the time, but that doesn’t really change anything.
“With more time on attack mode, people just react to each other also. So everyone ends up doing a very similar thing.
“For me, I’m happy with having different things. But I think what we should try is going there more often and not longer time on attack mode.”
Your wish might be the FIA’s command this afternoon, Antonio!
Should that happen it could stir in some very spicy ingredients into the Formula E chaos soup especially if, as forecast, the weather is less than clement.
But ironically if the race is wet it is likely to make the race flat-out anyway because naturally less energy is used in slower conditions.
It’s a conundrum for the organisers but the fact remains is that it was probably too conservative on the energy reduction in the first place. An 8kWh reduction would have made a real structural change to the make-up of the race.
Da Costa’s fellow title contender Robin Frijns broadly agrees, telling The Race that “we don’t really have any comparison of what it would be with four minutes and what it is eight minutes”.
“I think we need more activations that have longer activations to get the field a bit more playable throughout.”
Playable is not always good in Formula E, especially for race director Scot Elkins, who light-heartedly wiped a bead of sweat from his brow when The Race informally chatted to him as the spectacular podium celebrations rang out over the ExCeL hall.
The relief was palpable that a chicane junkyard vibe of the kind seen in the Rome and Bern events of 2019 had been avoided.
The thing with Formula E double-headers though is that the second bite of the cherry can often be as sour as it is sweet.
