Formula E looks set for another extreme energy-saving race this weekend as it makes its debut at IndyCar track Portland for its new United States round.
The circuit – which replaces New York as Formula E’s North American date – will be broadly the same as the configuration used by IndyCar, with just a small profile change to the first chicane.
This will promote similar challenges to those that were evident in Berlin and Sao Paulo earlier this season when effectively no car wanted to lead the race and act as a hole in the air for the rest of the field. The extremely wide front straight will add extra drama to that.
The Race can reveal that the first ever Portland E-Prix is currently scheduled to run to 28 laps, a distance of 89.3kms/55.48 miles. The cars will remain on a usable energy of 38kWh with a regeneration coefficient of 0.91 as per article 7.4 of the current technical regulations. This reflects the ‘Net usable energy = Discharge energy – [0.93] x Regen energy’ formula.
This all constitutes a massive challenge for the teams and drivers and makes it likely there will effectively be a ‘super-peloton’ in at least the first three quarters of the race.
This type of racing has come in for criticism from some drivers, with many seeing it as dangerous in some respects due to extreme lift-and-coasting techniques and the propensity for cars to create an accordion effect as the pack bunches up.
Injuries to drivers this season – notably Robin Frijns in Mexico, Sebastien Buemi in Sao Paulo and Oliver Rowland in Monaco – from ‘traffic jam’ incidents have made the paddock particularly wary of such races.
The mandatory attack zone area for drivers to run over and gain an extra 50kW of power will be located at Turn 7, the tight right-hander just before the fast run onto the sweeping back section.
Former Avalanche Andretti driver and now Formula E TV commentator and presenter Oliver Askew told The Race this week that he believes that Portland, a track he won a Star Mazda race at in 2018, will provide an extreme energy-saving race.
“It’s going to be a high energy-saving race, I think, from what I understand, the starting energy percentage is going to be the same as what it’s been in the past couple of races,” said Askew.
“The nature of this track and the energy-saving I think will be similar to Brazil, with how long the straights are and the percentage of the track that they will be full throttle.
“It’s quite technical and a good mix of low-speed/high-speed corners.
“I’d expect that lift into the chicane on the back straightaway to be quite early, so that’ll end up being a passing opportunity. On the back straightaway, passing is certainly possible. Entering Turn 1 is possible, and then the hairpin that comes just before the back straightaway, that part of the track becomes very wide.”
Askew has been ideally-placed this season to ruminate on the new style of FE racing..
He believes that “there’s an art to that as a Formula E driver, there’s an art to managing that kind of racing and you’ve seen over the past couple of races, which drivers are catching on and how to manage that kind of racing”.
“The key to that is just trying to make sure that you know you’re putting yourself in the right position for when the race does end up flat out,” Askew added.
“On average now, it’s about three quarters into the race when they start to go flat out.
“It seems like the drivers that are figuring it out try to stay in the front thereabouts within the top five and then really try to make their move, just like they would in cycling.”
Portland is expected to stay on the Formula E schedule in 2024, with the provisional calendar released yesterday alluding to a US race on the same weekend next year.
Formula E continues to negotiate with a stadium in Los Angeles for a possible second US race from 2025 onwards.
