In addition to being bigger and heavier, teams are also going to have high- and low-downforce configurations. Racing drivers will always want more grip, but the addition of aerodynamics to push cars down onto the track surface can fundamentally change the racing, and not always in a way that makes for an entertaining spectacle for the audience. That said, Formula E isn’t adding downforce to Gen 4 just because.
Change is never easy
“This was a hot topic. No mitigation: car performance, car performance, car performance. So this is why I went to 600 kilowatt. This is why the high grip tire, downforce and so on, because before, it was not possible. So we had to compromise other things to make the show and compromise performance. This time, no compromise at all,” Gaillardot told Ars. Instead, Gen 4 will be a race car that doesn’t have to apologize for not having an internal combustion engine.
The drivers love the challenge of the Excel circuit.
Credit:
Andrew Ferraro/LAT Images
“It’s a must at the moment already, because we will get so powerful and quick,” said Florian Modlinger, director of Porsche’s factory Formula E program, which sealed both the team’s and manufacturer’s titles in London. “For the braking maneuvers, for the cornering speeds, some downforce is needed, and for me, it will be the biggest step in all the generations for car performance. How will this affect the racing? We are still investigating, because all our simulations are ongoing,” he told me.
But aero is not about to become a new core competency for Formula E teams. The bodywork will be standard across all the teams, and a cost cap prevents anyone from trying to spend their way out of a problem.
“I have to always look back a bit to the last season, because in season 10, and in the last year, there was already the testing of Gen 3 Evo ongoing. We were in the championship fight in season 10, and we were already looking on the concepts of Gen 4. And under the cost cap, you need to allocate the resources to three parallel projects, you know: championship fight, Gen 3 Evo testing, and Gen 4 concepts,” Modlinger said. Porsche took home the driver’s championship last year to go with this year’s pair of titles, so evidently the resource allocation worked quite well.
