Formula E Season 6 [2019/2020] Official Thread

SEASON 5 THREAD ----> https://forums.autos...fficial-thread/

OFFICIAL SILLY SEASON THREAD ----> https://forums.autos...e-silly-season/

CLASH OF THE TITANS AS PORSCHE & MERCEDES JOINS THE GAME

Stoffel Vandoorne testing the new Mercedes EQ Formula E in Varano, Italy.

Season 6 of Formula E is set to be an Historical One.
The Big Germans joins the electric party: Mercedes & Porsche are ready to battle on the Street Circuits, pushing the manufacturer number involved to a record-breaking 11. 
 

Official 2019/2020 Manufacturers list

- Audi Sport
- BMW AG
- DS Automobiles
- Jaguar Land Rover 
- Mahindra Racing
- Mercedes-Benz
- NextEV NIO
- Nissan
- Penske Autosport
- Porsche AG
- Venturi Automobiles

Remember that constructors can build their own Electric Powertrain, they can work on the Electronics (wich is HUGE in FE), parts of the rear suspension & on the general setup of the car. 
Who's going to produce the best package in Season 6?
 

HISTORY IN THE MAKING  5 SEASONS DOWN, 4 DIFFERENT CHAMPIONS

Formula E is reaching its 6th season. EARLY TIMES!!
Yet, the serie is touching new heights of interests. New cities, an ever-growing level of quality drivers, all the big manufacturers coming in!

Just look at our little garden: Season 5 Autosport threads destroyed every past record, and the interest is going to keep building up on towards this new Season.

5 Seasons down, 4 different champions. Jean Eric Vergne made history in S5, becoming the first DOUBLE CHAMPION in Formula E. 
Can he make three in a row?

THE CALENDAR   FEATURING LONDON &...A NIGHT RACE?

Riyadh is rumored to be hosting the first ever night Formula E race this season. Will it happen?

Formula E Season 6 Calendar draft has been released a few weeks ago, and it features 14 races, 2 double header and a possible Night Race. 

Season Starts on November 22-23 with the Riyadh's Double Header. 
Heavy rumors about the first of the two races being a Night Race. Combined with the Formula E glowing Halo that could lead to an amazing visual spectacle for the season's debut. 

Than we have a TBC Location set for December 14th. Rumors about Rio de Janeiro. 

Santiago, Mexico, Hong Kong (with a layout revamp), Rome, Paris, Berlin & New York are confirmed. YAY for calendar stability! 

Seoul & London are going to be the big news of this season's calendar, with two very interesting circuits featuring a stadium section & a indoor sector respectivly. 

Currently some dates are to be discussed with the FIA to avoid clashing with WEC. 

SILLY SEASON ABOUT TO GET SILLIER

Andrè Lotterer changes team, from Techeetah to Porsche. Will he be able to challenge for the title there?
 

The Silly Season is already started. Only a few seats are confirmed officially. 

 

DS Techeetah: Jean-Eric Vergne – Antonio Felix da Costa  - James Rossiter

Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler: Lucas di Grassi – Daniel Abt

Virgin-Audi: Robin Frijns – Sam Bird

Nissan e.dams: Sébastien Buemi – Oliver Rowland - Fernando Alonso - Brendon Hartley

BMW-Andretti: Alexander Sims  – Maximilian Günther  - Bruno Spengler

Mahindra: Pascal Wehrlein – Jérôme D’Ambrosio 

Jaguar: Mitch Evans – Alex Lynn - Nico Hulkenberg

Venturi: Edoardo Mortara – Felipe Massa - Daniel Juncadella - Raffaele Marciello

Mercedes: Stoffel Vandoorne – Esteban Gutiérrez - Daniel Juncadella - Raffaele Marciello - Gary Paffet - Nico Hulkenberg - Valtteri Bottas

Dragon: Josè Maria Lopez - Jordan King - Max Gunther

NexTev NIO: Oliver Turvey – Tom Dillmann - Henry Thicknell

Porsche: André Lotterer – Neel Jani 

Silly Season Thread --> https://forums.autos...e-silly-season/

S6 RULES, LONGER RACES?

AND ATTACK MODE TO BE MORE POWERFUL

Season 5 races has been often discussed by the drivers for being too much of a "Sprint Race", with minimal energy saving.

For this reason, Alberto Longo (new FE CEO) has proposed to add at least 5 minutes to the current race time (45 minutes).

A 50 minutes timed race is on cards, pushing the teams to look for the maximum efficiency. If confirmed, races will likely be slightly more tactical, with plenty of action towards the end as drivers gets into energy managment trobules.

The Nissan-esque Twin Motor solution is going to get banned. Only one motor will be allowed for Season 6. 

Also, Attack Mode will be more powerful. +10 kW, from 225 to 235 kW.
Cars Power output is set to remain the same for Season 6, it seems. So 250 kW quali, 200 kW races. 

(updating if new info comes)

We have reached new heights of FE season thread OP quality.

Bravo.

First thing I will say is, it will very hard to beat the entertainment and drama of Season 5 but with the way Formula E is going, anything could happen but I'm trying not to make my expectations too high.

I can't wait for the new season to start already. 

What is the maximum speed of these cars?

And why they don't drive on real circuits?

What is the maximum speed of these cars?

 

And why they don't drive on real circuits?

280 km/h.
But in the street circuits they reach around 230 km/h most of the times.

Regarding the second question: it's part of the philosophy of the serie. Bring the race to the people and not the other way around.

But in the future (gen 3-2022) i can see them doing some traditional tracks too, as the performances increases. 

Edited by thegamer23, 02 August 2019 - 12:43.

Season 5 races has been often discussed by the drivers for being too much of a "Sprint Race", with minimal energy saving.

For this reason, Alberto Longo (new FE CEO) has proposed to add at least 5 minutes to the current race time (45 minutes).

A 50 minutes timed race is on cards, pushing the teams to look for the maximum efficiency. If confirmed, races will likely be slightly more tactical, with plenty of action towards the end as drivers gets into energy managment trobules.

The Nissan-esque Twin Motor solution is going to get banned. Only one motor will be allowed for Season 6. 

Also, Attack Mode will be more powerful. +10 kW, from 225 to 235 kW.
Cars Power output is set to remain the same for Season 6, it seems. So 250 kW quali, 200 kW races. 

I approve of this. Keeping the teams pushing to make the cars incrementally more efficient is exactly what we should be doing.

Similar to what they did with Gen1 really, just push it up gently. Maybe after a chassis battery refresh for Gen2.5 (Season 7) we can have them up the race power to 225 with 250kW Attack Mode before Gen3 makes its debut. That would be cool. 

Really looking forward to this, can't start soon enough!  Beautiful OP, Mr. Formula E!        PS: if you like to throw around big automobile industry names, might as well add Pininfarina to Mahindra! 

Still think it's a shame they are banning dual motors... what's the point of being an innovative series, when you ban unique solutions?

Definitely hope for longer races, but they should really just return to a fixed number of laps format, instead of timing them.

Edited by maximilian, 02 August 2019 - 14:14.

Thanks guys, such a wonderful community!       

Still no words on the Pre-Season testing calendar tho! 
Wonder if there will be a change of location. I've hard that teams may push to go to the Circuit of Calafat this year instead of Valencia, wich is rather unrepresentative of the FE tracks.

Most of the teams are testing there during the season anyway

It's a pretty awesome little track, with elevation changes. Has that Jerez vibe

Edited by thegamer23, 02 August 2019 - 14:24.

It seems like only yesterday we were waiting for the big debut of Gen 2. Great OP. 

As for the poll I went with the second option, I wouldn't like the big brands to have it too easy in their debuts    

It seems like only yesterday we were waiting for the big debut of Gen 2. Great OP. 

 

As for the poll I went with the second option, I wouldn't like the big brands to have it too easy in their debuts    

Second that, it's much more interesting to see a progression to the top, like what is happening with Jaguar.

Speaking of Jaguar, and seeing the OP, also quite shocking the fall from grace of Nelsinho Piquet... from glorious champion to FIRED!   (and also NIO, from champion to backmarker!)  I remember the big deal fanfare when he was introduced next to Evans as the incoming team leader.  At the time I was feeling a bit bad for Evans, who did a very solid job with the new team, and was treated more as an afterthought during the presentation, with Piquet taking the spotlight.  But he sure took control of things, massive credit to him, and his performance!

Piquet has always been a peculiar one. He's sometimes shockingly quick and other times simply shocking. With the level of competition these days, such inconsistency is exposed very quickly.

Edited by Muppetmad, 02 August 2019 - 14:55.

I shall definitely attend one of the London rounds, but the planned circuit breaks my heart. The whole point of going to a great city is to race in an exotic location. The Excel Centre is bleak and soulless at the best of times, and they're going to race mainly inside the shed, in an area normally used to store rubbish skips. Views, atmosphere, space for a decent layout? Forget all that.

They've gone there to avoid locals protesting about disruption - so have done the opposite of "bringing the racing to the people." They're keeping it away from them.

To make it worse, in this article they say they've considered going to the old Crystal Palace circuit. That would take a lot of work, but would have been the perfect venue for Formula E. Aaaargh!

https://www.autospor...s-own-eau-rouge

Crystal Palace would have been great. That's a pity indeed. I'll withhold judgement on the Excel Centre circuit, but I sense it'll be... intriguing.

Crystal Palace would have indeed needed a lot of work to get the route back up to a standard needed to hold racing on it. And I'm sure they wanted to avoid the repeat of Battersea by coming back and messing in another park and meeting some more angry locals, so I can understand that. I'm sure the amount of people who use it for leasure today outnumbers those who are nostalgic for the racing that used to go on there.

ExCeL is an interesrting and polarising choice. I think a lot lies in the execution, and it could be a compelte flop of the highlight of the calendar. Don't know yet.

I think having a London round is important though. If they build popularity and build consistent attendance, they may have more political/financial 'firepower' to make somethng like a revival of Crystal Palace happen. Or a more central, proper city street circuit. Could do, anyway.

At very least it means I am definitely going to an ePrix next year, rather than hoping I would have to be in Europe in the right place at the right time like the last two seasons.

Edited by Vielleicht, 02 August 2019 - 15:40.

280 km/h.
But in the street circuits they reach around 230 km/h most of the times.

Regarding the second question: it's part of the philosophy of the serie. Bring the race to the people and not the other way around.

But in the future (gen 3-2022) i can see them doing some traditional tracks too, as the performances increases. 

Sloooooooooow.

Sloooooooooow.

If I had a cent for every time someone told me Formula E was 'slow'...

I shall definitely attend one of the London rounds, but the planned circuit breaks my heart. The whole point of going to a great city is to race in an exotic location. The Excel Centre is bleak and soulless at the best of times, and they're going to race mainly inside the shed, in an area normally used to store rubbish skips. Views, atmosphere, space for a decent layout? Forget all that.

 

They've gone there to avoid locals protesting about disruption - so have done the opposite of "bringing the racing to the people." They're keeping it away from them.

 

To make it worse, in this article they say they've considered going to the old Crystal Palace circuit. That would take a lot of work, but would have been the perfect venue for Formula E. Aaaargh!

Crystal Palace, even if it was still race-able, is hardly any closer to the city centre than ExCeL. Doesn't seem particularly easier or more difficult to reach than ExCeL either. People regularly traipse out to the O2 Arena to see concerts, that's hardly central. 

As for the area, the Royal Docks is certainly much nicer than it used to be and getting better. And it's just over from London City Airport, and in all my flights in and out of there, one of the things I have marvelled at is the view towards the city. 

If I have one criticism regarding season 5, it was that it felt way too short. I'm hoping we get another close title fight between multiple manufacturers, and lets see if we can get to 10 different winners this time round!

My understanding is that the December TBC date was going to be Marrakech or nothing, has anything actually changed on that?

I'm not sure why people keep listing Hulkenburg as potnetial FE driver for Season 6, he's not going to be available to race until 2020 and I'd be very surprised if his focus is on anything less than staying in F1 for next season.

Also, who's Henry Thicknell? I know a Harry Tincknell.

 

I'm not sure why people keep listing Hulkenburg as potnetial FE driver for Season 6, he's not going to be available to race until 2020 and I'd be very surprised if his focus is on anything less than staying in F1 for next season.

 

Well, the Ad-Diriyah Double-Header is on an F1 off-week, so in theory he could race there, and on that TBA December 1 date, too.

Crystal Palace, even if it was still race-able, is hardly any closer to the city centre than ExCeL. Doesn't seem particularly easier or more difficult to reach than ExCeL either. People regularly traipse out to the O2 Arena to see concerts, that's hardly central. 

 

As for the area, the Royal Docks is certainly much nicer than it used to be and getting better. And it's just over from London City Airport, and in all my flights in and out of there, one of the things I have marvelled at is the view towards the city. 

You can get a good view of the distant city from Crystal Palace too.  And the surroundings are a lot more attractive.  Racing in and out of a large shed doesn't really do it for me.  Either way, they aren't city centre.  Why not round St James's Park like the cycling this weekend and like the London Marathon?  Or take it to Brands Hatch.

Or take it to Brands Hatch.

No

  You really don't want 'your' series to risk being shown up on a real race track, do you  Actually, the Indy circuit wouldn't be a bad venue - I am sure they could put in a chicane to meet the FE rules.

Edited by Vielleicht, 04 August 2019 - 21:14.

Autosport Forum thread

So is going Mercedes to dominate like in F1?

So is going Mercedes to dominate like in F1?

I would be incredibly susprised if they do.

FE is as much about operations and procedure as it is about powertrain and engineering. Mercedes will have HWA's year of experience but they are up against many teams with 5 years under their belt. Also consider that on the powertrain side Mercedes will be in their first year, with HWA using Venturi's powertrain last year, so they're not up to speed on that side of things yet. They also haven't had years of being able to steer the powertrain regulations where they want them like they have with F1, this time they're entering something established.

Also with the largely common components and highly targeted areas of developemnt, there's comparatively little margin to come up with something that is the class of the field.

So is going Mercedes to dominate like in F1?

I highly doubt it.

Not this season at least.

There are so many variables in FE and they have so much to learn.

They'll do well to get a win and a few podiums.

If I have one criticism regarding season 5, it was that it felt way too short. I'm hoping we get another close title fight between multiple manufacturers, and lets see if we can get to 10 different winners this time round!

 

My understanding is that the December TBC date was going to be Marrakech or nothing, has anything actually changed on that?

 

I'm not sure why people keep listing Hulkenburg as potnetial FE driver for Season 6, he's not going to be available to race until 2020 and I'd be very surprised if his focus is on anything less than staying in F1 for next season.

 

Also, who's Henry Thicknell? I know a Harry Tincknell.

Wasn't there a Jamie Chadwick rumour at NIO too? Or has her new role as development F1 driver taken her out of contention? Be good to see some of the W Series drivers coming through FE if they are good enough. Seems a good step in their careers.

I would quite like seeing FE at Brands Hatch actually, i agree with BRG.

They looked good in the simulation racing at Donington, and that was 5 years ago with much slower cars.

Could be one of the first tracks suitable for the "City Tracks to Traditional Tracks" transition.
(if it will ever happen)

New FE video

Edited by thegamer23, 05 August 2019 - 12:28.

I would quite like seeing FE at Brands Hatch actually, i agree with BRG.

They looked good in the simulation racing at Donington, and that was 5 years ago with much slower cars.

 

Could be one of the first tracks suitable for the "City Tracks to Traditional Tracks" transition.
(if it will ever happen)

Fair enough. I really genuinly do just have an unjustifiable dislike of Brands Hatch though, so my opinion of that precise matter is not actually worth much.

The theoretical transition to traditional tracks is an interesting one. Honestly, if they do add them I would not want to see them take up more than perhaps half the calandar because city racing is the founding soul of Formula E for me. To lose them would be like removing the ovals from IndyCar.

I'd rather they went to Donington myself, but thats because it's easier for me to get to.

You really don't want 'your' series to risk being shown up on a real race track, do you Actually, the Indy circuit wouldn't be a bad venue - I am sure they could put in a chicane to meet the FE rules.

As for the area, the Royal Docks is certainly much nicer than it used to be and getting better. And it's just over from London City Airport, and in all my flights in and out of there, one of the things I have marvelled at is the view towards the city. 

Then race around Canada Square, or Millwall or Rotherhithe - all parts of Docklands that have been revived and improved. We'll see what they manage to do with Excel, but at the moment it's a dump.

The thing I don’t understand about this kind of comment of yours, BRG, is how you consistently want them to race on traditional circuits like Brands Hatch to sort of ‘legitimise’ the series yet also mock the idea as though doing so would reveal a fatal flaw and bring things crashing down.

Makes me question what do you actually want to happen...

It's about the apparent reluctance of FE to racing on real race tracks.  Why is that, I wonder?  All this horse **** about city centre races and taking the racing to the people and then they go to a shed in a undeveloped part of East London, or a disused airport in Berlin, or a place on Hainan island that even nobody in China has ever heard of, or an obscure Uruguayan seaside resort.  As a professed cynic, it makes me suspect that FE really doesn't want to be exposed to any potentially unflattering comparisons.

I accept Vielliecht's aversion to Brands rather than to race tracks in general  although I still think it would suit FE better than most race tracks.

It's about the apparent reluctance of FE to racing on real race tracks.  Why is that, I wonder?  All this horse **** about city centre races and taking the racing to the people and then they go to a shed in a undeveloped part of East London, or a disused airport in Berlin, or a place on Hainan island that even nobody in China has ever heard of, or an obscure Uruguayan seaside resort.  As a professed cynic, it makes me suspect that FE really doesn't want to be exposed to any potentially unflattering comparisons.

 

I accept Vielliecht's aversion to Brands rather than to race tracks in general  although I still think it would suit FE better than most race tracks.

Why did they try to race at Monaco with the full length circuit then but the FIA stopped them?

Would have been great, given how good this year's race was at Monaco with the shorter circuit. 

Pretty much every fan and everyone involved with FE wanted to race on the F1 circuit but someone intervened (Jean Todt, was it can't remember).

Why did they try to race at Monaco with the full length circuit then but the FIA stopped them?

 

Would have been great, given how good this year's race was at Monaco with the shorter circuit. 

 

Pretty much every fan and everyone involved with FE wanted to race on the F1 circuit but someone intervened (Jean Todt, was it can't remember).

I have heard this claim but I have never seen any definite evidence that it is true. 

Why would Jean Todt care which track they used?  Todt is often used as the Aunt Sally for disaffected motorsport fans who seem to believe that he is personally overseeing every little detail of the sport.  I think his greatest strength is that he DOESN'T interfere in the way that Mosley used to do (generally in his own interests rather than the interest of the sport as a whole). Todt leaves things to the various FIA Commissions set up to do that sort of work.  Which Commission might take it upon themselves to block FE in this way, I don't know.   But I rather suspect it is disinformation because FE didn't want the uncomfortable comparison with F1 lap speeds

I don't think the comparisons between the FE cars and traditional racing cars has really been the main factor. I think the cities has been much more about tapping into new markets, both with spectators and sponsors. It is also not an exagegration to say that the reaction to FE from within much of motorsport has been hostile, so having a calandar (especially early on) made up entriely of existing permanant venues, often quite far away from cities and with many of the regular visitors not exactly wanting to watch electric racing cars I don't think would have been wise. It's less of a problem now and there may come a time when that is no issue at all - I certianly hope so at least.

It's about the apparent reluctance of FE to racing on real race tracks.  Why is that, I wonder?  All this horse **** about city centre races and taking the racing to the people and then they go to a shed in a undeveloped part of East London, or a disused airport in Berlin, or a place on Hainan island that even nobody in China has ever heard of, or an obscure Uruguayan seaside resort.  As a professed cynic, it makes me suspect that FE really doesn't want to be exposed to any potentially unflattering comparisons.

 

I accept Vielliecht's aversion to Brands rather than to race tracks in general  although I still think it would suit FE better than most race tracks.

That's only four venues out of twenty four that FE have either visited or announced. We've also had a really very central area of Paris, New York City (I mean Brooklyn), Monaco, Mexico City, Santiago and the former track at Buenos Aires to name a few. I don't think that limited selection and framing of them is entriely representative.

Also yeah my initial reaction to the Brands Hatch thing was a bit rubbish... my fault really.

Edited by Vielleicht, 05 August 2019 - 15:11.

I have heard this claim but I have never seen any definite evidence that it is true. 

 

Why would Jean Todt care which track they used?  Todt is often used as the Aunt Sally for disaffected motorsport fans who seem to believe that he is personally overseeing every little detail of the sport.  I think his greatest strength is that he DOESN'T interfere in the way that Mosley used to do (generally in his own interests rather than the interest of the sport as a whole). Todt leaves things to the various FIA Commissions set up to do that sort of work.  Which Commission might take it upon themselves to block FE in this way, I don't know.   But I rather suspect it is disinformation because FE didn't want the uncomfortable comparison with F1 lap speeds

https://www.motorspo...hrough/3183758/

Agag "I wanted to use the same track as F1 but the FIA would not let me"

The drivers wanted it too (and this article is way back in 2017)

https://www.motorspo...-906467/906467/

And we (fans) definitely wanted it.

It's about the apparent reluctance of FE to racing on real race tracks.  Why is that, I wonder?  All this horse **** about city centre races and taking the racing to the people and then they go to a shed in a undeveloped part of East London, or a disused airport in Berlin, or a place on Hainan island that even nobody in China has ever heard of, or an obscure Uruguayan seaside resort.  As a professed cynic, it makes me suspect that FE really doesn't want to be exposed to any potentially unflattering comparisons.

 

I accept Vielliecht's aversion to Brands rather than to race tracks in general  although I still think it would suit FE better than most race tracks.

So this does not make sense as my post above says the complete opposite.

Edited by f1paul, 05 August 2019 - 15:14.

Then race around Canada Square, or Millwall or Rotherhithe - all parts of Docklands that have been revived and improved. We'll see what they manage to do with Excel, but at the moment it's a dump.

If you had said that in 1995 or 2001 or generally just pre-2015 I would have agreed. It was grim. But much of the immediate area surrounding ExCL is rather nice now. And the area linking Greenwich Peninsula and the Royal Docks is starting a big regeneration phase. 

e-racing365 is reporting that Da Costa to Techeetah is to be confirmed soon

https://e-racing365....-deal-imminent/

Wasn't there a Jamie Chadwick rumour at NIO too? Or has her new role as development F1 driver taken her out of contention? Be good to see some of the W Series drivers coming through FE if they are good enough. Seems a good step in their careers.

FE 'Gen2.5' car set to get weaker "self-punishing" front end design

https://www.autospor...9054.1538826187

We haven't discussed about it in this thread yet.

In Season 7 will we see a return of a more traditional, more fragile front wing element, instead of the current front end section? 

Edited by thegamer23, 07 August 2019 - 08:54.

I'm looking forward to the bodywork update, whilst I like the Gen 2 a lot I think there's some areas that can be improved. The Gen1 car I thought was massively imprived with what was a really small front wing update.

Edited by Vielleicht, 07 August 2019 - 10:58.

I like the current front end of the cars to be honest, would be in favour of that rather than the gen one front wings.

First round of Season 6 will be in KSA again. 

I thought this was a very interesting thread from an FE journalist who went to the race last year. She was the first person to question FE directly on wether going there was a good idea or not. She went along anyway and here's what she found... 

https://twitter.com/...698675981430784

First round of Season 6 will be in KSA again. 

 

I thought this was a very interesting thread from an FE journalist who went to the race last year. She was the first person to question FE directly on wether going there was a good idea or not. She went along anyway and here's what she found... 

 

https://twitter.com/...698675981430784

That's a very insightful read