Jerome D'Ambrosio, Mahindra, Formula E testing, Valencia, 2018

Pictures: Formula E’s second-generation car begins testing

Formula E

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Formula E has begun testing for its 2018-19 season using its second-generation car at the Ricardo Tormo circuit in Valencia, Spain.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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28 comments on “Pictures: Formula E’s second-generation car begins testing”

  1. not a fan of the look of the car, it is more like a closed wheel sports prototype than an open wheel/single seater and is just rather ugly looking imo.

    1. A bit like the old Indy car aero kit for ovals, except for the weird V-shaped rear wing. But overall so much better than the last version that had a roborace style front wing/wheel bridge.

    2. @PeterG: Yes, but the wheels are open on the side. For now. ;-)

  2. Hm, Vandoorne’s already out there testing next year’s drive.

    1. @phylyp Not surprising though seen as he is confirmed as one of the season 5 HWA drivers? https://www.racefans.net/2018/10/15/vandoorne-to-join-formula-e-with-hwa/

      1. @tonyyeb – yep, that’s what I was alluding to – he’s already getting on with that programme. 👍

  3. I will admit to quite liking the futuristic, almost computer game, styling of these cars though I think you have to view them from the perspective of something totally new and different from the racing cars we know and (mostly)love.

    Just speed them up and make them growl a bit please … I wonder if specially designed tracks might make the series more appealing?

  4. They may look different and sound different than F1 cars but guess what? You can get to watch it as its not locked behind paywalls. That is why FE will succeed. Looking forward to enjoying this series.

    1. Sadly, like with f1 anon-e moss, that depends on your lokale. Some countries are ‘blessed’ with a TV contract which means lack of streaming options.

      1. I fully expect that once it becomes popular it will vanish from sight, exclusive for the rich only. At that point I’ll just move on to something else or take up knitting.

        1. Hans (@hanswesterbeek)
          16th October 2018, 19:53

          I second that. I would like to see some races but I never found out how to get a live broadcast in The Netherlands. Of the first four seasons, I’ve only seen some highlight videos on YouTube.

      2. Indeed, as @bosyber mentions, where I live a pay tv channel (I think it’s the same that has the F1 deal) picked up the footage and that means there is no free streaming available. So I can only watch if I either take up that IPTV / Satellite deal and pay the monthly fees or through less legal means
        It means that since I never really got hooked, I hardly ever bother to find a stream nowadays, just getting the highlights. And it makes me enjoy those race reports by @hazelsouthwell even more :-)

    2. The UK currently doesn’t have a FTA option as the only confirmed TV broadcaster is Eurosport (Which is only available via subscription) with the online streams on Youtube etc.. Geo-blocked.

      1. It does look like Channel 4 will be picking it up which will be great!

  5. Is it me, or does the HALO look to be angled back much more then that of F1’s application? It also looks like it allows a lot of the drivers helmet to be exposed when compared to the F1 HALO.

    1. It’s not you, I had the same first impression. But now that I have taken a closer look, it’s not the halo, it’s the car. If you try to find pictures from the same angle from F1 cars you will notice that the driver is more embedded in the car. In FE cars, we see the full Halo structure (at least in front of the driver) whereas in F1 the front mounting point is hidden inside the nose structure and you even cannot see the hands of the driver or the driving wheel at all… Both in F1 and FE cars, the distance of the head of the driver and the top of the Halo seems the same… I think the front mounting point is definitely uglier than in F1 and the bulky part of it is in the direct line of sight of the driver…

      1. Nice catch! I don’t know how much they drivers height can be adjusted in the cockpit to lower the helmet to be at least even with the HALO, but I’m guessing not much. Even Massa, one of the shortest drivers out there, appears to be sitting high in relation to the HALO.

  6. 2 Belgian drivers on this years grid, very nice! But hopefully for Stoffel, he can give F1 another go in a few years time.

  7. Lenny (@leonardodicappucino)
    16th October 2018, 23:01

    Wehrlein’s now confirmed for Mahindra, so it seems that Hartley will keep his Toro Rosso seat next year

    1. The latest news is that Albon is now considered the prime candidate to take over that car @leonardodicappucino, see also why he did not test despite being confirmed months ago by Nissan/Dams

  8. Looks like P1 car from the mid naughties.

  9. The car looks fine. Too bad the liveries are awful.

    1. Theyre not classic liveries, I do find it quite amusing that given the NIO/ Andretti livery likeliness last year, HWA have come along and basically duplicated the Jaguar livery…

  10. Todd (@braketurnaccelerate)
    17th October 2018, 5:34

    Crazy how much talent there is in Formula E now. Almost like teams don’t have to take pay drivers to cover ridiculously high budgets.

  11. Hm, with the recent attention to the horrible human rights record of the Saudi’s (see brutally killing and cutting a journalist to pieces as the latest episode) the desicion to kick off the championship in the Kingdom seems as a worse and worse step every day. Starting to follow in F1’s path of going there where they pay you most instead of keeping some standards of where to go – I guess with the likes of China, Quatar and Saudi Arabia being large tech investors recently, it was only a question of when, not if though.

  12. Fudge Kobayashi (@)
    17th October 2018, 10:22

    The comparisons to F1 (mostly from the founder creator) really need to stop. This cannot even be considered an open wheel series at all and I see absolutely no resemblance to the proposed 2021 concepts whatsoever?

  13. Some really smashing liveries in the FE field.

  14. wow absolutely amazing… keep it up… need to see more (Y)

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