The ABB FIA Formula E World Championship returns to Monaco on May 6 for its sixth race on the historic city-street circuit, launching a homestretch chase through the second half of Season 9 in pursuit of the drivers’ and teams’ titles. The tightening championship points tally following the series’ seventh and eighth rounds, contested in Berlin earlier this month, promises drama-filled competition ahead, with high-stakes track battles certain from this point forward.
Using the full 3.3-kilometer (2.0 miles) length of the legendary track that has hosted grand prix racing since 1929, the Monaco E-Prix showcases the extreme performance possible in sustainable, fully electric motorsport. The track’s 19-turn layout, encompassing famed corners like Rascasse, Casino Square and the Grand Hotel Hairpin in a famously picturesque setting along the Mediterranean coast, combines the challenges of a narrow, tradition-steeped circuit with the added demands of mastering energy management and the strategy decisions offered by Formula E’s Attack Mode activation.
While the Monaco E-prix racecourse is largely familiar to competitors – ABB Ambassadors Sébastien Buemi and Stoffel Vandoorne have three wins here between them – who benefit from track data accumulated in past years, the 2023 race will present significant unknowns. Foremost is the upgrade to the Gen3 racecar, the most powerful and efficient electric single-seater ever built, which was launched at the Monaco race one year ago. Likewise, this season’s new tire compounds and rules revisions hold the potential to bring surprises to the results.
Even so, the consistency of venue and preparations will be welcome after a calendar that has already included first-time race locations in India, South Africa and Brazil. The continuing role of ABB as title sponsor of the series is bolstered by its role as the official charging partner of Formula E, replenishing the batteries of the 22-car grid with purpose-built, mobile DC fast chargers that can service two cars at a time. Less apparent to fans, but equally vital to success of the series, is ABB’s work in assuring an uninterrupted power supply for TV broadcasters and providing ABB Ability™ OPTIMAX® energy management software to improve efficiency by monitoring and optimizing energy usage at race sites.
Similarly, there is considerable behind-the-scenes support activity taking place within the individual teams for each race. In the garage of the TAG Heuer Porsche team, for instance, is Simona de Silvestro, an accomplished racer with experience that includes Formula E, IndyCar and the Australian Supercars series and as an ABB Ambassador.
De Silvestro’s role at Porsche, nominally as a reserve driver, understates the scope of her work with the team. Far more than a just-in-case understudy prepared to step in should a schedule conflict or illness take out one of the team’s primary pilots, she also serves as a driver for on-track test sessions, an assignment that was especially valuable in the transition to the Gen3 cars after Season 8.
As season 9 began, focus shifted to simulator work at Porsche’s Weissach development center. For cars that are so dependent on software refinements, the simulator sessions – typically four full days between races – are a vital tool in staying competitive, de Silvestro points out. Simulator time, which she shares with fellow reserve driver David Beckmann as well as the team’s regular drivers, Pascal Wehrlein and António Félix da Costa, is crucial through the season, she notes.
“Because the Formula E machines typically travel from race to race without returning to the team’s home base, the only way to work on strategy and car setup is in the simulator,” she says. “By now, the data and the actual track conditions correlate very well.
“What we develop in the simulator is really accurate, especially on energy management,” de Silvestro says, noting Porsche’s advantage in efficiency as a result of the development efforts. It wasn’t a simple changeover, though: “There was not much correlation from the Gen2 cars that proved useful.”
At Monaco and for the upcoming races she’ll attend, de Silvestro shifts gears somewhat to the back-up duties of a reserve driver. “For a race weekend, the reserve’s job is just like the main drivers, taking part in all the meetings and strategy sessions,” she says.
It’s all in the cause of preserving Porsche’s lead in the standings for teams, now with 168 points to hold a 15-point margin over the Jaguar-powered team of Envision Racing. Jaguar TCS Racing is in third place with 138 points.
Driver standings have similarly closed up with the Berlin results. Wehrlein leads into the Monaco race, with 100 points. Nick Cassidy of Envision is close behind at 96, and Jean-Éric Vergne, a perennial championship contender driving for DS Penske, sits at 81.
The series takes the action next to Jakarta, Indonesia, for a double race on June 3-4 followed by Portland, Oregon and Rome, Italy. The season concludes July 29-30 with a pair of races in London.
