An exciting start to Season 9 promises a new era of intense competition – with a steep learning curve.
ABB Formula E teams arriving in Saudi Arabia for the two-race Diriyah E-Prix on January 27-28 will encounter an atmosphere rather different from the championship’s previous races in the Saudi capital, which date back to 2018. For Season 9, the picturesque desert course, through the streets of the city’s ancient Diriyah section, hosts Rounds 2 and 3, the 2023 campaign having switched the opening race this year to Mexico City.
In place of the new-season jitters and mechanical unknowns, the 11 teams of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship will have some measure of their competition as well as a baseline on the performance and reliability of the new third-generation racecars. While some elements of the weekend will be reassuringly familiar, including the 2.5-kilometer (1.5-mile) street course of 21 turns tracing the historic city walls, much remains to be learned as the realities of different tires, revised rules and changed team alignments continue to be worked out.
Nearly everything about Season 9 is a clean slate, in fact, adding to the challenges for engineers and mechanics as they develop strategies and car set-ups for each street course. The Gen3 cars, with more power on tap and technical upgrades that leapfrog their predecessors, bring a 200mph potential to Diriyah, the result of a 60 kilogram weight reduction and a boost in peak power to 350 kW. The cars have added a powertrain at the front axle for energy recovery, raising the total regen capability to 600 kW – enough to deliver 40 percent of the energy used in a race.
On the track in Mexico City, the Gen3 cars kept their promise, delivering a thrilling qualifying shootout and a dramatic, hard-fought race. Jake Dennis, driving for the Porsche-powered Avalanche Andretti team, struck a dominant win, beating Pascal Wehrlein of TAG Heuer Porsche and Lucas di Grassi, an ABB Ambassador at the wheel for Mahindra racing.
The robust health of the series in its ninth season is confirmed by new entries from revered global automakers, underscoring the vitality of Formula E. In addition to Britain’s McLaren, there is the first entry from an Italian brand, Maserati, present on the grid in the Gen3 era. Both companies, of course, have acclaimed racing histories, and both teams logged strong laps at December’s pre-season test in Valencia, Spain.
For Giovanni Sgro, the head of Maserati Corse, the automaker’s racing operation, joining the Formula E World Championship was a natural given the company’s goal to develop only electric cars from 2030. With a background in the American NASCAR series and in Formula 1, Sgro comes from a world of combustion engines, yet regards the “new power of silence” as an impressive feature – and an enabler of the series’ trademark race locations in urban centers.
“Formula E has done a great job in the evolution of the platform to Gen 3,” Sgro says. “It really shows what the future of e-mobility can be.”
The continuing focus on efficiency goes beyond the Formula E cars, applying even to the LED lighting, powered from renewable energy sources, of the Diriyah track for after-dark. In addition, ABB has brought its ABB Ability™ OPTIMAX® energy management software to the championship, a move that will help maximize energy efficiency by giving engineers the ability to monitor and analyze total energy output at race sites.
ABB’s commitment to Saudi Arabia goes well beyond the racecourse. ABB E-Mobility is the supplier of EV chargers for installation at 100 petrol stations across the country in support of the Saudi Green Initiative 2030. ABB will also be a supplier of renewable energy technology for the Red Sea Project, a sustainable tourism development owned by the country’s Public Investment Fund.
For its part, ABB takes another step forward in support of sustainable mobility in Season 9. Through the 16 rounds of the 2023 campaign, ABB serves as the official charging partner of Formula E, responsible for replenishing the batteries of all 22 cars prior to each practice and qualifying session and most important, ahead of every race.
To accomplish this task, ABB developed new hardware that delivers DC fast charges with a compact unit that prioritizes reliable service, compact dimensions and light weight, all vital requirements for meeting the demands of the planet-straddling series. The mobile chargers, which provide charging rates up to 160 kilowatts, can service two cars simultaneously, reducing the amount of support gear that must travel with the cars between races.
Engineering solutions developed in the Formula E program are valuable for the benefits they can bring to consumers. The expertise developed in motorsports, and as a global leader in DC fast charging, is reflected in ABB E-mobility’s recent introduction of Terra Home chargers for EV owners. Among its innovations is the capability to automatically prioritize the use of electricity from renewable sources, a key pathway to assuring the sustainability of electric vehicles. The Terra Home also brings features like Plug N Charge, which provides instant recognition between car and charger as well as interactive lighting to indicate charging status. A cloud connection between the Terra Home and ABB E-mobility makes remote servicing of the charger quick and efficient.
Following the Diriyah rounds, a trio of new cities for upcoming races expands the global footprint of the Formula E World Championship to Hyderabad, India; Cape Town, South Africa; and Sao Paulo, Brazil. In June, the United States stop of the 2023 campaign shifts west, to Portland, Oregon from its New York City location of recent years.
