The much-anticipated second Formula E season is upon us with the first round at Beijing nearing ever closer. The inaugural season impressed many motorsport faces around the world, including the likes of Emerson Fittipaldi, Felipe Massa and Dario Franchitti. There will even be a former Formula 1 world champion take to the grid in Jacques Villeneuve. However, as with every new racing series, there were flaws. Some of these have been fixed for the 2015-16 season, whilst some other regulations have been altered, including the first stage of opening up manufacturing parts on the car. There are slight changes to the format, and what qualifications are needed to take part in Formula E. Here is a round-up of all of the major 2015 Formula E rule changes.
Technical changes
The main change is that the series is no longer a spec series. The cars will have differing powertrains for the 2015-16 season, with no less than eight different manufacturers supplying powertrains to the ten teams. The majority of these teams will be using their own powertrains (such as Venturi using the Venturi powertrain); however others such as Dragon Racing will use customer powertrains (also using Venturi). Two teams – Amlin Andretti and Team Aguri will use the SRT01-e powertrain developed by McLaren, which was used by all cars last season.
The e-licence
The slightly controversial superlicence points system which will apply to F1 for 2016 will also come into effect in Formula E. Instead of requiring 40 points as is the case in F1, to qualify for a Formula E seat a driver must have at least 20 points accumulated from other categories within three years. Other ways somebody can qualify includes previously holding a F1 superlicence, participating in three previous Formula E season or by demonstrating outstanding ability in single-seater cars without opportunity to qualify for the required points.
In-season driver changes
Following Andretti Autosport using no less than six drivers in a single car last season, a limit on changes has been put in place. Teams will now only be able to change drivers two times in a season, and no changes are permitted in the last three rounds unless unforeseen circumstances arise. In addition, changes must be announced two weeks prior to an event.
FanBoost
Love it or hate it (I’m still very much sat on the fence here), FanBoost is here to stay. FanBoost will only apply to the second car now as the vote will be open until the end of the sixth minute of the race. You will also be able to vote on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in addition to the official website and smartphone application. There is a change to what FanBoost provides too. Instead of an extra 30Kw for five seconds, it will provide an extra 100kj of energy which can be used within a power window of 180 and 200Kw. FanBoost remains a one-time-only device benefit. I suppose from a purist perspective, FanBoost has been nerfed slightly, which is more natural. More methods of voting however could well change the Brazilian stranglehold on the FanBoost as we saw last season.
Qualifying
The qualifying format, which came under criticism after the great British weather came into play at London, has been altered drastically. Instead of just four equal-length sessions with the groups determined by pot luck, there will now be a fifth session to determine the winner of the pole position via the Super Pole method. The first four sessions have been shortened to just six minutes, meaning that drivers can only get one flying lap in, and the fifth session will run with the top five from the four groups reversed each having one flying lap to determine the winner of the pole position and the three points. Whilst this does spice things up further, this does not really address the issues which we had last season, and it brings new potential issues with possible red flags and so forth.
Race
Not much has changed regarding the races; however the races should average a higher speed due to an increase in maximum power. As opposed to 150Kw as was the case last season, cars can now use 170Kw at any given time. However the amount of power permitted in the race has not changed. The races will last for one or two extra laps this season, depending on the circuit. This will likely mean more races with power saving early on, before possible sprints to the finish if a race is affected by a safety car. This also plays into the hands of reigning champion Nelson Piquet, Jr. who showed excellent energy harvesting and preserving abilities on his quest to the title. We should see less usage of the safety car in races too, as a ‘full course yellow’ system has been introduced. This system, which means that drivers must remain at 50kph for the duration, has also been used in the World Endurance Championship, and is slightly different to the ‘virtual safety car’ system used by F1. Some of the tracks, such as Beijing have also been altered.
Penalties
However, one rule change Formula E has undergone which reflects a Formula 1 rule change is the introduction of time penalties. The stewards are now able to issue a five or ten-second time penalty which can be taken in the pit stop (although it is unclear as to whether this is added to the driver’s minimum pit stop time or not) or it is added onto the time at the end of the race. In addition, the traditional drive-through and 10-second stop and go penalties which have been around for many years are also options for the stewards.
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