fiaformulae reblogged
The man who race engineered Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacherand Fernando Alonso is currently fiddling in the vicinity of my gentleman’s area. A lower quality gentleman’s area than he’s previously known, for sure, but as the Formula E is a single-seater, the safety procedure is necessarily top drawer. Which is a polite way of saying that I may never walk in a straight line again.
Will it be worth it? Well, we’re mighty excited by Formula E, the long anticipated all-electric race series, due to kick off in September in Beijing. It’s being touted as the future of motor racing, but as this year’s brave new F1 era continues to court controversy with its muted soundtrack and emphasis on efficiency, can we really learn to love a series that makes no real noise at all? Today, TG.com brings you a world exclusive first drive of the car, so we’ll be a step closer to answering that key question.
The signs are promising, not least because some of motorsport’s biggest guns are involved. Dallara has engineered the carbon/aluminium chassis, McLaren’s electronics division is supplying the powertrain and control electronics, the 200kW batteries are from Williams F1’s advanced engineering department, and the sequential gearbox is from Hewland. Renault is tasked with safely integrating the whole lot, while Michelin has developed a new type of all-weather treaded tyre. Spark, a sister company to the ART GP2 and F3 outfit, has spent the past two years designing and developing the car. And the whole thing is presided over by Alejandro Agag, a former politician turned motorsport entrepreneur who has more fingers in pies than he actually has fingers and Ginsters have pies. [x]