Fresh Formula E car for 2018/Nineteen will look ‘massively different’
Formula E champ Lucas di Grassi says fans of the series can expect a design that looks “massively different” when the 2018/Nineteen car is exposed.
Existing supplier Spark will proceed to build the 2018/Nineteen FE car, which was shown to some key FE playmates at last month’s Montreal season finale.
It could feature a radical departure from the classic single-seater form, especially around the rear, and is also expected to embrace the halo cockpit protection device set to be adopted by F1 in 2018.
The car is expected to test privately this October before one car per manufacturer is supplied early in two thousand eighteen for private testing.
Di Grassi told Autosport: “The car will be massively different, it will look very cool.
“The car cannot be fatter [to ensure the racing remains good], it has to be a similar size.
“Its structure has to be a little stronger than what we have now so that we touch more, we race more.
“The design looks good, it does not interfere too much with aero – we don’t need much aero, who truly cares if it’s a 2nd quicker or slower if the cars are the same?
“The aero has to be basic and not interfere with the racing and the car has to be efficient, strong and safe.
“If they come up with something like this, but the car looks a bit like Roborace – different, modern, not following F1’s preconceived ideas – that would be a success.”
The final version of the 2018/Nineteen FE car is expected to be a departure from the concept pics released by Spark earlier this year.
FE’s current single-seater design was inspired by a desire to look like Formula one cars, so the series retained some familiarity when it launched in two thousand fourteen and became the world’s very first major electrified racing championship.
FIA president Jean Todt has promised “a good surprise with fresh safety and technology on the car” and di Grassi believes there is no reason to fear a budge away from a traditional open-wheel design in the future.
“Closing the monocoque, protecting the driver, does not make it not open-wheel,” di Grassi said.
“Actually closing the wheel is much more efficient and the car looks more futuristic.
“For me the main point that hasn’t been achieved with this [current] car is with an electrified car you can come up with designs and with concepts inconceivable with an internal combustion engine.
“You can integrate the battery with the diffuser, have a lot of cooling by the rapid air underneath the cars, have motors on the inwards of the wheels – any idea.
“What’s significant is not to replicate old ideas from racing for a series that could come up with something totally futuristic because of the technology behind it.
“I fully understand that for the current car they had to do something which was a compromise, but not for the future.”