In Rome the Formula E rages and I had the unique opportunity to drive one of these cars in preview. A few days ago in Magione. And not just any single-seater, but one of the most successful: the DS Techeetah gold and black of Vergne and Lotterer. The same car that had won the race in China, before Rome. Yes, just one of the new 2nd generation single-seater with engines powered to 200 kilowatts (270 horsepower), battery capacity greater than 54 kilowatt-hours that allow you to play the entire race of 45 minutes without charging or changing cars like last year. And so much of Halo over the F1-style cockpit.
An exclusive and special test that left me with mixed feelings. I'll try to summarise them briefly, while a longer and more detailed article will be published next week on Autosprint.
The thing that impressed me the most was not the acceleration, but the speed in absolute silence. Let me explain: the new Formula E reach a theoretical maximum speed of 280 km/h. Theoretical because in reality these cars are limited to about 230 km/h. In the Magione straight I reached 215 km/h before the braking: not bad considering that I did only five laps, and I was certainly not familiar with this car. But the important thing is not the speed itself, but the fact that you reach in absolute silence. You can only hear the rustle of the air against the helmet. You go loud without hearing any noise. Strange, isn't it? For example, I didn't realize I was going fast. I had no points of reference and there was no noise to give me proof of the speed. It's a strange feeling.
For the rest, Formula E didn't leave me that feeling of WOW!, of great power and disruptive aggressiveness like so many other racing cars that I was lucky enough to drive in my experience as a journalist-tester. For example, I'll always remember the thrills of the Audi R15 at Le Mans, a 5.7-litre V10 turbocharger that had almost a thousand newton metres of torque. When you sank the gas, the belts would break through your chest and with your fingers you had to hold on to the steering wheel in order not to lose your grip, so brutal was the acceleration of that little boat. Even more so than the R18, which had a smaller engine capacity and fewer horsepower. In more recent times I have been thrilled by the wickedness of the Lambo Huracan SuperTrofeo, which had a roar so deflagrating, thanks to its V10 engine, which made you vibrate every pore of the skin. It transmitted power and brutality from all sides. Formula E isn't like that. It's quick, it breaks hard thanks to calipers and carbon discs, it allows you to detach under the curves and it's also quite quick to insert. But it lacks the sound to sound "bad". There's not much to do. Young people may like it, but I don't like a racing car that doesn't have a real rhombus. It's like listening to rock music in the background at very low volume.
So a disappointment? Absolutely not. Only it's a different car. The emotions, the pleasure of driving come from something other than pure driving. For example, it has a violent acceleration. I tried to make a steady start with the launch procedure that the drivers use at the start. Quite simple. Like a plane taking off. You pull down the central paddle on the left without the brake, you squeeze the throttle to the bottom, the machine stays still as if it were braked, and when the inscription on the dashboard "launch ready" appears you release the paddle without obviously removing your foot from the gas. And the DS Techeetah snaps like a sling when stationary. Acelera from 0 to 100 km/h in a little more than 3", double that of an F1 that takes 1.5/1.7 seconds, but this still has 270 horsepower against the thousand of an F1 that weighs even three hundred kg less. What more do you want?
The most complicated thing is the steering wheel. The French engineer who was my tutor in this test, had reassured me: "You'll see, the driving is simple: it has only two pedals, gas and brake, and no gearbox. Only forward gear. Like a kart". But then he spent a good half an hour explaining the use of the various steering wheel controls. There are three rotary knobs, eight buttons, two snap wheels. From there, everything is regulated, from the engine power delivery maps, to the distribution of the braking, to the behaviour of the differentials. A thousand different combinations. The control of all these parameters at the wheel is the real difficulty of Formula E. That at this time, after Formula 1 and perhaps the Toyota TS050 of the WEC is the most complicated racing car in the world.
I hope the article was useful to you. Stay tuned for more articles! In the near future there will be many good articles! Thanks for your attention!
