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Race 2 – Diriyah E-Prix, Round 1 of the 2019/2020 ABB FIA Formula E Championship
Dubai. A strong second place for Porsche works driver André Lotterer (D) in the ABB FIA Formula E Championship 2019/2020 season-opener on Friday and valuable experience gathered in the second Diriyah E-Prix race was, overall, an encouraging debut for Porsche in the fully-electric race series. “We are up with the frontrunners; the pace is there. We can build on that,” explained Michael Steiner, Member of the Executive Board for Research and Development Porsche AG.
After reaching the podium on the previous day, Lotterer initially crossed the finish line in sixth place at the end of the second race on the 2.494-kilometre circuit near the Saudi Arabian capital, Riyadh. He finished just over three seconds behind race-winner Alexander Sims (D, BMW). However, he then received a drive-through penalty for overtaking at the start of a safety car period. Lotterer failed to spot the yellow flags as he passed another car that was experiencing technical issues. Having started the race from tenth place, the German driver was demoted to a final position of 14th. Lotterer’s team-mate Neel Jani (CH) moved up five places from 18th on the grid to finish 13th.
The Formula E Fanboost saw fans vote Lotterer into the top five on both days. This provided the Porsche driver with 100 kJ of additional energy in each race. With two races out of 14 now complete, Lotterer is sixth in the drivers’ championship with 18 points. The TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team is also in sixth place in the team standings. The third race of the season is scheduled to take place on 18 January in Santiago de Chile.
Quotes on the Diriyah E-Prix
Amiel Lindesay (Head of Operations Formula E): “Following on from Friday's success, that was another good race today. André once again made up some places as he moved through the field. Even though we did not manage to score any points at the end of the second race, it was a positive weekend for the TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team. We have gathered some valuable information and now we have to do our homework. I am happy for the whole team. The results give us confidence for the next races of the season.”
Neel Jani (Porsche 99X Electric, #18): “It was a challenging second race but our pace was better than on Friday and it represents a big step forward for me personally. We all gained a lot of experience here and now we have to continue the hard work to ensure that we can benefit from that for the upcoming races.”
André Lotterer (Porsche 99X Electric, #36): “All in all, a great start to the season with the second place on Friday. We could have scored another eight points by finishing sixth today. Unfortunately, I was demoted after the race finished. I was just overtaking Pascal Wehrlein as the safety car appeared on the circuit. That was just really unlucky in terms of timing."
Further information, film and photo material in the Porsche Newsroom: newsroom.porsche.com
Porsche Middle East & Africa FZE
Public Relations
Anja Wood
Phone: +971 4 3569 911
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Showing posts with label Porsche. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Porsche. Show all posts
Monday, 25 November 2019
Encouraging start to the Formula E debut season for Porsche
Thursday, 24 October 2019
Porsche racing drivers excited for Formula E debut in Riyadh
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Valencia/Riyadh. After more than 30 years away from single-seater racing Porsche is back, following the first laps of the new 99X Electric car at the official test drives of the ABB FIA Formula E Championship for the 2019/2020 season in Valencia, Spain. Last week, Neel Jani and André Lotterer, the two regular drivers for the TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team, joined rival manufacturers at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia for three days of track testing ahead of the contest’s launch next month.
Porsche’s competitive debut in Formula E will take place on November 22 and 23 at the Diriyah Circuit, in Saudi Arabia, a tough test in the street racing series described as ‘very challenging’ by drivers. This year sees Porsche enter the Formula E fray against the biggest line-up of manufacturers in the contest’s history, with 10 manufacturers and overall 12 teams on the starting grid. Kicking off Season 6 for the series, Porsche’s 99X Electric will compete for the first time on the track created in the heart of a UNESCO World Heritage site on the outskirts of Riyadh.
The stakes will be high in the Kingdom, as it hosts a doubleheader. One man focussed on those early races is André Lotterer, who believes his team will learn a lot. And, new rules being introduced this year by the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), present an opportunity for engineers to play an increased role in the path to victory, said the driver who joined Porsche this summer.
Speaking at the recent launch of the ‘Diriyah Season’, a month of sports events being staged in the Kingdom including Formula E, André Lotterer said: “It’s very exciting. The Diriyah Circuit is the best track in the championship’s calendar, it is very challenging to drive and, of course, thrilling as well because I’ve changed teams and I am coming with Porsche.
“There will for sure be a lot of things to learn for our first race together, but I will try to give them the most from my experience as possible. To be part of Formula E is fantastic. For me it is the place to be, the best professional environment, and for sure the race series of the future.”
Last year, the new Porsche driver tackled the Saudi street circuit with the Techeetah team, finishing 5th on the day, and 8th for the entire season. What sets the Diriyah track apart from others in the calendar is the number of turns, 21 in all, and the challenge they present. Some are ascending, some of them are descending, so drivers must contend with slopes and corners simultaneously, one second going down the next second going up. The course also features one of the longest straights of the championship where drivers will look to their cars to attack at speed.
Lotterer has been a Porsche works driver since 2017 and has also been active in the electric race series since the 2017/2018 season. In July, Porsche announced he was joining the manufacturer’s TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team to partner with Swiss racer Neel Jani. Jani has been a works driver since 2013 and at the wheel of the Porsche 919 Hybrid he took outright victory at Le Mans in 2016 and became FIA World Endurance Champion the same year.
Asked about his first race in Saudi Arabia, Jani said: “Special and very unknown I would say, because it is absolutely an adventure with many new aspects, and I will call it definitely a very new challenge in my life. But I personally look very much forward to finally kick off our debut season very soon.”
The Swiss driver added: “The Diriyah Circuit looks very tricky, very challenging and very technical. So, we are pleased to have a good simulator where we can hopefully really learn the track by heart at home in Germany. Obviously, we prepare the car as well as possible, but in the end, we are still a new team and there are a lot of thing we need to learn, for example how to handle a weekend, which we cannot learn at home. So, the first race will be a big challenge for us.”
Like all ‘Gen 2’ cars on the track, the Porsche 99X Electric will feature the same chassis and battery as its rivals, as per FIA rules, however, all powertrain components are developed by manufacturers. This gives Porsche engineers free rein over the electric motor, inverter, brake-by-wire system, transmission, differential, driveshafts, the suspension components attached to the rear-axle, as well as the cooling system and the engine control unit, the ECU.
The energy efficiency of the powertrain plays a decisive role in the competition, especially this year as new rules introduced by FIA mean a greater emphasis on this vital area, as drivers cannot conserve energy during race stoppages. It is a return to the early days of Formula E that saw rash drivers run out of power and stop metres from the finish line
André Lotterer believes this will be a good development. He said: “The rules have changed this year, it means that when there are interruptions in the race, such as the safety car or a red flag or full course yellow flag, no energy can be saved. That will change the strategy and the dynamic of the race and I think it will be interesting for everyone watching.”
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