What happened when Formula E visited an American oval track?

Summary

Other drivers were content to follow in the peloton. "You can spend energy to be at the front, but then at some point you need to get that energy back," Hughes said. A Formula E car battery is 56 kWh, which is only enough energy for about 60 percent of the race distance, so slipstreaming and energy management are critically important, as is regen braking. It's a job made harder by the fact that there's virtually no live telemetry available to the engineers in the garages; instead, each lap, drivers have to update them on how much energy they have remaining. The mid-race "pit boost" charging stops were not a feature as the sport had left the 600 kW chargers in their boxes for the Miami ePrix. But Attack Mode definitely affected the outcome. Essentially an in-race power boost, every driver has to use Attack Mode for eight minutes during the race, usually split into either two four-minute deployments or two- and six-minute deployments. It's activated by driving over a pair of timing loops set away from the racing line, and bumps power from 300 kW to 350 kW. The Jaguar and McLaren to the right of the photo pass through the Attack Mode activation zone, which you can see is far off the racing line. Credit: Alastair Staley/LAT Images Gen3 Formula E cars have always been able to regenerate energy from the front axle, but this season is the first time the cars can actually send power to the front wheels while in attack mode. "So until last year, attack mode was kind of a penalty, because you couldn't use it to attack," explained Xavi Serra, head of global racing for Cupra. "You had extra power, and you were spending more energy and very difficult to overtake. Now you spend your energy, but as you said, four wheel drive, [better] tires and extra power, you use it, and then it's now a strategy tool to advance positions, whereas in the past it was not," Serra told Ars.