Formula E's GEN4 car has already met expectations - Dodds

Formula E's GEN4 car is already meeting early expectations with its on-track performance according to the championship's CEO Jeff Dodds.

With advancements in performance naturally expected with each new generation of car, Formula E set big targets with its latest iteration. Those targets have already been met even though the car’s still early on its development curve.

“When we first saw the FIA kind of parameters and what they thought was possible in the upgrade to the GEN4 car, obviously, it included lap time, potential lap time reductions, increase in power, etc,” Dodds said ahead of the GEN4 car’s public debut at Circuit Paul Ricard this week. “They're targets on paper based on what people simulate the technology is capable of, so I wasn't surprised we got to where we got to, because, broadly, they were the targets that were being set at the start of the project.

“But what you often see in launches of new products is the early targets and specification that’s laid out gets diluted over time as more and more challenges crop up during the project cycle. And I'm not saying there haven't been challenges that have cropped up, because, of course, there have, but the fact that we’ve managed to maintain and deliver on those performance criteria from the start of the project... if not surprising, it's been very gratifying that we've got to that stage.”

Early track tests of the GEN4 have met engineers' expectations and exceded those of drivers. Formula E photo

Xavier Mestelan Pinon, the FIA chief technical and safety officer agreed that there was no surprise that the car has already met its targets, but just how much drivers have enjoyed driving it was somewhat unexpected.

“In terms of performance, it's not a surprise,” he said. “But what is maybe the most surprising for me, it’s how drivers are enjoying driving the car, because it's one thing to have a very powerful car, but another thing is to enjoy it.

“And in our sport, it's a key point that drivers will enjoy driving this car. It's what we are looking for, a nice fight on the track, and drivers will, again, enjoy it by fighting all together on the track.

“So, I'm pretty convinced that we will have a very nice future with this new GEN4 car, no doubt for me.”

While the GEN4 presents a new dawn for Formula E, it may not necessarily mean the end for GEN3, with Dodds suggesting that teams – or even the series – could continue to utilize them to aid the pathway for drivers into the series.

“If you go back to the very early days of Formula E, the GEN1 cars were all owned by the series and effectively leased to the teams,” Dodds said. “But the GEN3 cars are owned by the teams, so each team will have a slightly different plan for those.

“So it may well be that we will take some cars from the teams because we see it as an interesting pathway for developing people into electric racing. We've also been very successfully doing things like women testing and rookie testing and having some GEN3 cars, I think, is a good thing for us to have. But the individual teams will make their own choices. Some of them will display them, some of them will choose to keep using them, some of them will use for demonstration purposes. I think it will be different routes for different teams.”