FIA CLARIFIES FE’S TWIN-MOTOR BAN
The FIA has clarified the decision to ban twin-motor powertrains from Formula E, with technical director Gilles Simon saying it was taken over costs and “not to limit technology development”.
The decision to ban twinmotor powertrains, which only impacts on the Nissan e.dams squad, for the 2019/20 FE season was announced at the World Motor Sport Council meeting last month.
Several FE team bosses subsequently explained that the decision had been taken to try and ensure competitive parity in future seasons, with Nissan’s motorsport chief Michael Carcamo saying it followed discussions “to ensure the best championship we can [have]”.
But this led to questions regarding FE’S ethos of driving innovation in electric vehicle technology, to which the FIA has now responded.
Following a request for clarification from Motorsport News about this issue, Simon said: “The new technical regulations have been set to reduce costly architecture of powertrains, not to limit technology development.
“It is not innovative to design two motors instead of one for the same total power output.
“What is innovative is surely to work on better efficiency of motors to produce more power for a given amount of energy available at the battery.”
Simon also explained why the Nissan technology that has been deemed illegal for next season remains legal for the conclusion of the current campaign.
He said: “All powertrains currently running in FE are legal and homologated for this season.
“Following discussions with the manufacturers, we proposed to [make] the regulation precise and limit the architecture of FE cars to one single motor.
“This will not limit the potential technology development but will reduce the complexity of the architecture.”