Technical Preview: Buenos Aires ePrix
TECH TALK
Posted on: 15 February, 2017
After the best ever season start, we are off to Buenos Aires for the third round of the championship. Netting two podiums, a pole position and fastest lap award from the first two rounds, we are eager to hit the track. We bring you technical preview ahead of the race straight from our Chief Engineer Vinit Patel.
Get Set, Go!
It has obviously been a long gap between two races in the FIA Formula E season, but it doesn’t mean any of our development has stopped. We knew it was coming and planned ahead so that we would be bringing new code and new behind-the-scenes items online for use in time for Buenos Aires. All this planning and preparation has been executed well by the team and we should now see upgrades within our performance window.
We’re pushing the envelope of our technology further and the full capabilities of our Magneti Marelli system are still being explored. There will be some new steps to take in Buenos Aires because the gap allowed us to develop the control code and efficiency maps that determine how hardware is used in the M3Electro.
With combined knowledge between Mahindra and Campos Racing for three seasons, we have a firm grasp for what the Buenos Aires circuit needs. It’s a good blend between technical slow speed, a very technical chicane just before the end of the timed lap which is very important for qualifying as well as a long straight and some of the highest speed corners on the calendar. It’s a good challenge for the race engineers to find a nice setup between straight-line speed, down force requirements and mechanical compliance for curb strikes.
Nick has been to Buenos Aires for the last two events and he’s been helping Felix with some of the nuances and our simulator programme has been quite detailed with this long gap to bring Felix up to speed. Although he’s a rookie, we expect him to hit the ground running in FP1.
Buenos Aires is possibly the hottest venue this season and provides an added technical challenge to manage the thermal parameters of the battery and how we deploy energy regen through the race. With a higher amount of regen available, our simulation work was redone from the previous two seasons. The race has become longer, so again the energy challenge has also been fully reassessed. New strategy tools mean that we will have new ways to control and deploy energy and improve on the results we’ve had so far this season. Now we’re aiming for the top step rather than the other two.
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