The new Gen4 Formula E car will be seen by media at a special launch event at Paul Ricard next Tuesday and Wednesday.
All of the manufacturers will be present in some capacity at the event, with cars from three of them, in addition to the independently-run FIA/Spark development car, on show. The three that will be active are Jaguar, Porsche and Stellantis (through Opel).
These launch days are being put on to further showcase the Gen4 car, which first tested at the end of 2024 and has since gone through a rigorous testing period with James Rossiter at the wheel. The former DS Techeetah and Maserati MSG team member will also drive the car at Paul Ricard.
Since last November, the five manufacturers that originally signed up for Gen4 - Porsche, Jaguar, Stellantis, Lola and Nissan - have completed two group tests at Monteblanco and Almeria, from which some footage has emerged of a clearly much quicker and more dynamic race car.
Further group tests may still occur across the next six months before homologations take place at the end of September, followed by the pre-season test days, which will be held in early November. The start of the first Gen4 season itself is expected to take place in December this year.
No customer deals for manufacturers have been formally announced yet, although The Race has already strongly alluded to Andretti and Nissan working together, in a deal that is believed to have been finalised but is yet to be confirmed.
Jaguar and Porsche, meanwhile, are set to work with Envision and Cupra Kiro respectively again - with Porsche also fielding a second works team - while the Penske operation is yet to decide upon its post-DS programme.
Mahindra committed late to the Gen4 rules at the end of 2025 and will not begin its on-track testing phase until June.
Porsche will issue details about its new car next week. The Race understands that the manufacturer recently held a private test at Varano in Italy, a popular testing circuit thanks to its variety of easily adaptable configurations. Pascal Wehrlein and Nico Mueller have so far completed several days of running.
The Jaguar Gen4 prototype will use a special test livery at Paul Ricard - which will depict simulated speed data traces around Monaco for each of the four generations of rules.
Part of these data traces highlight the calculated top speed of Jaguar's cars from the four generations of machinery it has raced in Formula E after exiting Monaco's famous tunnel towards the Nouvelle chicane.
Using data derived from Jaguar's simulator, the Jaguar Gen4 prototype, in its high-downforce, 600kW power specification, is predicted to exit the tunnel and hit a top speed of 277km/h before braking for the chicane.
That is more than 30km/h faster than the team's current I-TYPE 7 Gen3 Evo car (245km/h) in its 350kW power specification, and almost 80km/h faster than its Gen1 car (199km/h) in the simulator.
According to Jaguar, the Gen4 car would "also begin a lap around the famous Monaco streets at 254km/h, 30km/h quicker than its Gen3 Evo counterpart (222km/h) and 75km/h faster than Jaguar's Gen1 racer (179km/h)".
Why Nissan and Lola won't run
Nissan, Lola and Citroen cars will not demo in the Paul Ricard days but will all have executives and drivers at the event, as will the Mahindra and Penske teams that do not yet have cars to run.
Nissan team principal Tommaso Volpe told The Race that the "timing of the event" at Paul Ricard meant Nissan would not be present with its development car "due to our development schedule".
The Japanese manufacturer is believed to have had a test lined up for next week for several months. The same is true of Lola, which suffered a troubled start to its Gen4 running at the Monteblanco test in November but has since accrued a decent amount of data.
Lucas di Grassi and Zane Maloney have undertaken the majority of the testing, although Lola brand ambassador Johnny Herbert has also sampled the car.
"Unfortunately, Formula E's launch event falls at a point in our Gen4 development and testing schedule where it is not possible to send a car to Paul Ricard," Lola-Yamaha Abt team principal Mark Preston told The Race.
"We will be supporting the event off-track and look forward to launching our Gen4 contender later in the year."
While the Stellantis development Gen4 car will run at Paul Ricard, it will do so in predominantly Opel identification, with recently-announced test and development driver Sophia Floersch at the wheel.
from The Race https://ift.tt/0bKotJA
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