First public demonstration of the new Formula E Gen3 car was at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, with ex-F1 Nick Heidfeld in the cockpit of the Mahindra M9Electro
The new Gen3 car that Formula E will use starting next season had already been officially presented to the public, but the Goodwood Festival of Speed in England was responsible for hosting the first public demonstration of the new single-seater of the electric category. And ex-F1 driver Nick Heidfeld was in charge of driving the car, and he had his first experience inside the Gen3 in front of the public.
The Festival of Speed is a traditional annual event held at Goodwood House, a 5,000-acre estate owned by the Duke of Richmond in England. The venue features several cars from a wide variety of categories and years - in 2022, for example, it featured Nigel Mansell aboard the 1989 Ferrari 640, among several other disciplines.
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And on Thursday (23), Mahindra took its Gen3 car, the M9Electro, to the track with Heidfeld - the team's former Formula E driver from 2015 to 2018 - who drove up the hill at Goodwood in front of the public, the first to hear the new Formula E car outside of the teams' controlled testing environment.
Mahindra further pointed out that it was only the second time the car had been to the track, adding to only the first test of the single-seater on the track - a day after its construction was completed on Wednesday of last week.
The new Formula E Gen3 car promises to be the fastest in the category's history, with a top speed of up to 322 km/h. The single-seater will be the first to feature power trains at the front and rear, with the front end responsible for regenerating up to 250 kW of braking energy. At the rear, the 350 kW of power makes the new cars more than twice as powerful as the current ones.
In addition, the brakes will be completely different - for the first time, they will not be hydraulic. As the new batteries will have a very high efficiency - up to 95% - it is expected that the total energy recovered by the drivers during the races will represent up to 40% of the total energy spent in the race.
The Goodwood Festival of Speed runs until next Sunday (26), and Heidfeld is scheduled to return to the hill once again with the single-seater built by Mahindra for 2023. The Indian team - based in England - is one of the category's engine suppliers and has an agreement with Abt, which will return to the grid, for the delivery of the team's powertrains for next year.
"It was very interesting because the car is very new," Heidfeld said after the experience. "We only did a 150km shakedown last week, which means that even here, on a short journey, we learned a lot about power and especially braking, because there are some new systems in the car. [I'm having fun and trying to enjoy the time," he added.