Formula E has taken the engineering and motorsport world by storm. The first race kicks off this weekend with practice, qualifying and the race in one whole day! Each race is held on street circuits across the world. After speaking to Peter McCool (Amlin Aguri technical director) he tells me that “this is a very difficult scheme to work with” and ” Formula E will adapt initiative engineering solutions at what ever is thrown at us”. This is what makes Formula E so great as of now. It’s a brand new technology being created for the championship, which will only improve as the series carries on. Here I have written all the information on how these cars work.
Chassis
The cars all feature a brand new Spark Racing Technology developed chassis built by Dallara as a foundation to build on. Then here comes the key parts, the motor generator unit (MGU) has been developed by McLaren Automotive and is in fact the same as whats in the McLaren P1 hyper car. Also developed by McLaren is the electronic control units (ECU) which is inside the car and will involve the steering wheel and anything remotely small and electric tasks. Williams Racing has been drafted in to produce a big enough battery for the cars which are 300kwh in size, and weigh 200kg. The power of these pocket rockets is crazy with over 200kw at its peak, but during the race will have a reduced output of 133kw. The part which has got the drivers hyped is the Tweet-to-pass which is a way that drivers can achieve an extra 67kw of power to the car which works out has 40bhp, so relatively speaking, a smart car has been added. There is a downside to this that it only lasts for five seconds, but is very unfair if they have this for the whole race.
The chassis are constructed from Carbon Fiber and Aluminium monocoque with the inner skin a Kevlar honeycomb structure for added strength. The transmission is very simple, every car has a 5 speed sequential paddle shirt gearbox with fixed gear ratios which will be in for the first FIA Formula E season. The cars will have 182 Michelin all-weather tyres which will be on the cars all the time and are never switched to drys. Stopping these cars are the bespoke carbon brakes package which has been specially developed for the cars. They feature 4 pistons per brake caliper. Renault is another big name drafted in to help. They have created there own motor generator unit (MGU) for the every team who all have the same car. The suspention is a coil sprung set up ontop of the e-motor and sits behind the Williams battery system. with upper and lower wishbone to the rear wheels. Dutch company Koni supply the shock absorbers to every car and sit on the far side of the bell housing.
Motors
The rechargeable energy store system (RESS) as developed by Williams is quite simple. They have Carbon Fibre shell with access to the cells of that are inside . Inside the batteries are Lithium ion cells which get hotter as power is used up which goes to the E-motor as well as in braking (ERS) where power / energy is collected where the brake disc meets the brake pads. So the unit is water cooled, hoses emerge from the bulkhead module and via a water pump which is towed down on the left side pod. Williams Racing have developed software too, as they monitor every individual cell in the battery and RESS. From the left rear of the RESS are too high power come out to control the electronics. These act as like switches from DC power from RESS to the E-motor McLaren supplies both these from there engineering centre. Controlling the E-motor can be done by drivers demand at the pedal as the electronics manage the torque output and ERS system, which can both adjusted by the steering wheel. McLarens E-motor sits in the aluminium bell-housing bolted to the back of the RESS. The Tree phase AC motor connects to the inverter with three high power current cables. which are on top coated in orange. Data collection is by McLarens’s electronics and software. The Gearboxes are bolted between the bellhousing and the rear crash structure. Shifts are used by a paddle on the wheel. The gearbox is used to keep the E motor allot smaller, when can be driven aggressively to the box which makes the most noise as they pass with a high pitch noise coming from the motor. 
The motors are quite special, they work by two spinning magnets. All magnets have a north and south. they are spun around which produces power on a basic level. If you have a full circle (FMs) of magnets surrounding one giant one spinning the central one (CM) with a current been injected between north and south over and over again. As it try’s to catch the magnet attraction is formed from the individual (FM) which spins the drive train trough the gearbox and to the rear differential which turns the rear wheels. A good advantage of this is that the motor can can be used as a generator as the same principals apply so can re-gain power as the car brake (ERS) as what LMP1 and F1 cars in there current state have. When the car brakes and slows down it turns the axle which leads back to the motors which is been turned with and energy going into it, so power is being created freely which gets sent back the the batteries and can be used elsewhere on the lap. This only happens when the driver lifts off and applies the brakes. So when the accelerator peddle is pushed down the computer system sends a message that a current must be added to the magnets which drivers the car forward, when the driver brake he will gain some power bake to re-use again.
Aerodynamics
The cars look very aerodynamic, which is the case as you need to create as little drag possible the front wing is very basic which involves one singe carbon mainplane with one single mainplate above it to help lift the air over the car. There are one of 4 holes the teams can choose the angle to have there mainplate at. The mainplate is right by the front aero cone triangle which pushes air over the sides of the car very well, much like the Caparo T1. The the side of the car you have two identical thins which is not a aerodynamic gain but a safety feature. As there are no side pods where the driver sits the FIA have said there must be a solution to help protect them. So there are two things to help stop a car as it hits the side wall of the car. Towards the rear of the car are two 15cm over flap which like the front aero cone does, only smaller, as they need to reduce there drag foot print as good as they can. Finally the rear wing, which is tiny. It like in F1 has two endplate and one mainpate with no turbercles. It has to be small so that the car cuts a smaller gap through the air as if it was bigger more motor power would have to be used to push the car trough the air.
Future
“As of now no team is allowed to do any aero mapping” Mr McCool tells me that there not able to change this as of now bur from the oncoming seasons. This is a brand new season and we must let it evolve from this F1, GP2 background everyone says its associated too. The cars CAN not be changed from there first season , but teams have stated they will all develop there own drive-train for oncoming season, We have all heard Truli GP are very close to creating wireless charging, so what else can these brilliant engineering companies invent for the future? all we know it will be done well. I for one want this to be a huge successes, Good Luck Formula E.
Many thanks for Amlin Aguri for letting me speak to Peter McCool (technical director)
