Triumph in Paris
It’s been a long time coming, but motor sport made a triumphant return in its spiritual homeland on Saturday, but its influence extended well beyond the realm of man and machine.
Formula One has been hinting, promising and waxing lyrical about staging a grand prix in Paris, but it was Formula E that scored the coup of the decade with what has to be described as an absolute success.
Sam probably put it best after qualifying by highlighting what a remarkable achievement the event was; not just from a staging, logistical and running perspective, but an emotional one in light of the recent events that have befallen Paris in the last 24 months.
Fans - old and new came out in droves to celebrate, sport, life and human endeavour, but there was one image - despite being a regular feature at most tracks - that left me speechless (see attached image), probably due to the location. May his spirit live on.
The Road Ahead
Recently we spoke to Mahindra Racing boss Dilbagh Gill about much development he would like Formula E teams to be able to have? Be that a battery or a future chassis? What would be the ideal situation for you versus what’s in development or what is spec?
“From a development perspective I think this championship should be entirely focussed on power train. There should be no chassis development from our perspective. When you open up chassis development, that’s for Formula One.
We’re not interested in things like aerodynamic development at this point in time. I think the collective decision that the teams have taken is to have have a similar chassis in season 5. A tender makes a lot more sense because it keeps us under sensible costs going forward.”
On the power train side I think yes. I would like it to open it up for more rapid growth than the road map the FIA has put out and open up battery development as soon as possible. We’re looking at season 7 which is around five years from now for each team to do it, but there is a new battery coming on in season 5 that will be chosen by directive decision for a teams’ supplier.”
"Otherwise the road map is very sensible. We need to remember that we’re a toddler right now that’s just starting to crawl. The genesis of the championship was just two years ago and from here I think we should just pause and not get ahead of ourselves. The FIA and the teams are working very strongly together to ensure that we have something that is sustainable going forward – not just from an environmental perspective but a team investment perspective.”