In conjunction of the 2014 Formula E Round 2 happening on the streets of Putrajaya this Saturday, 21st November, Renault Malaysia had organized a meet and greet session with one of the teams competing in this all-new race series. The session was brought alive with the arrival of e.Dams-Renault Formula-e team, headed by Jean-Paul Driot and four-time Formula 1 champion Alain Prost.
The team was created specifically to compete in the revolutionary FIA Formula-e championship, and this new team is supported by the logistics and technical facilities of the Dams; the outfit founded by Jean-Paul Driot and Rene Arnoux back in 1988 and has eleven international single-seater titles under their belt.
Fielding two Spark-Renault SRT_01E zero emission race cars, the driver slots are filled by Sebastien Buemi and Nicolas Prost. Both with vast experience in motor racing, Sebastien also raced in Formula One as a driver in Scuderia Toro Rosso, while Nicolas also has his share of Formula One, serving as a test and development driver for Lotus.
After unveiling the all-electric Renault Twizy and Zoe, we managed to get a short interview with the legendary Alain Prost and asked him a couple of questions about Formula-e.
(00’): What are the main challenges in running an all-electric race car, as compared to a conventional combustion engine race car?
Prost: The main challenge is that this is something new, and we learn a lot to understand what we have to do. On the chassis side, we have a lot to do, but mainly the work goes to the engine, taking care of the energy and heat dispersion. It is a lot of work for the drivers and the engineers because they will have to think and learn, they have to get a lot of information from the car when they are testing. So the big challenge here is that we have to learn every time the car goes out. We have to be very concentrative because we have very little time; a few practices, and the race is short.
(00’): Back in 1986, your car ran out of fuel in the German Grand Prix, and you pushed your car in an attempt to bring it to the finish line. Is there a possibility for such a thing happening in Formula-e?
Prost: We calculated the energy required to finish the race, but normally that should not happen. But that could happen if the driver does not take the risk just at the end. But in a situation like when Nicolas saw that he was at the limit, but in fact it was a wrong figure. So at the moment, we still have some problems with the display; he had enough energy but it was giving out a wrong reading. We need to work around the energy because that is where we get the performance, and that is where it is difficult.
If you are free this weekend, drop by Putrajaya as the Round 2 of the 2014 FIA Formula-e is happening this Saturday!
