Hi everyone, this is JPDurzel's, (lead admin at the FE Wiki), analysis of the first day of running at the 2020 Valencia Test for the 2020/21 ABB Formula E World Championship.
Porsche Headlines[]
The outright fastest lap was set by André Lotterer for Porsche, with the German racer setting a 1:12.519 with a late run, with Jean-Éric Vergne and António Félix da Costa also putting in late runs to go second and third. However, what is interesting is the fact that less than a second covers the top nineteen, while Nyck de Vries was only a fraction off that mark in twentieth (1.056s off of Lotterer). This is hopefully a good sign for the season, with DS Techeetah and Nissan e.Dams also in the mix despite using their year old cars.
At the other end, meanwhile, I don't think there is little surprise in the fact that NIO are at the bottom, with Oliver Turvey 1.5s off the pace in 21st. However, it should be noted that is only the first day, we don't know what run plans the teams have, and the track was still evolving during the session.
For reference, the best F3 lap from 2019 was a 1:20.860 on the full circuit.
Mercedes and Bird the Long Run Kings[]
However, it is a different story when it comes to long runs, although only a few teams and drivers would complete race-esque runs. Mercedes are by far the standout team when it comes to race runs, with both Vandoorne and de Vries completing twenty lap runs (totalling 62.760 km each) with two Attack Mode activations to boot. Of those two de Vries appeared to be the quicker (146.263 km/h average across 24 laps), consistently lapping in the low 1:16.000s and high 1:15.000s (10), with Vandoorne (146.077 km/h average over 22 laps) in the same range but with fewer laps in the 1:15.000s (5). However, they only ran when the circuit was in its best condition in the third hour.
Their closest challengers, and on a similar run plan, were BMW-Andretti, although Maximilian Günther was a second a lap slower on average on his run (completing his 25 lap run at 144.188 km/h), with Jake Dennis a further second back (142.425 km/h). However, it should be noted that the two BMWs both completed longer runs, but only used Attack Mode once, and ran earlier than the Mercedes. Sam Bird was the only other driver to complete a stint of similar length (average 144.424 km/h), although his laps bounced between mid-1:17.000s to high 1:15.000s as the circuit dried, as he was the first driver to focus on a long run.
Other teams to complete long runs (10+ laps) were Nissan e.Dams, Venturi Racing and NIO, with Nissan's pace the best of the three teams. Both Sébastien Buemi and Oliver Rowland were able to complete eight laps in a row in the 1:15.000s on their runs without Attack Mode, but ten laps is not representative of a race run. Venturi were next up, with Norman Nato consistently lapping in the 1:16.000s during his runs to leave him slightly ahead of Edoardo Mortara. NIO were unsurprisingly off the pace of everyone else on long-runs, with Turvey and Tom Blomqvist both consistently in the 1:20.000s or high 1:19.000s during their runs at the start of the session. However, Blomqvist did drop down into the 1:17.000s, and even set a 1:16.828, on his last run when the circuit conditions improved.
Everyone else focused on qualifying and setup runs, so there is no data available for them on the opening day.
Summary[]
At the moment the car to have would appear to be the Mercedes, with both the factory team and Venturi showing impressive pace. Nissan may be a match for them despite using a year old car, but need to complete longer runs, while individually Bird was the closest to the Mercedes on long-run pace, having run in worse conditions than them. Porsche have the headlines on outright pace after day one, although there is no real indication on what their race pace will be like with their old car.