Formula E is the equivalent of Formula 1 for electric cars. The race series is in its sixth season now. Porsche is entering the series as The TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team. The car which will race in the series is the Porsche 99X.

Porsche had announced in April 2018 that they would be officially participating in the Formula E. Development of the car started in October 2018. The team announced Neel Jani as their first driver for the 2019-20 season in December 2018. Porsche commenced assembling the 99X in January 2019 and the car was ready for testing by March 2019. By April Porsche had completed around 1,000 km of testing. Neel Jani was joined by Brendon Hartley as the test driver in Jun 2019. Between 01 January 2019 and 01 Oct 2019, all Formula E cars got 15 days for track testing followed by official Formula E test at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo near Valencia in mid-October, where the twelve teams competing in Season 6 had their first encounter on track together.

Porsche announced the complete team comprising Neel Jani and Andre Lotterer in July 2019. They also announced the other technical and managerial members of the team. In August 2019, Porsche released the 99X digitally in the form of a video game called the “Formula E Unlocked”. In September 2019, Porsche further announced the expansion of the team in the form of Simona de Silvestro an Thomas Preining as the test and development drivers. Till October 2019, Porsche had completed 5,000 km of testing for the 99X Electric car and is now ready for the season.

Malte Huneke (Technical Project Leader Formula E) said, “With over 5,000 test kilometres, we gained important insights into the Porsche 99X Electric over the past months. The learning curve is rising steadily. In Weissach, we are currently analysing all the data that we collected during the final days of testing at Valencia. The conditions on the racetrack aren’t directly comparable with the Formula E street circuits, for example, with regard to the routing and asphalt, but despite this, we were able to come away with valuable information – particularly from the race simulations – and optimise our operational processes.”

Advertisement