An intense four days of pre-season testing has ended in Valencia for the Formula E field ahead of the start of the 2023 season next month. Some 21 cars took part in the program, New Zealanders Nick Cassidy and Mitch Evans among those.
Off-season rust and struggles as drivers came to terms with new Gen3 cars was apparent from the outset, a number of stoppages during day one due to spins and off-track strandings.
Evans and Cassidy were involved in the early drama, both spinning into sand traps in their Tuesday morning runs.
The second day of testing featured a mock race setup, beginning with a 30 minute practice, a loose qualifying session and a practice race.
Maserati MSG Racing’s Maximilian Gunther was the man with the pace over the timed runs, backing up his two session-topping times from day one by repeating the feat in the timed practice run.
Loose qualifying duels then saw defending champion Stoffel Vandoorne finally get the better of the German, topping the final battle for “pole position”. That was short-lived however, two further mock runs seeing Gunther get his revenge.
The race itself didn’t follow the determined grid, the first cars to the track able to start off the front. McLaren made the most of this to be the first to exit the lane at the start of the session.
It appeared Rene Rast was in his typical fine race form until the latter stages of the 24-lap run when his McLaren teammate Jake Hughes picked him off for the lead. The move came after a Safety Car restart to make it a one-two for the team. Gunther was third.
Thirteen cars finished on the lead lap, including Evans, who was twelfth. Cassidy did not finish the simulation.
Following this, a further two hour session rounded out running on Wednesday, Gunther again the man to beat. He set his fastest time late in the session but went close to topping it multiple times in a superb display of consistency.
Vandoorne was never far away, slowly coming to grips with his new drive.
Thursday was originally intended to operate as a media day, however a one hour run was added to the program to assist drivers in grasping the new Gen3 machinery.
Nissan’s Norman Nato appeared quick early but was out-down by Evans at the halfway mark, the Kiwi sticking a solid lap together as the field struggled with track-limits violations.
Sebastien Buemi was the next man to go top, Cassidy’s teammate then quickly displaced by Nato whose teammate triggered a red flag around the same point for a mechanical failure.
Nato held top spot whilst Evans was the best placed Kiwi in fifth.
Friday brought about the final six hours of testing, Gunther again reappearing at the top early. A crash for Buemi at Turn 4, likely caused by a brake failure, required a cleanup and brought out a red flag.
That was how it remained, the German claiming yet another session as the times reset ahead of the final afternoon runs.
It was Cassidy’s time to set a time to go near top, that short-lived however as Gunther continued his pre-season domination.
His best lap again eclipsed Vandoorne, the two establishing themselves as early championship favorites given their pace over the week.
Whilst nothing official can be taken away from testing, four days in Valencia has provided an insight as to what we can expect come season start.
Maserati MSG Racing, DS Penske, Porsche, McLaren and Mahindra appear to be front-runners heading into the 2023 campaign whilst both Cassidy and Evans’ outfits, Envision and Jaguar respectively, were never far from the front.
Teams will now take away information and data obtained over the week and continue their development ahead of the upcoming season.
The 2023 Formula E season begins on January 14th at the iconic Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez circuit with the Mexico City E-Prix.
