It is crunch time for the brand-new Hankook iON race. From 13th to 16th December, with four weeks to go until the season-opener in Mexico, all the teams in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship will meet in Valencia, Spain, for the only joint test. The drivers and their teams will spend four days fine-tuning the newly-developed Gen3 cars at the 3.376-kilometre Circuit Ricardo Tormo.
One of the things the teams will be focussing on is the new Formula E tyre, the Hankook iON race. The innovative and sustainable premium product from Hankook, official technical partner and tyre supplier to the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship for the next four years, will be used for the first time at an official Formula E test. The iON race tyres used in the fully-electric series will be the same sizes as are familiar from the passenger car segment: 255/40 R18 on the front axle and 315/40 R18 at the rear.
Manfred Sandbichler, Motorsport Director Europe: “An awful lot will be totally new at this test: the car, some teams and, of course, our tyres. It will primarily be a case of everyone getting used to the changes. Furthermore, the procedures and processes between the teams and the Hankook engineers must also be developed. By the end of the four days in Valencia, we will have gathered a lot of data and be ready for the season-opener in mid-January in Mexico.”
Benoît Tréluyer, test and development driver for the iON race: “On a race weekend, a team must be able to get the maximum out of the tyres in any conditions and at any time. As such, the teams are bound to try different tyre pressures and attempt to find the best set-up for qualifying and the races.
From zero to 100 in less than three seconds and a top speed of 320 km/h – the new Gen3 car is truly a technical revolution. The electric motor, which generates roughly 350 kW (470 hp), is twice as efficient as an equivalent combustion engine. It is the fastest, most powerful, most efficient and most sustainable electric race car ever built. The differences compared to the previous Gen2 car include the higher top speeds, faster acceleration and more than twice the regenerative capacity, thanks to a new front powertrain. Roughly 40 percent of the energy consumed is recovered through regenerative braking over the course of the race.
