Formula E have released an update as to the plan going forwards with pre-season testing, which has been thrown into doubt following a battery fire on the opening day in Valencia.
It’s been confirmed that after the cancellation of Tuesday afternoon and the entirety of Wednesday, track action will also not take place on Thursday morning. However, there is hope that testing can resume tomorrow afternoon at 2pm CET “subject to final confirmation”.
Formula E will make a further announcement on Thursday morning as to whether testing can get back underway in the afternoon and if it can even take place on Friday at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo. It is seemingly dependant on the “completion of an investigation” into the cause of one of the Gen3 batteries igniting.
A statement was released on Wednesday evening, which read: “Formula E pre-season testing is preparing to resume from 2pm CET tomorrow, Thursday.
“This is subject to final confirmation at 11am, and will follow completion of an investigation into the incident that happened yesterday. Further updates will follow in due course.”
The unexpected battery fire took place during the lunch break on the opening day of testing (yesterday) in the WAE (formerly Williams Advanced Engineering) garage. WAE are responsible for all of the Gen3 batteries and fast-chargers, which were trialled on Tuesday.
Above: Ticktum completing a fast-charging pit-stop – Credit: FIA Formula E
It was a battery extracted from a DS Penske car – driven by rookie Robert Shwartzman – which ignited, sending shockwaves down the paddock. A drivers’ press conference was taking place at the time but was abruptly halted. Shwartzman had stopped on track during the morning session of Tuesday, with his battery having seemingly been extracted not long after.
Local fire authorities were quickly on the scene to tackle the fire, whilst the entire paddock was evacuated. One WAE was taken to hospital for “precautionary checks” but was thankfully discharged without the need of treatment
The area was cordoned off, with the teams having been informed to collect their things and leave. It was announced on Tuesday evening that no on-track action would take place on Wednesday. Instead, the paddock used it as a bit of a media day.
WAE’s garage has, of course, been damaged by the blaze, as has Mahindra Racing’s. The Banbury-based team have since moved to another garage, although it’s been reported that some of their computers have been damaged.
Mitch Evans topped what remains as the only session of pre-season testing, with his leading time having been almost seven-tenths of a second quicker than what was seen in testing ahead of season nine.
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