The very first test for the upcoming FIA Formula E Championship has just been completed at a rain soaked test day at Donington Park. Sebasten Buemi managed to top the time shifts posting a time of 1 minute and 35.475 seconds.
To put that time into perspective, the lap record for an FIA GT1 racing car (a McLaren 12C GT3) in dry conditions is 1:28.023 while the fastest European Le Mans Series lap from an Oreca Nissan LMP2 racer is 1:21.336. As a result, the time of Buemi shows that while the cars are extremely quiet, they are still very quick!
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2eq8yPOi2s[/youtube]
Buemi was piloting the e.dams-Renault and behind him by just over half a second was the Audi Sport ABT Formula E racer of Lucas di Grassi. Sam Bird was third in the Virgin Racing car while former Formula One racer Bruno Senna set a time 0.9 seconds behind Buemi in his Mahindra Racing car. Other notable drivers to take part were Jarno Trulli, Jaime Alguersuari, Antonio Felix de Costa, Jerome d’Ambrosio, Nick Heidfeld, Karun Chandok and Scott Speed.
In case you didn’t know, all drivers use the same car. It is the Spark-Renault SRT_01E and is powered by an electric engine delivering a total of 270 hp. However, just 180 hp will generally be on tap with the additional 90 hp coming through a “push to pass” button.
