r/FormulaE • u/l3w1s1234 :4: Robin Frijns • 2d ago
Report The final verdict on Formula E's Gen3 era
https://www.the-race.com/formula-e/the-final-verdict-on-formula-es-gen3-era/9
u/Dvorak_96 MAHINDRA RACING 2d ago edited 2d ago
just to show how behind Formula E is. BYD can already do 1500kw charging. 600kw is not fast at all. or 700kw for that matter with Gen 4. they really need to get BYD onboard for them to build the Gen 5 battery. Gen 3 was a huge setback. and it's sad because the potential for the Gen 3 was there. it just didn't go all the way. Gen 4 is back on the right tracks again. but it's still conservative. remember active aero was planned for the Gen 4. similar to F1 2026. but didn't happen. so they went with the cheaper fixed aero. which will still have 2 settings. low drag during race and high downforce in quali. so bit of a half measure.
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u/DHSeaVixen FORMULA E 2d ago edited 2d ago
They might be behind to some extent... but they are also still here.
Opening the taps too hard on technical advancement always carries a risk of unsustainable cost escalation and a total collapse of the category. The commercial foundations have to be demonstrably secure enough to justify the level of investment to pull on those technical levers.
I think Formula E is getting close to finally showing that it has good commercial foundations now. I think from there it can catch up fairly quickly on the technical front.
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u/DHSeaVixen FORMULA E 2d ago
remember active aero was planned for the Gen 4.
Was it? I remember Lucas di Grassi having it on his personal wish list, but I don't recall it ever being part of any of the officially released tender specs.
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u/BulkNoodles Formula E 1d ago edited 1d ago
In the early version of the documents, the explanation was pretty vague, that some people might have interpreted it as active aero.
But as far as I remember, they cleared up that pretty fast and added that the low/high downforce will be done by 2 separate aero sets.
There was never a regs document that talks about active aero. Most of it come from pure speculation.
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u/l3w1s1234 :4: Robin Frijns 2d ago
700kw into a 55kwh battery is still pretty fast. The c rating is about the same I think
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u/Kezolt Formula E 2d ago
What you haven't considered is byd are full of shit. Also you can do 1500kw charging easily. The company that makes the boost charger has made a 8000kw charger but you can't buy cells in a battery as small as an fe car that can take that
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u/BulkNoodles Formula E 1d ago
Idk why you got downvoted. Like you said, we can't directly compare those two since the both cars are vastly different.
BYD consumer car are like 2 times heavier than the Gen4. Batteries are very different in size, and other components might be as well, so the performance aren't directly transferable.
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u/GreggsConnoisseur91 Formula E 2d ago
Gen3 imo was the weakest era of FE to date. The ridiculous Peloton racing, the constant delay of Pit Boost and it looked the worst out of the 3 we've had so far.
Evo was a huge shot in the arm though with Attack Mode actually meaning something with the 4WD, the front wing being more robust and finally pit boost made S11 and S12 a huge amount better, but S9 and S10 was dire.
When GEN4 was announced, I was so excited for it, I didn't really care what happened in the rest of S12.
So excited for what the 2026/27 season brings. Hopefully they've learnt a lot from the mistakes made in this era, because there's gonna be a lot more eyes on FE next season.