With less than two weeks ahead of the start of the 2018-19 ABB FIA Formula E Championship, Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler Formula E team are ready to get back to the ruthless caldron of competition, when the all-electric single-seater championship roars into life for the 2018 Riyadh ePrix on 15 December.
This will mark the start of the series world tour that will take them across five continents and eleven countries, covering a distance of more than 70,000 Km before the season finale next July in New York City.
The first race of the season at Ad Diriyah will see the launch of the Gen-2 cars in racing action for the first time; with following the launch of the single-seater racing car in 2014, the design and creation of this faster and much-improved machine will help keep pace with the automotive industry. The team are hopeful that their all-new FE05 will be a step in the right direction to help them to defend their teams title this season as well as make a bid for the drivers championship.
Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler Team Principal, Allan McNish is excited to be heading to Riyadh for the start of Season Five, saying: “Our newly developed powertrain has been sealed, the pre-season tests are over and the race cars have been loaded – when we’re allowed to open the crates again, the new season will finally start in earnest.
“We’ve been intensively preparing for this moment over the past few months, so we’re really excited.”
After the first race of the season, the world tour will resume in the new year, taking the teams to Marrakech, Santiago, Mexico City, Hong Kong and the Chinese resort city of Sanya on the Hainan Island.
But the cars will be on the tour for that entire duration- with the teams only seeing them before the Formula E season continues in Europe next April. But with the desire to limit emissions, the transportation of cars and materials across the world means that DHL has had to coordinate a plan so they are taken from place to place as efficiently as possible.
The final stage of the season will see the series visit Rome, Paris, Berlin and Bern in Europe before the double-header season finale ending the series fifth season in New York City in mid-July 2019.
