Formula E is as competitive and as close as ever and is getting more so with every passing season. This is great for the sport and fans but makes the engineers’ job hard when all cars on the grid are covered by fractions of a per cent delta in performance.
Winning in Formula E requires keen attention to all the same performance parameters seen across motorsport ? car, drivers, team, engineering, infrastructure, equipment and harmony between all the above.
Managing Director and CTO at ?Envision Virgin Racing Formula E Team, Sylvain Filippi details the engineering challenge of Formula E ahead of the Season 7 opener in Mexico.
Sylvain Filippi, Managing Director, Envision Virgin Racing during the Diriyah E-prix II at Riyadh Street Circuit on November 23, 2019 in Riyadh Street Circuit, Saudi Arabia. Credit: LAT Images Power
The Envision Virgin Racing Formula E Team’s season 7 challenger is powered by Audi e-tron MGU05 motor-generator unit. It is a six-phase motor-based, single-speed drivetrain with an internal rotor concept, external magnets and high-efficiency cooling system. 
Audi claims it has managed significant weight savings compared with the previous unit by using lightweight materials and intelligent integration within the Formula E chassis. It achieves an overall efficiency of more than 95% for the powertrain, and the MGU inverter unit has an efficiency of more than 97% in all racing conditions.
Filippi notes ‘The compact size, combined with high perf...