
From testing to racing: How to gear up for a Formula E season
The first round of the new Formula E season is upon us, but how has the NEOM McLaren Formula E Team prepared for it?
Read time: 10.6 minutes
The Formula E season is almost upon us, but while the first race of the season is this weekend, the on-track action actually started a month ago in Jarama, Spain, with the Official Pre-Season Test.
The test gave the team an opportunity to get to grips with Formula E’s new GEN3 Evo car, and work through processes for the upcoming campaign. But just how important is testing, and how exactly do the team dissect and translate their collected data into decisions and development ahead of the season?
We spoke with NEOM McLaren’s Chief Engineer Albert Lau to gain insight into their processes. We asked him what we learnt and how the team uses that information to drive decisions and ensure they’re race-ready for the São Paulo E-Prix and beyond.

A last-minute change of plans
Pre-Season Testing was originally planned for Valencia’s Ricardo Tormo Circuit, but as a result of the devastating floods that blighted the area, the test was moved to the Circuito del Jarama near Madrid.
The move threw a spanner in the works, but Albert credits the team for how they rolled with the punches.
“Hats off to them,” he says. “The team reacted in a way that it felt like we were supposed to go there anyway.
“Adaptation from an operational and engineering point of view was difficult in that we never did any simulator running. For every event, we spend up to three days in the simulator. Without that, it's more difficult for sure. But given that it was a test rather than a race, it's less critical because you do have track time. We were out there for 18-19 hours, so you get to make those adaptations as you go along.”

Adapting to the new setting on the ground was relatively straightforward, but pre-event preparation required an innovative approach – one that highlighted the adaptability and unique strengths of our Engineering Team.
“Along with our own best guesses, we used Google Maps to help figure out corner geometries, and to be fair, out-of-the-box, they were pretty good,” Albie reveals. “This shows that our engineering processes are both good and adaptable. I'm really happy with how the team were able to deliver. The fact that we were able to adapt and deliver without knowing the corner geometries for certain says a lot about the individuals working on this project.”
Race relevance
Formula E is somewhat unique because almost all of the races take place on flat street circuits… and Jarama is anything but. However, it did, thankfully, still prove to be a useful setting.
For starters, the four-day test allowed the team to lock in its operational procedures and get on top of running two cars together, which we weren’t able to do during an initial shakedown at the NEOM McLaren Formula E Team’s Bicester base, when we ran one at a time.
The track, an undulating ribbon of tarmac with sweeping turns, also gave us some valuable data despite concerns that it wouldn’t, given how different it is to the majority of circuits we’ll race on this season.
Pre-season testing Madrid
“We were still able to learn a lot,” Albert insists. “Some of the corner geometries, which I referenced before, were actually comparable to a standard FE circuit, so we were still able to learn about the tyres and the car from a setup perspective. So, even though the circuit is not what we would normally run on, there are still bits and pieces you can pick out.”
As well as working through physical elements, testing allowed the team to get its heads around the GEN3 Evo software changes, with the overriding focus being to establish a baseline for the team to build off of.
“There are new software features that are quite interesting and we did a lot of work on these,” Albert points out. “The work we did in Jarama can now be used to generate a baseline setup, along with the data we continue to gather through the season.
“It doesn't really matter that it was at Jarama because there were enough different corner types to make sure that we have covered the bases. From there, you can make São Paulo specific changes, but it's making sure we've got a good baseline that is going to be okay for most of the circuits we go to.”

Getting to grips with the changes
While the obvious changes for GEN3 Evo include the introduction of four-wheel-drive and revised bodywork, another more critical change is the new GEN3 Evo-specific Hankook tyres, which are five-10 per cent more grippy than the outgoing rubber. Jarama’s track map might not be what the team are used to in Formula E, but its surface proved to be useful.
“The tarmac was quite hard on the tyres,” Albert explains. “Learning about these new tyres was a big focus for us, in terms of how they wear and how you get the best performance out of them. We’ve spent a lot of time in the weeks since Jarama working through these learnings.”
Although it wasn’t what they’d been planning for, the tough nature of Jarama’s track surface proved valuable for providing the team with a large bank of wide-ranging data, which they can use as a “worst-case scenario”, and work back from.
“It won't be as bad as that when we get to some of the normal circuits,” Albert explains. “We’ll take this data and we’ll be sensible with it. We’ll take what we learnt with a pinch of salt and apply the right engineering behind it, with the knowledge that at most circuits, degradation will only be 60 or 70 per cent as bad as this.”

How Formula E fits in with the wider McLaren Racing family
Whether it is in Formula E, Formula 1 or IndyCar, all of McLaren’s racing teams test their cars, but is there any correlation between what the different teams learn? Maybe not directly, but the unique position McLaren finds itself in – as the only racing team with Formula 1, IndyCar, and Formula E programmes – allows for beneficial knowledge-sharing.
“We had a two-day performance engineering workshop with the F1, IndyCar and FE teams at the MTC [McLaren Technology Centre],” Albert shares. “It was a unique opportunity to discuss how we tackle problems and challenges in different ways. We have different rulesets and slightly different resources, but fundamentally the problems we experience are the same.
“The problems and challenges we experience aren’t that different, but the tools we use to solve those problems are. Hearing each other talk about why this is, and how we all go about problem solving, opens our minds up.”
“We had F1 and IndyCar engineers come out to our race weekends to observe how we work, and we sent engineers to their races”
Albert Lau
Chief Engineer, NEOM McLaren Formula E Team
When it comes to direct comparisons, the basics are comparable, but with Formula E teams limited to just 20 operational personnel at each race, the processes are more drawn out, with the team relying on automated programmes to make up for the smaller headcount.
“Our engineering is based around live data, so our toolsets are based around that,” says Albert. “The F1 team, for example, have more resources, so they go about engineering the car and engineering the drivers in a little bit of a different way, than we would.”
“Last season, we had F1 and [Arrow McLaren] IndyCar engineers come out to our race weekends to observe how we work, and we sent engineers to their races to observe how they work. It has proven to be super valuable. When you're so deep into what you're doing, sometimes you lose that ability to take a step back and see it from a more macro point of view.”

The calm before the storm
Despite being only four days long, a lot was crammed into Formula E’s Pre-Season Test. The work then continued when the team returned to base, with a razor-sharp focus on the upcoming season opener as they looked to make the most of the time afforded to them.
“There’s not a lot of time left but everyone's chomping at the bit to get going,” Albert says. “It almost feels like there has been a bit too much time since Jarama - we just want to go out and go racing.”
NEOM McLaren’s third season in Formula E will begin this weekend at the season opener in São Paulo.