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How is Drayson Racing Technologies (DRT) set up? It’s a small company with half a dozen people designing and building a very high performance electric race car. They designed and built all of the electric powertrain for the B12 [B12/69EV electric-powered LMP racing car] collaboration with Lola. They are currently designing the electric powertrain for the Formula E car for next year’s championship. And what are you mainly busy with at the moment? Right now we’re all very busy with developing a car for the upcoming FIA Formula E – electric - Championship racing series in order to compete as a team. There’s a lot of work connected with the regulations also and how it will all work. In Formula E a draft set of regulations has been published that sets out rules under which electric racing cars for Formula E can be built. They specify things like the aerodynamics that are allowed, materials, minimum weight of the car, batteries, power of the motors,
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which then allow the engineers to design a car. How would that be set up in terms of teams? It would be very similar to a normal type of championship, like in Formula 1, Le Mans, or IndyCar in the US, whereby teams would enter cars – which they would develop themselves or buy those cars from manufacturers and the cars would be specifically designed to the new regulations. Are there many teams interested in competing in such a championship? Yes there are. The FIA keeps that confidential. I would think there are not just racing teams interested but manufacturers of electric cars who are looking to sponsor teams and get involved in the development of the technology. It’s very exciting because we are at the birth of a completely new type of racing, a new racing championship, and you’ve got a completely new sheet of paper. Unlike the established
championships, there’s a whole new set of decisions to be taken to shape how it looks and operates from the start. A lot of things are being decided for the first time and it is a really interesting opportunity for motorsport engineering companies. And one of the companies we are working with is Lotus Engineering as Lotus has developed interesting sound synthesiser technology for electric cars – and the FIA has asked participants to include sound synthesisers on the cars. And you are working closely with Lola as well? Yes. Lola has also been a partner before on the B12 [B12/69EV electric-powered LMP racing car] and we are working with others, too. But the details of the FIA Formula E bid are confidential? Yes, that’s right. When the FIA are ready they will announce the structure for the new series, which teams are taking part and which technologies employed. As you can imagine, there is quite a range of views on the technologies