Formula E pre-season testing in Valencia

Greetings, friends of motor racing - after a somewhat long break, here comes another blog post from me.

The year 2021 is drawing to a close: Formula 1 is still contesting its last race in Abu Dhabi, but in most other racing series the season is already over. However, as we all know, after the season is before the season, so this year the FIA Formula E World Championship held its annual pre-season tests at the Ricardo Tormo circuit near Valencia in late November and early December.

Nick Cassidy is getting ready

As in the past, the tests took place over a four-day period: There were six hours of testing on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, plus a media day on Wednesday.

This was my second time as a journalist in Valencia after 2019. Of course, certain rules apply in the ongoing pandemic: For example, I had to show a PCR test with a negative result that was no more than 48 hours old. Wearing an FFP2 mask was also compulsory in the media centre.

So much for the Formula E restrictions, but I had a few more things to consider when travelling from Germany: To enter the country by plane, I needed an EU vaccination certificate or proof of recovery. In addition, an online form had to be filled in, in which I had to give my flight number, the seat and my dates of stay in Spain, among other things. This was checked by the airline staff before departure.

Unfortunately, I had already learned in advance that I would be somewhat "lonely" at these testing rides: Of the journalists I had met at the various events in previous years and with whom I had stayed in somewhat closer contact afterwards, not a single one was flying to Spain this year. A great pity, as I get on very well with many of these people.

Since we had chosen the weekend before the tests as our team weekend, I spent the days before the flight in Mainz, where we also recorded the Valencia preview of our podcast. At least a large part of it, because somehow the time management didn't quite work out and I then had to leave in the middle of the recording. But from here it was also quite a short way to the airport in Frankfurt, from where I took off on Sunday afternoon.

Here we go... 😊 #TeamWeekend #Meenz #FETesting @eFORMELde pic.twitter.com/P3gBycQP79

— Tobias Wirtz (@tobiw_apex) November 26, 2021

However, there were some delays, so that my flight was almost two hours late from the originally planned departure time. This was unfortunate, as Mercedes-EQ had invited me to the team presentation in the city centre of Valencia on Sunday evening, which I therefore unfortunately had to cancel.

I then spent the night from Sunday to Monday in a hotel near the airport, and from Monday onwards I was accommodated near the race track.

Since the Circuit Ricardo Tormo is a good 20 km (~15 miles) west of Valencia in Cheste and a rental car for two trips a day (to the circuit in the morning and back in the evening) was too much for me, I had to rely on a taxi. That was no problem, but the costs are really not to be neglected - one of the reasons why I didn't want to drive back to Valencia the nights between the days at the race track.

It should be noted, however, that it is an absolute luxury situation if a Spaniard can speak more than a handful of words of English outside the absolute tourist strongholds. This applies to taxi drivers and hotel employees as well as, for example, to the security staff at the racetrack. But fortunately, communication with hands and feet usually worked or there was someone available who could interpret a little. But you can imagine that it was a bit more difficult to explain to the hotel staff that I only had cold water in my shower ;)

Even though some journalists had to skip the test drives, I was of course not alone in the Media Centre: There were some familiar faces, and more new ones joined us as well. However, the room was not really full these days. As usual, I was one of the first journalists on site in the morning - obviously some of my colleagues like to stay a little longer and/or have breakfast before they go to the track.

The work at the tests themselves is not quite as stressful: In contrast to an E-Prix, where everything is very compressed, you have a lot of time, so you can spend half an hour in the pit lane or at the track and have a look at the cars.

Max Günther in his Nissan e.dams

Nevertheless, you are on site from 8 am to 6 pm. Among other things, Formula E conducted a few sessions that were not shown via the official live timing: both the new qualifying format and the race format including additional time were tested once. 

As this was a bit difficult for my colleagues from Germany "blind", I took over the live ticker for the qualifying simulation on Monday afternoon myself and described the events in our editorial group every minute for the race simulation. I also had a lot of conversations at the track, transcribed interviews and press conferences and wrote several articles. A week's holiday in Spain definitely looks a bit different.

At least the weather reminded me a bit of it: lots of sunshine and maximum temperatures of 19° Celsius were much more pleasant than temperatures around freezing and light snowfall, as they were in Germany at the same time. Even if it was a bit chilly in the shade with the strong wind when you weren't wearing your jacket.

And if Formula E doesn't decide to publish the first photos of the Gen3 car at 8 p.m., you also have a bit of peace in the evening. Even though I didn't do much more in the evening than take a shower and then watch the latest episodes of "Formula E Unplugged" on YouTube.

Only on Thursday, when the test drives ended at 3 p.m., did I go out of my hotel room again in the evening and eat a pizza at a snack bar around the corner.

However, it was a bit annoying that Mahindra Racing didn't miss the opportunity to play "Last Christmas" by Wham in the paddock on 1 December. But at least they didn't take my criticism on Twitter too seriously ;)

#FETesting music awards 🎶: Last place goes to @MahindraRacing by far (sound on please) 😉 #ABBFormulaE pic.twitter.com/PLMVMzOOst

— Tobias Wirtz (@tobiw_apex) December 1, 2021

By the way, there was better music at Porsche, but let's leave that for now :)

As my flight back to Cologne didn't leave until Saturday morning, I had a whole day on Friday to take a look at Valencia. I didn't have time to do that the first time I was there.

First thing to learn: the metro in Valencia is preferable to a taxi if you want to get into the city centre. Actually, that should be obvious, but I had to take a taxi from my hotel in Chiva anyway, so I thought I might as well get a ride to the city centre. It unnecessarily cost me more than 20 euros and almost 45 minutes, as there was a lot of traffic. With the metro, I could have got there within 20 minutes for 3.10 euros. I'll remember that next time ;)

I had chosen a few sights I wanted to see beforehand and then checked them out with the help of Google Maps. I can definitely recommend Valencia, there are some interesting corners to marvel at there.

Even though every electrician would probably have a heart attack when looking at the old buildings in the city centre and seeing the sometimes very adventurous-looking wiring attached to the façade. But maybe that's not always the case, but was related to the Christmas lights that had already been installed in many places there.

At least it gave us a bit of a holiday feeling for the last day in Spain ;)

Now I'm sitting at the airport, writing the last lines for the blog post I want to put online next week and looking forward to being home. As of today, I have planned a few more visits to motor sport events for next year - let's see if that can be realised.

Until then, I'll say goodbye again, thank you for reading and see you soon!