Facts& Figures: Statistics on the 2024 Formula E pre-season testing in Madrid

The official test drives at the Circuito del Jarama in preparation for the 2024/25 Formula E World Championship are behind us. We have taken a close look at the action in Madrid and prepared a detailed statistics article. Among other things, we shed light on the performance of all the drivers and teams.

Statistical peculiarities of the 2024 pre-season tests

• For the second time in a row, Mitch Evans was fastest in pre-season testing. In addition to the Jaguar driver, Maximilian Günther (three times), Antonio Felix da Costa, Edoardo Mortara and Oliver Turvey (once each) have set the fastest times of the week in Valencia in the past.
• Sebastien Buemi remains the only champion to set the fastest time in pre-season testing after winning the title - he was fastest at Donington in 2016.
• Taylor Barnard was the hardest-working driver at the tests: the McLaren driver completed 238 laps - the equivalent of 931.8 kilometres - in Madrid this year. This means that the young Brit covered as many kilometres as Sebastien Buemi in 2023, who was the driver with the longest driving distance a year ago in Valencia.
• The fewest test kilometres were driven by Lilou Wadoux: the Jaguar driver did not cover a single metre, as it turned out in Madrid that the seat specially adapted for her did not fit after all and none of the other teams had a suitable replacement available. Simona de Silvestro also only completed nine laps before she had to park the Gen3 Evo car in the pits. She is said to have hit the kerbs so hard that even the monocoque of the Kiro car was damaged.
• Of the regular drivers, Zane Maloney drove the shortest distance: 149 laps (583.3 km) - only around 62 per cent of Barnard's kilometres. The main reason for this was the fact that Maloney only drove 21 laps in the morning on Wednesday due to a technical problem and had to sit out the entire afternoon.
• McLaren and Andretti were the busiest teams in Madrid: they completed 544 laps each. For Andretti, Jake Dennis and Nico Müller completed 234 laps each, Chloe Chambers contributed 39 and Nerea Marti another 37. At McLaren, Taylor Barnard completed 238 laps, Sam Bird 228 and Bianca Bustamante and Ella Lloyd 39 each. That is the equivalent of 2,129.8 kilometres, roughly the distance from the Circuito del Jarama to Hamburg.
• Lola Yamaha ABT, on the other hand, drove the least: 1,569.9 km or 401 laps was all the new manufacturer's works team managed to cover.
• All teams combined completed 5,315 laps during the test week, which equates to a total distance of 20,808.2 kilometres. Never before have so many kilometres been covered in pre-season testing.

Total number of laps completed per driver

Total number of laps completed per team

Performance analysis of the drivers & teams (350 kW)

For our performance analysis, we analysed the drivers' best times across all sessions in Madrid. The winner in the rankings is Mitch Evans, who set the fastest time of 1:27.461 minutes on Friday morning. Hot on his heels was, surprisingly, Dan Ticktum, who relegated world champion Pascal Wehrlein to third place. He was followed by David Beckmann (Kiro), Taylor Barnard (McLaren) and Antonio Felix da Costa (Porsche). This meant that four drivers with Porsche power finished in the top six places.

In total, all 22 regular drivers were within 1.4 seconds of each other in the overall standings. The top 10 were separated by just 0.609 seconds. Even though not all teams are likely to have shown their full performance in Madrid, there are many indications that things will be close as usual in 2024/25.

The female drivers' performance dropped off somewhat. Abbi Pulling was the fastest - she was around 3.4 seconds off Evans' best time. Jamie Chadwick (Jaguar) and Bianca Bustamante (McLaren) completed the "podium" of the women's test.

The order of the teams at the pre-season tests in Madrid was: Jaguar ahead of Kiro, followed by the works Porsche. They are followed by the McLaren car and the works Nissan. The slowest car on a lap with 350 kW was the customer Jaguar from Envision.

The ranking of the manufacturers is thus: Jaguar >>> Porsche >>> Nissan >>> Stellantis >>> Mahindra >>> Lola Yamaha

Internal team lap time comparisons (only regular drivers at 350 kW)

If you compare team mates with each other, it is noticeable that the drivers at Maserati, Kiro and Porsche set almost identical best times. At Jaguar, on the other hand, there was a clear difference in performance in favour of Mitch Evans. Taylor Barnard was also significantly faster at McLaren than his experienced team-mate Sam Bird.

Performance analysis of the drivers & teams (300 kW)

Since there were major differences between the Attack Mode with 350 kW and all-wheel drive and the normal 300 kW mode with rear-wheel drive only, we have analysed these laps separately.

The winner in this ranking is Jake Dennis, who set the fastest lap time with 300 kW in 1:29.421 minutes on Thursday morning - almost exactly two seconds slower than the 350 kW best time. He was followed by Nick Cassidy, Max Günther, Lucas di Grassi, Nico Müller and Zane Maloney. This means that both Andretti and Lola Yamaha ABT drivers were in the Top 6.

The 22 regular drivers were slightly further apart than with 350 kW: Mitch Evans, slowest of all 22 drivers, was just over two seconds off Dennis. The top 10 were within just 0.55 seconds - slightly less than in four-wheel drive mode.

It is also evident here that the female drivers achieved significantly slower lap times on Friday afternoon. Jessica Edgar was the fastest driver on the Circuito del Jarama, with a gap of around 3.7 seconds to the fastest lap.

With 300 kW, the order is as follows: Andretti ahead of Jaguar, followed by DS Penske and Lola Yamaha ABT ahead of Maserati, Mahindra and Nissan. The slowest team with 300 kW was Kiro.

The ranking of the manufacturers is: Porsche >>> Jaguar >>> Stellantis >>> Lola Yamaha >>> Mahindra >>> Nissan

Internal team lap time comparisons (only regular drivers at 300 kW)

There were hardly any measurable differences in performance at Porsche and Lola Yamaha ABT, where both drivers were almost on the same time on their fastest 300 kW lap. Other teams showed clear differences: Max Günther took almost 0.7 seconds off Jean-Eric Vergne. At Jaguar, Cassidy was even more than 1.7 seconds faster than Evans - exactly the other way round than with 350 kW. A clear indication that the drivers were running completely different programmes and that the lap times in neither mode can therefore be compared with each other.