Formula E

Paddock Whispers: News ticker on all the important topics from Formula E in Jeddah

Tobias Wirtz

Tobias Wirtz

Porsche (X)

Formula E is contesting the first double-header of its eleventh season this weekend with the Jeddah E-Prix. As always, you can find out what else is going on in the paddock at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit in the latest edition of our popular Paddock Whispers series. We will update this news ticker regularly throughout the weekend.

>>> Threat of rain for qualifying?

[15.02. | 12:29] Qualifying on Saturday could be a particularly exciting affair: After there was already rain in Jeddah late Friday evening and Saturday morning, the weather services are predicting around a 20 per cent chance of rain for qualifying. Due to the revised Hankook tyres, this could become a problem, as it was already apparent during free practice in Mexico City that the tyres are difficult to bring up to temperature in wet conditions.

>>> New Halo slogan for Pascal Wehrlein

[15.02. | 12:18] World champion Pascal Wehrlein will be driving with a different halo slogan on Saturday than the day before (see entry from 13.02. 21:22). As his daughter Soleya turns two today, it now reads: "💜 Happy Birthday Soleya 💜".

>>> Turvey moves from McLaren to Williams

[15.02. | 11:37] Ex-Formula E driver Oliver Turvey, who has been working as a sporting consultant for DS Penske since the end of his Formula E career, has left the McLaren Formula 1 team after 15 years as a simulator driver and moved to rival Williams.

>>> Porsche team principal Modlinger wears mask

[14.02. | 17:04] Florian Modlinger can only be seen wearing a mask in the paddock on Saturday: The Porsche team boss is suffering from an infection and even had a slight fever. The mask is purely a precautionary measure.

>>> Video: Kush Maini's best time in rookie training

[13.02. | 22:17] With a lap time of 1:17.184 minutes, Kush Maini in the Mahindra was the fastest of the eleven rookies in the FP0 session. You can watch the Indian's lap from the perspective of the onboard camera in this video.

>>> McLaren exhibits Lego cars in original size

[13.02. | 22:01]  McLaren has a special Formula E car in the Fan Village at the Jeddah E-Prix: The team is displaying a Lego replica of the car from season 9 in its original size. 333,596 bricks were used and it took more than 1,600 hours to assemble. The vehicle made of plastic bricks weighs more than 1,100 kg, around 50 percent more than the original vehicle, which is largely made of the lightweight composite material CFRP (carbon-fibre-reinforced polymer, also known as carbon).

>>> Abbi Pulling will do a demo run on Saturday

[13.02. | 21:36] Abbi Pulling, the 2024 F1 Academy champion and fastest woman at the Formula E women's test as part of the pre-season test, is on site in Jeddah. The Briton is a guest of the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) and will do a few laps in the demo car of the racing series on Saturday before qualifying.

>>> Porsche with new Halo slogens

[13.02. | 21:22]  As on every race weekend, there are also two new halo slogans at Porsche in Jeddah: "Yalla, Jeddah!" and "Hold Tight, Habibi!"

>>> Gaming: New team liveries available in Trackmania

[13.02. | 21:05] Four new Formula E team liveries have been available in Trackmania for a few days now: Players can now also choose the designs of McLaren, Cupra Kiro, Lola Yamaha ABT and Jaguar Racing.

>>> Nico Müller: Helmer with a special design

[13.02. | 20:41] Andretti driver Nico Müller has a special helmet design for the two night races in Jeddah.

>>> Cupra Kiro: New investors around Idris Elba

[13.02. | 13:03] Following the sale to the Forest Road Company, Team Cupra Kiro has now announced the arrival of new investors under the name Powerhouse Investment Group. By far the best-known name among them is British actor Idris Elba. Elba is no stranger to Formula E: He was first on site at Formula E back in the Gen1 era and even got to drive the racing series' demo car around the track in Paris in 2018.

>>> Extreme H: Veloce presented as the first team

[13.02. | 12:45] Extreme H has unveiled its first team, Veloce Racing. It is still unclear exactly when the first season of the "Extreme H World Cup" will start. In a tweet, the racing series initially spoke of "late 2025", but corrected this to "later this year". There is no official race calendar yet.

>>> FG Series shows electric racing car

[13.02. | 12:21] The electric racing series FG Series, founded by Dilbagh Gill and Nick Heidfeld, has presented their car in Qatar.

>>> Gen3 vs. Gen3 Evo: race start in Sao Paulo in comparison

[13.02. | 12:07] Formula E has published videos of Pascal Wehrlein's onboard footage of the two race starts in Sao Paulo 2024 on its social media channels. One shows the race start in March, when Wehrlein started from pole position in the Gen3 car. Below that is the recording from December, when Wehrlein again started the race from pole position - but in the Gen3 Evo. This makes the difference made by the new, softer Hankook tyres in conjunction with the activated all-wheel drive even clearer.

>>> Evo Sessions: More participants announced

[13.02. | 11:18] After the presentation of the Evo Sessions, Formula E has announced four more names: British actor Tom Felton, best known as Draco Malfoy from the Harry Potter films, Australian automotive influencer Supercar Blondie, Mexican content creator JUCA and British professional racing driver Driver 61.

The first celebrity and team collaborations have also already been announced: Brooklyn Peltz Beckham will drive for Jaguar and will be coached by Mitch Evans, ex-professional footballer Sergio Agüero will drive for Porsche and will have Pascal Wehrlein as his coach.

>>> Formula E concludes multi-year partnership with IMG

[13.02. | 11:04] Formula E has announced a new partnership in the days leading up to the Jeddah E-Prix: The racing series has decided to host more than 1,000 hours of its archive footage in one of the largest sports archives in the world. This includes footage from all races, qualifying sessions and pre-season tests, as well as interviews and behind-the-scenes footage from the racing series.

All of IMG's archive material currently comprises more than 500,000 hours of footage, including from the German Bundesliga, the British Premier League, the Wimbledon Championships and many more.

>>> Johnny Herbert new ambassador for Lola

[13.02. | 10:53] Lola has a new international brand ambassador: ex-Formula 1 driver Johnny Herbert is now supporting the company, which entered Formula E together with Yamaha and ABT ahead of this season. Herbert also made headlines as he will no longer be used by the FIA as a race commissioner in Formula 1 in the future after he acted as a Formula 1 expert for various casino websites and the automobile world association saw a conflict of interest.

>>> Nick Cassidy presents helmet for season 11

[13.02. | 10:07] Jaguar driver Nick Cassidy has unveiled his helmet for Season 11 in a video posted on social media.

>>> McLaren evaluates endurance programme

[13.02. | 09:34] McLaren is currently evaluating an entry into the World Endurance Championship (WEC) and the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship. CEO Zak Brown confirmed to RacingNews365 that the company is "definitely" interested in joining the programme. This could have implications for the company's other programmes, as Brown confirmed: "When we make decisions about getting into new forms of motorsport, we also review the existing motorsports."

Rumours suggest that the IndyCar programme or the team's Formula E entry could also be put to the test.

>>> New role for Scot Elkins

[13.02. | 08:18] Formula E Racing Director Scot Elkins has been unveiled as the new CEO of Al Kamel North America ahead of the Jeddah E-Prix. Al Kamel has been providing the timing systems for the electric racing series since the first season and is also responsible for live timing. Elkins will fulfil his new job in parallel with his work for the FIA before handing it over after the Miami E-Prix.

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