Alessandra Ciliberti laughs when I ask her about the recent challenges of her job. She serves as the gen3 Technical project manager at FIAhelp to lead Formula E into its latest incarnation of lighter, faster and more powerful cars – and when I sit down with her it’s 9am on Friday the 13th, which also happens to mark the first session at the track of 2023 FE racing season. Ciliberti laughs, and she says two words that sum it all up: “A lot.”
To say the introduction of Gen3 in Formula E was full might be an understatement. As Ciliberti explains, she and her teammates at the FIA wanted to make massive changes across the board to further advance EV technology. the Gen3 cars are lighter, smaller and more powerful than their Gen2 predecessors, but changes in one of these areas require compromises in the other two.
“We started by saying we needed a car that would be suitable for street circuits,” says Ciliberti, referring to FE’s unique road calendar. “We have taken many directions, but compromises must be made.”
The resulting car that hit the track is a massive departure from what came before: Gen3 Engine- has the ability to run at 350kW versus 250kW in Gen2. Gen3 cars are approximately 120 pounds lighter and their triangular shape is unlike anything seen in open-wheel racing before. Formula E says these new cars can hit 200mph, while the previous iteration was limited to 173mph. And those are just a handful of developments – the ones that will be most obvious to longtime fans as they see these new cars take to familiar tracks for the first time.
“This is the first front-wheel drive single-seat car. This allows us to regenerate up to 600 kW compared to 250 in Gen2; Almost 50 percent of the energy used during the race comes from regeneration. This is one of the most important technological features of this car,” added Ciliberti. “This car – the battery – everything is custom made.”
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Alessandra Ciliberti’s passion for motorsport is lifelong. Coupled with an interest in physics, this led to a mechanical engineering degree and subsequent path into the world of motorsport. Her resume includes a research and development internship with the F1 team formerly known as Scuderia Toro Rosso, followed by a stint as a research engineer at BMW. She has been involved in rally and track research within the FIA, but Formula E marks a significant departure from traditional combustion-based motorsport. Even her stations in hydrogen research at the FIA depend on combustion.
“What I examined was all internal combustion,” she said. “But I wanted to learn this energy roadmap that OEMs need to adapt in order to shape the future of the automotive industry.”
Motorsport is an opportunity to break down development barriers and Formula E served the FIA as a unique form of EV development – hence Ciliberti’s interest. However, when I asked what was the biggest challenge with electric vehicles compared to internal combustion engines, I was surprised by the answer: software.
“A lot of technology depends on software,” she said. “There is a lot of software development that allows all manufacturers and teams to optimize electrical hardware for their road cars. This transfer from race to road is key for the FIA.”
However, as most racing fans know, this Gen3 car had teething problems in part due to the ambitious nature of the project. For example in one Interview with Jalopnik, FE CEO Jamie Reigle noted that certain elements such as pit stops that will provide a performance boost have been postponed; Introducing so many moving parts at once would eventually be a challenge – but Attack Charge is still being tested and is yet to make its debut. Also, some teams feel unprepared with spares, so a Crash before the race may result in the suspension of a driver. However, this also applied to certain Formula 1 teams at the start of the 2022 season, which ushered in its own series of rule changes.
While Ciliberti acknowledges that these development challenges mean the car that took to the track for the Mexico ePrix would not be exactly the ultimate vision of Formula E, she was undeterred either.
“We are still focused on securing the project as we envisioned it. There will be developments,” she admitted, “but the aim is really for the manufacturers to use this car with cutting-edge technologies to transfer knowledge to their road vehicles.” It’s something that brands like Maserati, McLaren or Nissan can do, despite the fact that the Gen3 car that hits the track isn’t necessarily exactly what the engineers had in mind.
I ended the interview by asking Ciliberti what her goals are for the season. Again, their answer can be summed up in just two words: reliability and performance. With their expertise at the forefront, the success of Formula E’s Gen3 project on these fronts is assured.
