FIA and Formula E give green light for Pit Boost to debut in Saudi

The FIA and Formula E have officially confirmed that the Pit Boost concept, which will require drivers to make a mandatory pitstop, will debut during the Jeddah E-Prix weekend.

As revealed by Autosport in December, the concept will be implemented for the 2024-25 season having been in development for over two years.

The technology means the new Gen3 Evo cars will receive a 10% battery recharge at 600kW via a plug-in charger that will take approximately 30 seconds, with each driver required to make the mandatory pitstop between a set number of laps during a race.

Teams will be informed of this information 21 days prior to the race, with the first use of Pit Boost set to come on 14 February when the all-electric championship races in Saudi Arabia.

Further uses will only come during other double-header weekends which include Monaco, Tokyo, Shanghai, Berlin and London.

“What we thought for Season 11 is that basically let’s launch this new system in places where we can do a complete different race the day after, and that was basically the aim and the goal of Formula E,” said championship co-founder Alberto Longo.

“Let’s implement it in places where basically only 24 hours later you’re going to see a completely different race, so you are going to see the difference that is caused by the Pit Boost.

“I think that was a very good solution on our side because we didn’t want to implement it on every single race in Season 11, but obviously if it works, most likely we will do it next season as well.

“This is not confirmed yet, but definitely we will look into how good and how exciting the system is, and if it works like the way we have simulated.”

Initially touted for the beginning of the Gen3 era in 2022, reliability and safety concerns meant it has taken until now for the FIA and Formula E organisers to be satisfied and allow it to be used during competition.

The concept was tested for the first time during a race at pre-season testing in Spain last November, with the data from that simulation outing analysed by the championship and governing body.

While the concept has been part of the regulations for some time, an alteration was made last month following a meeting of the FIA’s World Motor Sport Council, whereby it will act independently of Attack Mode.

Under the previous regulations, a driver would need to have taken the Pit Boost in order to then gain access to the eight minutes and two activations of Attack Mode during a race.

Pablo Martino, FIA Head of Championship for Formula E, added: “On possibilities of technical failures, one of the things that we will have, and this is going to be for everyone the same on equity basis, every single team has been allocated one of the spare boosters.

“However, in the pitlane, there will be two additional boosters that will be to use in case of a failure of the original booster allocated to one of the teams.

“This is a process that we have put together with Formula E in order to ensure that at the end of the race, everybody can have access to the technology even if a technical eventuality happens.”