The track access involved driving through the ExCel’s underground car park, turning onto the back straight and completing the tail end of the lap. With a Taycan at my disposal and a race track ahead of me, it was tempting to push on a bit, but this endeavour was hampered by several road sweepers. Seriously, they were harder to pass than Max Verstappen.
The pits were bustling with various team members, event officials, media, VIP guests and assorted others. With a sea of people ahead of me, I worried that progress might be difficult: because the Taycan is seriously quiet, pedestrians are often unaware of its presence.
Thankfully, Formula E pits feature whistle-wielding marshals, who quickly cleared a path for my unusual parking spot. It was quite a thrill, although my efforts at reverse parking did alarm the Porsche mechanics, who feared that I was about to take out a race car’s sidepod…
But I was there to learn, and 2019/20 Formula E champion Félix da Costa was an ideal teacher: as well as racing a Porsche on the road, he drives a Panamera and, more pertinently, a Taycan. Normally, racers insist that there’s no relationship between how they drive on track and road, but with Formula E, Félix da Costa said “100% it helps my road driving”.
He added: “Efficiency is a cool challenge. Initially with an EV, you want to show off the power, but then you think: ‘How far can I take this? How can I extend the range?’ So you get into the complexity of efficient electric driving. It means you may go a bit slower, but you save time charging and put less wear on brakes and tyres, so it’s repaid eventually.”
The key, he said, is the classic motorsport technique of “lift and coast”. And what about regen? “It depends on the situation. If it’s downhill, it’s always on. If not, it’s generally off and I let the car coast. I find that’s more efficient.”
Useful tips, which I resolved to put into practice. Although not immediately, because I had to get my Taycan out of the pits, which meant driving the first half of the circuit, this time with no sweepers in sight. Nothing crazy, though.