Opel GSE 27FE: "Just the right time to enter Formula E"
The timing couldn't have been better. The rain clouds over the Circuit Paul Ricard in Le Castellet in the south of France have cleared and the warm afternoon sun is now shining on the start and finish straight of the racetrack as a whirring sound gets louder and louder. Then a flash of yellow chases across the asphalt. "Was that an airplane?" whispers one of the journalists gathered at the side of the track. No, that was an Opel. More precisely, the Opel GSE 27FE - the new racing car with which the brand with the lightning bolt will be competing in the next season of the FIA Formula E World Championship. At the wheel: Sophia Flörsch.
At the beginning of April, Opel appointed the 25-year-old from Munich as the Formula E team's first test and development driver. Now Flörsch was able to take a seat in the vehicle for the first time. She spent many hours in the simulator preparing intensively for this moment, she reports beforehand: "This work is becoming increasingly important in motorsport. I can also tell by the fact that I now have seven engineers behind me when I train with the simulator." Today's drive is just a first impression, it serves demonstration and PR purposes. Opel will start the official test drives at the beginning of May. Flörsch will then help the engineers to put a competitive car on its wheels by the start of the season at the end of the year.
Jörg Schrott, Team Principal of the new Opel GSE Formula E Team, is responsible for the racing project. He is an experienced motorsport veteran. He joined Opel in 1997 and has been responsible for all of the brand's motorsport activities since 2012. He is convinced: "Now is exactly the right time to enter Formula E," he says.
Why now in particular? It's because of the car Flörsch is driving on the race track. Formula E provides all teams with a kind of basic vehicle framework before the start of the season: The battery, chassis, tires and performance are therefore the same for all teams. And for the new season, Formula E is starting with a new generation of vehicles - the GEN4.
The event in Le Castellet is therefore not only the beginning of a new era for Opel. Formula E has invited the public to get their first taste of the action in the coming season. Other manufacturers, such as Porsche and Jaguar, have also accepted the invitation to put their future racing cars on track at the Circuit Paul Ricard. "The car is a game changer," says Schrott about the GEN4 generation. The new racer has permanent all-wheel drive and up to 600 kW (816 hp) of power. Compared to the car used in Formula E to date, this is an increase of 71 percent. The GEN4 vehicles reach a top speed of up to 335 km/h. The new racers master the sprint from 0 to 100 km/h in just 1.8 seconds. This puts the electric racing series hot on the heels of Formula 1, which remains the pinnacle of motorsport. "The GEN4 vehicles outshine everything that has happened in electric motorsport so far," says Schrott.
Outshine is to be understood quite literally, especially in the case of the Opel GSE 27FE. The car is covered in a bright neon yellow and black wrap. The Opel racer thus attracts a lot of attention. And expectations are certainly high. After all, Opel can look back on a long motorsport history. Among other things, the brand can look back on great successes in rallying. "We want to stand out. We won't do that if we finish in 10th place," says Opel team boss Jörg Schrott, formulating a clear claim.
However, in order to stand out, Formula E needs something else that is lacking in Germany in particular: interest. The races of the electric racing series are broadcast here by the niche channel DF1. Just under 40,000 people usually tune in. Formula E is optimistic that the new GEN4 vehicles with their impressive performance data will increase interest. And Opel may also contribute to this. After all, driver Sophia Flörsch, who has already competed in Formula 4, Formula 3 and the DTM and was the first woman to score points in Formula 3, has a large fan base. She has more than 800,000 followers on the social media platform Instagram alone. In other words, one post by Flörsch potentially reaches more people there than Formula E in Germany currently does in an entire season. Insights into her everyday Formula E life are likely to be posted regularly in the future. At the latest when the official test drives begin. (aum)
More info for topic: Opel GSE 27FE , Formel E , Next Gen 4 , Jörg Schrott , Sophia Flörsch
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