Shields says: If you can’t stand the heat…

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Shields says: If you can’t stand the heat…

Shields says: If you can’t stand the heat…

Figures recently released by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) show that out of the 10 hottest years on record, nine of them happened in the last decade and 2015 is now officially the hottest year ever recorded. Finally, the world has taken note that these new highs are above and beyond natural fluctuations in the earth’s temperature and human activity is primarily responsible. This has resulted in unprecedented attention at The Paris Climate Change conference, COP21, and after two weeks of intense negotiations it’s been announced that a new climate deal has finally been reached.

The most recent race in Putrajaya, Malaysia, was thehottest Formula E race on record,echoing this pattern. Geographical location was predominantly responsible but it acted as reminder that while we all work towards undoing the damage that's been done, in the meantime we need to adjust to living in increasingly warmer climates, as does the technology around us.

In Malaysia it was time to put Formula E's new powertrains through their paces in these hot, humid conditions.

It was survival of the coolest…

Race weekend was hot and physically challenging for everyone; from fans to drivers, mechanics to engineers, crew to cameramen and even the commentators in their luxury air-conditioned box, were getting hot under the collar. But the drivers have raced in hot conditions before, they are physically fit (perhaps some more than others), and although the race day is intense, the sessions on track are limited in time. Ultimately Man wasn’t going to be beat by the scorching sun.

But what about the Machine?

The Machine is already racing above its limits. Williams have developed a brilliant battery, though it was only ever intended it to run at 133kW. But this is motor racing and we like to push the boundaries, whatever the power source. Consequently, ahead of season one the rules were changed and the car ran above its original intended power at 150kW. Now in season two we’ve pushed it again to its upper limit of 170kW in race mode.

After season one, the rules allowed the Williams battery to undergo refurbishment. The battery underwent a service to put the spring back in its step. Each one of the 150 (approx) lithium ions cells were replaced and the cooling system was given an upgrade to help limit temperature issues. Williams admits that they weren’t expecting to have to renew the cells after only one season, (the batteries were originally designed to last for two seasons) but they hadn’t anticipated the long distances (1000km plus) driven during pre-season testing.

In season one, the battery became the punch bag. When teams and drivers were trying to understand how the cars performed and how to get the most out of the power unit, the frustration was frequently taken out on the poor misunderstood battery. However, after 444 starts, it was only Daniel Abt in Putrajaya whose battery failed in a race. Frustrating for Abt, but it was an impressive start to Formula E for Williams.

Williams always provides fully functional batteries and will support the teams where it can, but it certainly won’t give away its trade secrets. Since 2009 Williams has invested hugely in developing electric and hybrid technology in Formula 1, high performance road cars with NISMO, super cars with the Jaguar C-X75, and the millions of pounds they’ve recently invested in Formula E.

With 3-4 other teams on the grid such as Renault e.Dams, DS Virgin and Mahindra also striving to become dominant players in the industry, you can understand why Williams is careful about what data the teams have access to while keeping the Intellectual Property to themselves, away from the eyes of the impending competition. The temperature data the teams are receiving is the temperature for the highest cell. As the data is limited, it limits the understanding the engineers have of the battery and how to handle it.

What happened in Malaysia?

For the car to be the quickest, the teams and drivers must keep the battery at the optimum temperature through at race, from start to finish. The maximum temperature the battery can function at efficiently is approximately 57 degrees C. It doesn’t take long for these batteries to warm up to that, especially when the ambient temperature is 36 degrees and track temperature 50 degrees as we experienced in Malaysia.

Overheating is a major concern and one of the biggest limiting factor of electric racing at the moment. To protect itself and the driver (and anyone else for that matter) the battery will start to automatically shut down above certain temperatures. In exactly the same way your smart phone protects itself from hot or cold environments by automatically switching off. Its difficult to get a firm answer from Williams but from conversations in the pitlane the battery gradually reduces its power, it approximately equates to losing 10 per cent of power for every one degree over the maximum temperature.

You can understand why Williams wants to avoid a lithium ion battery failure at all costs. When they do fail, they can do so in spectacular fashion burning at excessively high temperatures up to 1000 degrees. We were reminded of these fierce burning properties in Putrajaya, when one of the Dragons car's 12-volt battery caught fire. It sent everyone into a momentary mad frenzy while filling both the entire Dragon garage and next door’s ABT Schaeffler garage with toxic fumes. Fortunately the teams rallied together and eventually after they had exhausted all their dry ice, the fire went out.

The teams are continually striving to push the car and find its limits. This isn’t easy and is very dependent on your race. The qualifying result, track position, pushing for overtakes, running in dirty air are just a few factors that will contribute to rising temperatures. So getting ahead and pulling away is important to keep temperatures low.

Undeniably temperature was a limiting factor to this race. But incredibly there were no battery related faults in the race. Antonio Felix da Costa stopped on track due to software issues. Both the Renault e.Dams cars also stopped mid-race but afterwards it looked like these were software issues too.

It's been great to see the work of and the pioneering approach to battery technology by Williams Advanced Engineering has also been recognised off the track, having recently been awarded the prestigious Simms Medal for 2015 by the RAC and the “Most Innovative New Motorsport Product” at the Race Tech World Motorsport Symposium.

Although do we need to see these impressive accolades? If it’s good enough for Bond, surely it’s good enough for Formula E…?