There’s no clean room in the jungle

Competition breeds rapid development and, over the last decade, Williams Advanced Engineering has been responsible for some major advances, thanks to the unique position we have occupied in customer motorsport programmes.

We have learned a lot about how to extract the most performance from a battery, following the on-track successes we’ve had at Le Mans, into the hybrid F1 era, then four seasons supplying batteries to the first-generation Formula E grid – and, today, with Panasonic Jaguar Racing.

The most exciting aspect is that we’ve only just scratched the surface. Over the next two years, we are entering our most challenging phase yet, helping to deliver not one but two all-new global electric racing series: ETCR and Extreme E. 

We’ve made step changes in the way a battery can respond to demands for repeated, full-throttle acceleration, developing complex management systems that keep cells at their optimum levels. We’ve also learned how to deliver 100 percent equal performance to each team – crucial to Formula E motorsport and something we are also applying to ETCR and Extreme E. 

But there the similarities end. There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach with batteries. We can’t simply take a battery suited to one set of technical regulations, repackage it to fit inside a touring car or off-road SUV racer, and go home for the day…

Read the full article in the June issue of DPA