After greater than two years of speak and lots of testing miles in secret, the Excessive H automobile lastly broke cowl final weekend for its first public outing.
The Pioneer 25’s working on the Hydro X Prix in Scotland final weekend was a momentous event for numerous causes. Not solely was it the primary time the automobile had taken to a monitor in public –and in full view of all present groups and drivers — nevertheless it was the primary time the automobile had run on a full Excessive E course. It was additionally the primary time it had been correctly benchmarked alongside its predecessor — Excessive E’s venerable Odyssey 21 — too.
Discuss across the automobile has already been optimistic, with it having accomplished 1,100 miles of working throughout numerous places in France within the final 12 months, however there was no hiding Excessive E and Excessive H technical director Mark Grain’s delight on the finish of the Scotland race week, the place the automobile ran on each race days, in addition to in the course of the days within the build-up.
“I’m very comfortable,” Grain tells RACER. “It allowed us the chance to run the automobile completely alongside the Excessive E automobiles within the sense that we had been utilizing the identical course, identical climate situations, we had Alkamel on-site for the telemetry, Aurora TV, every little thing, so it actually gave us that good alternative to take the automobile and do all of that work that we are able to’t do once we’re non-public testing.
“However in fact, it’s the primary time {that a} hydrogen automobile has run in these situations — it wasn’t parade laps, it wasn’t only a present for the general public, it was on the market for a correct improvement function, utilizing the entire Excessive E monitor and services.”
The chance to check the Excessive H automobile on the identical venue as the present Excessive E automobiles supplied the chance for the take a look at crew to make direct comparisons. Colin McMaster / LAT Photographs)
Excessive E podium finisher Hedda Hosaas was tasked with the entire driving in Scotland, as her fellow tester Romain Dumas was busy profitable the Goodwood Pageant of Pace timed shootout in Ford’s all-electric Supervan 4.2. However not solely did she get additional seat time because of this, the success of the take a look at led to it being prolonged, too.
“It’s been an excellent week,” she says. “I used to be capable of drive the Pioneer 25 greater than deliberate and there was extra seat time because the crew prolonged this system. It’s been good — the crew brough new issues to check, generally bringing new challenges and niggles however that’s what testing is for.
“By the top we had been placing in consecutive arduous laps — together with on correct mud — and the automobile dealt with very well. It’s positively an enchancment on the Excessive E automobile.”
Together with its revolutionary energy supply, the Pioneer 25 affords some key upgrades to the chassis over its electrical predecessor.
Whereas a lot of the main target has, understandably, centered across the automobile’s hydrogen energy supply, producer Spark has delivered wholesale enhancements throughout the board, one thing that might clearly be seen trackside because it ran in the identical setting because the automobile it is going to substitute. All-new suspension from Fox means the automobile is notably higher within the corners and on uneven surfaces, whereas a brand new central driving place and revised battery — which now sits decrease and extra centrally within the automobile’s chassis — have additional aided stability and dealing with.
“You’ve obtained an Excessive E automobile turning laps, after which shortly afterwards you’ve obtained the Excessive H automobile turning laps,” Grain factors out. “So you possibly can see the step in efficiency and the way in which the Excessive H automobile is dealing with and performing in comparison with Excessive E.”
“It feels higher, particularly at low pace the place we are able to achieve probably the most due to the facility we now have now — I may actually really feel it,” Hosaas provides. “It felt clean and quick within the technical slow-speed sections — I used to be pushing and it provides you quite a lot of confidence now.
“The visibility’s means higher, too. You see extra due to the middle positioning within the Pioneer 25. This shall be nice once you’re racing to have that broader imaginative and prescient vary.”
These modifications throughout the board have delivered a considerable step up, and whereas Grain wouldn’t be drawn on particular lap instances, he did verify it’s already a faster automobile, regardless of nonetheless being within the relative early days of its gestation.
“It’s higher,” Grain says with a giant smile. “It’s a sooner race automobile, we’ve seen that within the knowledge, and we had been working by means of a improvement program and a take a look at program, so it’d be unfair to place a lap time quantity on it. However the hydrogen automobile was sooner.”
The automobile ran a number of race distances on the Hydro X Prix monitor in Scotland, whereas additionally working on a separate shorter course on the race website usually earmarked for battery testing. The variation in take a look at tracks, which had been each on surfaces totally different to the earlier assessments and which are extra consultant of race situations, allowed the event crew to examine off much more objects, placing the automobile by means of a spread of various forces that it may very well be anticipated to face throughout a wildly assorted race season.
“The brief course [in Scotland] is kind of developed so despite the fact that it’s brief, it’s obtained a pleasant mixture of corners, in order that allowed us to know braking forces within the gradual stuff,” Grain explains. “However then there was a high-speed left-hander which permits for a excessive diploma of lateral G and among the applications that we had been engaged on and among the software program, the crew actually benefited from having that totally different mixture of braking forces, accelerating, and the longitudinal and lateral G that we may get out of that brief course.”
It dealt with the Scottish course with aplomb, however how will the Excessive H automobile react to the leaps and bounds of Sardinia? We’ll quickly discover out. Sam Bloxham/Motorsport Photographs
Nonetheless, each field isn’t ticked. Subsequent up for the take a look at crew is a visit to Sardinia — broadly thought to be Excessive E’s most brutal race website — the place it is going to as soon as once more run in race-like situations, and alongside the Excessive E automobile throughout consecutive race weekends.
“We’ll have much more testing days as a result of it’s a back-to-back occasion,” Hosaas says. “It’s going to be an excellent one as a result of we now have driving on that very quick monitor in comparison with Scotland.
“I believe it’s an excellent monitor to check on as a result of it’s often probably the most excessive and has some huge jumps. That’s going to be thrilling as a result of it’s so responsive in these areas. I believe it’ll be fairly cool on the large jumps.”
Whereas particular person race distances had been accomplished in Scotland greater than as soon as, one of many key goals in Sardinia shall be to finish a cumulative race weekend of mileage on a championship monitor on the identical time an precise occasion is going down.
“We’ve obtained an in depth program there with two full days on the total course, however we’re additionally going to utilize the chance once more to make use of the shorter course once more in Sardinia — that’s already mapped out and we’ve obtained a run plan organized for that — after which use the total course,” says Grain. “However we additionally wish to run the automobile, like we did in Scotland, on the Sunday as effectively.
“That’s in improvement — how that may work and whether or not it’s the primary Sunday or the second Sunday — however we’re engaged on that actively, so (there shall be) quite a lot of monitor exercise with the hydrogen automobile in Sardinia.”
The Excessive H automobile’s race testing program resumes within the second week of September, the place rounds 5-8 of the 2024 Excessive E championship will happen.
