Current Formula E world championship leader Nick Cassidy is keen for races to remain as they are to avoid looking like “another single-seater” series, despite recent criticism of the championship.
Formula E contests are often accused of being hard to understand due to the different Attack Mode strategies and drivers dropping back to preserve energy, while safety cars also play a decisive role.
This prompted the outspoken Dan Ticktum to claim “you may as well not qualify, chill at the back, wait for everyone to crash into each other, save energy and come through from there” following January’s Mexico City E-Prix.
That was in reaction to his Kiro team-mate Pepe Marti staging a late comeback from the back to seventh, while Ticktum was taken out for the second, consecutive race - ruining the top six grid spot he earned for both the Sao Paulo season opener and Mexico.
But Cassidy, who mastered energy saving to win from 13th last time out, thinks the all-electric series has it spot on ahead of next season’s regulation change due to how exciting the contests are.
“It's super important to look at the positives that we have in the championship right now,” said the Citroen driver, who also rose from 15th to third in Brazil.
“The qualifyings are separated by nothing, it's super competitive. A lot of teams are in the fight, which is super important for the championship and the races.
“Yes okay, sometimes there can be maybe a bit too much saving, etc, but you don't really find a boring Formula E race - everyone's excited to tune in, right?
“I just hope that we keep those factors in Gen4, because as soon as you get too much performance and not enough saving and big open tracks, we just look like another single-seater championship, in my opinion.
“So let's see. But from my side, I hope that we keep that aspect, and if we do, plus have all the other great things that Gen4 brings, it'll be a pretty amazing step.”
The New Zealander is confident in Formula E taking this next step with Gen4, as it introduces cars with more than 800bhp, and testing is already underway.
“It's really nice to be part of that programme, really exciting for the championship,” said Cassidy, who is now in his sixth campaign of the series.
“From a car point of view, it's obviously another single-seater, a much bigger car, a lot more power, more downforce. So the feeling as a driver is something really special, really impressive.
“A lot's going to depend on the tracks that we race at though and the race format as well, which I don't really have any information on just yet - either way, it's not going to be a negative for the championship.
“It's a bunch of exciting times ahead and something I think everyone's looking forward to. It'll be interesting to see what happens next season.”
