Porsche’s next-generation all-electric racer will make its official debut on November 7 in Franciacorta, Italy, but for now we’ll have to take comfort in the fact that Porsche has been working diligently on the car for months now, and hopes it will deliver better performance in the coming season. Driver Pascal Wehrlein was quite satisfied with the upgrades. “Our new car feels great,” said the Porsche works driver. Lately he and his new teammate António Félix da Costa have been testing the new Porsche 99X in Mallorca, among other warm-weather test tracks.
The new Gen3 cars, such as the Porsche 99X Electric Gen3, are the fastest, lightest, most powerful and efficient electric race cars ever built. While every car will be built on the same chassis and run to the same regulations, Porsche will still be charged with building many bespoke parts and programming for its version of the Formula E racer. With new tires from Hankook, new regen strategies, far more power than last year, and top speeds over 200 miles per hour, the new Gen 3 car is sure to be a performance level ahead of its Gen 2 sibling.
“There’s a sense of excitement and anticipation in the air heading into our fourth season of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship,” says Florian Modlinger, Director Factory Motorsport Formula E. “The cards are being reshuffled with the new Gen3 cars. All teams are at the same technical level. That’s a guarantee of exciting and fiercely contested races.”
Porsche did find a win last season with a stunning strategy battle at Mexico City, but it found far more bad luck than good in 2022. There are hopes that the new chassis will really throw the other teams for a loop, and Porsche can find a bit more success in 2023. The fact that the team was among the first to begin testing, and has likely logged the absolute maximum allowed track and simulation time with the new car, hopefully it’ll be truly prepared for the first race of season 9 in ways other teams aren’t. All of the teams will attend a final rehearsal test in Valencia, Spain between December 13 and 16 to shake everything down. The first race of the season is January 14 in Mexico City, so maybe that’ll be Porsche’s lucky rabbit’s foot and it’ll start the season off strong with a repeat victory there.
Cross your fingers, it’s about to get electrifying.