Saudi Arabia is getting ready for the Formula E sixth season kick-off.

 

The Preparations of the sixth season of the ABB Formula E championships have already started as Saudi Arabia has revealed last night at Ad Diriyah Season Event which held under the patronage of GSA Chairman Prince Abdul Aziz bin Turki Al-Faisal. 

The season will include world-class sporting, entertainment, musical and cultural events hosted in Ad Diriyah including Tennis, Equestrian and Boxing starting with Formula E double-header season opener with the GEN 2 cars which will be held in 22 and 23 Nov with new rivals Mercedes and Porsche.

 

Formula E driver of venturi team, Felipe Massa and Andre Lotterer, who moved from DS Techeetah to Porsche, the new arrival team were among the audience who attended the event. 

Massa and Lotterer who are the Saudia Airline brand ambassadors were happy with the Saudi hospitality and the sports event in general. "Saudi Arabia is a really fantastic country to support a lot of sports," ... "People are always more and more interested in the sport, Formula E, we'll do the second year here and I'm really looking forward to the race. Beautiful area, nice track," said Massa. 

The Brazilian who joins Edoardo Mortara for his second season in the series with both drivers piloting the new Gen2 Venturi challenger which switching from ZF powertrain to Mercedes powertrain this season, I asked him will it make the car much faster and powerful than the last year? he said "hopefully".

 

And while having a little long chat with the Felipe about the double-header he said: " It's kind of two events as we did it in New York last year. Here last year it was my first Formula E Race so, everything was new for me, I'm sure now I'm a lot more experienced in the sport we have some differences on the technical side, so let's see how it goes."

On the other side, former Le Mans winner Lotterer was very happy and excited to race at Ad Diriyah with his new team: "I'm very excited, I think It's great when we come here, mostly excited about the race track, the layout is the best in the calendar, the most challenging for us as drivers."

The German who joined Formula E grid back in 2017 was excited for the new challenge with Porsche telling me:

"I choose a new challenge to join Porsche, I used to be a Porsche driver in Le Mans, It's difficult choice but then I choose a new challenge and It's sure it will be a difficult race, because it's our first race even though the team is very well prepared and for sure in the first race we will learn a lot, I try to bring all my experience, It's a double-header may be in the first day it will be difficult and maybe in the second day will be better."

Saudi Arabia has chosen here [Ad Diriayh] to make history with the vision they have [2030] We feel privileged to part of that and It's gonna be better than last year"

"As a Saudi ambassador, I feel responsible to do well here and hopefully I can get a podium here"

However, This year sees even more teams enter the championship, with Porsche and Mercedes entering the fray. Last year Ad Diriyah was the launchpad for the new ‘Gen 2’ race cars and the exciting ‘Attack Zone’ innovation. This year will be the first time drivers will have an additional 10 kilowatts (kW) of power available when using the ‘Attack Mode,’ rising from 225kW to 235kW, plus the double-header race opener season.