Opinion – Is Formula E’s ATTACK MODE a stroke of genius?

Motorsport is never one to shy away from radical rules and regulations aimed at helping improve the spectacle that we fans are witnessing before our very eyes. Now sometimes these radical ideas can deliver the results that the governing bodies are looking for and sometimes they flop horrendously, just look at Formula 1’s elimination style qualifying from 2016.

The Formula E championship has never been one to shy-away from rolling the dice and trying out a few of these more unusual ideas to see if they can engage with fans new and old. So far we have had lottery qualifying,mid-race car changes and the highly controversial ‘Fanboost’ to name but a few, but in season 5 with the brand new Gen2 cars taking centre stage the FIA have introduced one of their most left-field ideas yet with the brand-new power system, ‘ATTACK MODE.’

Now firstly credit needs to go to the FIA for moving away from the name ‘HYPERBOOST’ which always sounded like some cheap knock-off energy drink and going with ‘ATTACK MODE’ because, lets be honest, this is one of the coolest sounding things in the world right now. Football has free-kicks, rugby has scrums, Formula 1 has DRS but Formula E has ‘ATTACK MODE.’ That’s just cool and your inner 5-year old knows it.

However there is a large amount of confusion surrounding the system since it was announced with fans comparing it to something out of Mario-Kart.

I briefly touched on Attack Mode in my season preview but felt that it needed looking into more detail to try and alleviate any confusion going into this Saturday’s season opener in Saudi Arabia. There was also a recent announcement from the World Motorsport Council concerning the system and how it would be implemented in a race which was not available at the time when I wrote the season preview.

Firstly, and most simply, Attack Mode is an increase of power that drivers can activate to see their cars jump from 200kw of power to 225kw. Drivers will not be restricted to using this for purely overtaking purposes so the race leader will be able to engage Attack Mode as a means of creating a gap to the cars behind.

It should be noted that Fanboost is still in existence but has been adapted to fit in with the new Attack Mode system. Every E-Prix will now see 5 drivers per race (up from 3) receive a one-off bonus 25kw of power to be used in conjunction with Attack Mode. That means the drivers who win the fans votes will get a boost up to 250kw of power instead of 225kw.

For a driver to arm Attack Mode they must push a button on their steering wheel and run through a designated zone that will be placed off-line around a pre-determined corner of the circuit. Once armed the car will automatically increase the power up to 225kw (or 250kw) allowing the driver to quite literally go on the attack. Drivers will have to wait until two laps have been completed before being able to arm Attack Mode.

Fans watching will be able to distinguish when a driver has activated Attack Mode because the ‘Halo’ which was introduced into the series this year has built-in LED’s which light up depending on which mode is currently active. The Halo will light up blue when Attack Mode is active and Magenta, a purplish-red,when Fanboost is active.

There has been a lot of questions surrounding Attack Mode that went unanswered for months after it was originally announced back in its original form of Hyperboost. Questions such as how many times per race will drivers be able to arm the system and how long will the increase in power last? Well, as per the latest announcement from the World Motorsport Council, this information will not be made available to teams and fans alike until 60 minutes, just 1 hour, before each E-Prix begins.

This was to stop teams from working out the best times to use Attack Mode during the race and put the pressure onto drivers. There had been a fear that teams would all come to the same conclusion about the optimal time during a race to use this increase of power and that everyone would simply arm the cars at the exact same time rendering the system useless.

I personally believe that Attack Mode will provide an extra level of excitement to the races that will be sorely needed. The removal of the mid-race car changes and with that any form of pit-stop what so ever is a risk. There is scope for something to go wrong with cars running off-line onto a dirty part of the track. I wouldn’t be surprised to see at least one-person bin it into a wall while trying to arm the system.

Denying teams a chance to work out the optimal strategy before each race is one that really must be applauded by the FIA. It is very rare that we get this level of uncertainty going into any race. Imagine how crazy Formula 1 races could be if teams didn’t know what tyres would be available to them until 1 hour before each race?

With now only a matter of days until we get a chance to seethe new Gen2 machines in action we don’t have long to wait to see if Formula E has got it right with this new system or if we are on for another elimination-style qualifying failure.