The “Pit Boost” is coming in 2025: how does it work?

If Season 11 of Formula E will not mark a major upheaval, neither technical nor sporting, the championship continues to innovate and present new features over the years. In 2025, the first campaign for the Gen3 Evo single-seaters, the discipline will introduce a new system: fast charging with the "Pit Boost" system. It's all in the name: on certain rounds (which have yet to be determined) of the season, the drivers will have to go through the pits during the race to do a fast recharge, like a refueling... but with electricity. But in concrete terms, how will this work? With what rules?

At the start of the electric championship, with the Gen1, the drivers were forced to return to their garage to completely change gear. car in progress! Since the transition to Gen2 in 2017, they are no longer required to go through their pits during an E-Prix. To add a strategic element to the races, and to spice up the show, Formula E decided to reintroduce a mandatory pit stop system with Gen3 Evo… and with a two-year delay. Planned for 2023, the “Pit Boost” was finally developed for Season 11, despite the difficulties.

A mandatory and timed pit stop

During an E-Prix, the driver will have to respect a specific window that will allow him to stop in the pits to perform a quick recharge. This window will be determined by the state of charge (SoC) of the single-seater during an E-Prix, with values ​​set by the stewards before the event. For example: the race direction could decide to open the pit stop window when the charge level of a single-seater is between 55% and 45%, one example among many others. Drivers will be prohibited from performing their Pit Boost outside of this window, nor during a race suspension (i.e. a red flag).

When a driver stops to take their fast charge, they and their team must respect a minimum stopping time, published before the start of the competition. The stopping time will be counted from the moment the car is stopped in its position in the pit lane and the charger – called Boost Charger – is connected until the moment the car moves back to the fast lane. This Boost Charger is a 600 kW fast charging system, supplied to the teams by the company Fortescue Zero, formerly known as Williams Advanced Engineering. Each car should stop for about thirty seconds to recharge about 10% of the battery.

When stopping, the Boost Charger, connected to the rear of the car, must be correctly connected and the entire allocated energy must be charged into the car. A maximum of two people may work on the car, plus one person specifically assigned to stopping and releasing the car. During the charging phase, no work is permitted on the car. Changing tyres is prohibited until the Pit Boost is completed. Until the charger is disconnected from the car, all four wheels must remain in contact with the ground, and any further intervention on the car, apart from connecting and disconnecting the Boost Charger, is strictly prohibited.

“Double stop” banned in Formula E

From a strategic point of view, however, the teams will be limited in their choices. Unlike the Formula 1, the double stop (or double stack in English) will not be allowed: only one car per team can make a pit stop at its location. Pit Boost will be compatible with Attack Mode, a system that has been present in Formula E for several seasons now and which allows a driver to obtain more power for a limited time after passing between two detection terminals. In races where Pit Boost will be mandatory, Attack Mode can be used from the 3rd lap.

The Pit Boost system was further tested extensively during pre-season testing in Madrid last November, ahead of its planned introduction in 2025. While it worked well for the majority of participants, it caused some problems on the two Penske DSs in particular.  "It's standardized, and it's a bit tricky.", Simon Merchet, a Stellantis engineer dedicated to the group's Formula E project, admitted to us. “At DS, we had a problem, the equipment didn’t work well. The car responded well, but since we don’t develop the charger, small reliability issues can impact the results of the races. We hope that the organizer can make sure that everyone is on the same page in terms of the reliability of the system. This could impact the races, so I hope that all of this is sorted out. It’s not something we can control, we are dependent on this system. There have been issues here and there, so I hope that all of this will be resolved for the first race with pit stops.”

Formula E still has some work to do before its official introduction. If it is not ratified, the arrival of Pit Boost should take place during the rounds in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) on February 14 and 15. This still leaves a little time to adjust this innovation.

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