an advantage from that.
Could cones be an alternative?
You wouldn’t put a cone there, because the first thing that would happen is that someone would hit it and it would move across the track. I think the traditional ways of appropriately designed kerbs work all over the world. The issues you have coming to a circuit for the first time is you place kerbs where you think they’ll be used; where corners tighten and there’s an advantage to be gained.. Sometimes it doesn’t work out that way.
Do you get much of a chance to inspect the track before the event?
Well the FIA appoints a track inspector, which is Carlos Bertram. That’s Carlos’s job really along with the Race Director Pierre Delettre. Our role is more traditional if you look at in terms of a Magistrate. That’s more our role. Ultimately there are other experts and they need to own that responsibility.
Do they ever seek advice?
Sometimes yes.
This weekend in Putrajaya there’s a very quick turnaround between qualifying and the race which saw quite a bit of overheating of batteries. Karun Chandhok was quite vocal about the teams needing more time to prepare.
This issue here with time of course is that you have to start the race early, which makes sense. You saw last night the storm we had in the afternoon, so we needed to move the race time ahead to try and avoid that. That’s just one of the challenges.
In the next three to five years, how much of a change do you see happening in Formula E?
II think Formula E’s just the first step into the future. We all talk about
sustainability and this is really the first step. I don’t think you can compare Formula E to Formula One, but even what we’ve got in F1 today is quite incredible. We don’t have engines anymore. We have power-plants and they’re now lapping faster than last year on a third-less fuel. That’s quite amazing. But we’re here to talk about Formula E (he laughs).
Well we cover Formula E and WEC. When I was in Fuji, quite a few engineers raised the notion of having a WEC round in Australia, In particular Phillip Island. Given you’re involvement on the FIA Circuit Commission, do you think that’s a realistic possibility if everything fell into place?
It’s a commercial decision. I think from a sporting perspective there’s no issue at all. As a Grade 2 circuit Phillip Island has the right license. At a push you could almost go to Bathurst.
Do you think?
At a push. It would be different at Bathurst, but Phillip Island has all the right credentials so it then becomes a commercial issue.