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Williams deny fundamental problems with battery

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Williams say there’s no “fundamental design fault” concerning the batteries they supply to all ten Formula E teams. Thermal management of the batteries became an important factor in last weekend’s event in Malaysia, where temperatures rose to around 39 degrees.

A number of cars stopped on track at different points in the race, “battery management system” errors displaying on their dashboards, suggesting the battery was at fault. But Gary Ekerold, Williams Advanced Engineering programme leader, says that this was not the case.

“The error that comes up on the steering wheel is a BMS error that protects the entire system on the car,” Ekerold told Autosport. “That could be an error on any aspect and the battery will protect the car.”

He said the battery is already past the operating window it was designed to work at in both temperature and power. The battery was designed to run at only 133kW, not the 170kW it currently runs at during the race.

“Racing is about being on the limit, and sometimes the teams trip over that limit. That can affect any number of things.”

What it affected last weekend was Renault e.dams’ race, with both drivers suffering problems on multiple occasions during the race. Team Aguri’s Antonio Felix da Costa also stopped on track.

Formula E heads to South America next and the high temperatures could be seen again. So, how should the team manage conditions so they don’t have cars stopping on track again?

Ekerold said Williams couldn’t give advice on that.

“They [the teams] need to learn this process and understand it themselves… Some teams have an advantage because they understand the system better, that’s what makes them different.”

Besides the temperature problems, a number of faults with the batteries have been highlighted since the start of the season, including a charger explosion that damaged Sam Bird’s battery last weekend.

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Image courtesy of FIA Formula E Media

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