Silverstone, England, a place that fans around the world yearn for. Not only is there the Silverstone Circuit, which hosts the world's first Formula One, but Silverstone is the "home of global racing".
It is not only surrounded by F1 teams or headquarters such as McLaren, Red Bull, Renault, Williams, etc., but it is also a concentration of British sports models, especially chassis tuning.
Or it could be said that if you want to win the game, there's nothing wrong with putting the R&D center in Silverstone. Because Silverstone is surrounded by the world's top racing talents.
Therefore, today, Silverstone is also the research and development base of major teams of FE electric mode.
On March 30, a Formula E team from China, NIO333FE, was officially unveiled at the 333 Racing R&D Center in Silverstone Park, UK. As the team's overseas headquarters, the 333 racing R&D center.
NiO333FE (NIO 333 FE Team) team, is it a bit familiar? NIO is Weilai Automobile, for example, in the early years, Han Han often won the championship saic-Volkswagen 333 team, which belongs to the 333 Lisheng racing car. By the way, Xiaobian's racing license many years ago was also obtained from Lisheng.
NIO333FE, formerly known as NIO FE Team, has been with FE since its first season and was won by Brazilian driver Nelson Piquet in his first season. This is enough to blow a lifetime.
In September 2019, 333 Racing officially entered into a partnership with NIO FE Team, which was renamed NIO 333 FE Team. The new team is fully managed and operated by Shanghai Lisheng Racing, and NIO continues to support the team as the title sponsor.
THE NIO333FE is mainly developed and technically supported by the European team, and more Chinese elements will be injected into the fleet. In the future, Silverstone R&D Center will undertake a number of important tasks such as team technology research and development, racing parts preparation and simulation testing, and operation management.
With the unveiling of the Silverstone 333 Racing R&D Center, the NIO333FE team will form a dual headquarters operation model in the two major motorsport landmark cities of Silverstone and Shanghai.
As the team's new overseas home base, the R&D centre is adjacent to Silverstone, the birthplace of British motorsport. It is divided into 2 floors, including a number of core areas such as work workshop, office area, racing simulation room, etc., covering an area of 1200 square meters.
RUSSELL O'Hagan, COO and EXECUTIVE TEAM LEADER OF NIO333FE, admitted that due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the team's plan to relocate to Silverstone was postponed, but it was finally unveiled in the eighth season of FE.
The same impact of the epidemic has delayed the upgrading of FE racing cars, and the 2022 season still uses the second generation of racing cars (Spark Gen2). Originally, FE led the trend of electric vehicle technology, and now it has been unchanged for three years.
In order to control costs, formula E organizing committee required all 12 teams to use the same carbon fiber chassis and common components such as batteries. But major teams can still develop their own powertrains including electric motors, transmissions, inverters and rear suspension.
The current Formula E is in a critical phase of the transition from second-generation cars to third-generation cars. Next year's third-generation racing cars will have revolutionary technological changes, including supercharging technology and so on. As a result, there may be some new technologies next year that will be unveiled early in this year's tests.
NIO333FE is a Chinese team that has been involved in FE since the first season and has persisted to the present. The opening of the R&D center in Silverstone Park in the United Kingdom is believed to achieve better results in the next competition.