Three-time overall winner of the legendary 24-hour race in Le Mans and 2012 WEC champion – Hankook’s test and development driver Benoît Tréluyer has been enjoying a very successful motorsport career and, thanks to his expertise, has been a significant factor in the success of the premium product and new standardised tyre in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, the Hankook iON Race.
The iON Race will remain unchanged for Season 10. What are you working on currently?
It goes without saying that I would love to spend all my time in the car working on the tyres, that is what I prefer to do. But that’s not always an option. Currently, I am observing and analysing the latest tyres. I’ll discuss the results with the engineers and then we will plan a new development programme.
After a year in Formula E – what is your conclusion regarding the Hankook iON Race?
As expected, the drivers and teams found it difficult to exploit the tyre’s full potential at the start of the season because they were unfamiliar with the tyre. But at the end of Season 9, we saw that the tyre had worked very well at every track and in all conditions – without any safety issues and with low wear and tear.
Do you think that based on the experiences of the teams in Season 9, the drivers will be able to get even more out of the tyres?
Last year we predicted that every team would be much faster at testing in Valencia in the second season, and this was the case. The step won’t be quite as big next year, but I expect that some teams will improve their performance more significantly than others.
Without giving too much away: Why will the Season 11 tyre be even better than the current version?
With the result that we achieved in the ninth season, I feel that we are in the position of developing tyres with even better performance that are very sustainable and subject to low wear and tear. This is the result of our experience and feedback from the FIA, teams, and, of course, the drivers.
