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Formula E's 2018/19 Valencia pre-season test plans revealed

Formula E's official pre-season testing for the 2018/19 championship will take place at the Valencia circuit on October 16-19.

The pre-season running will happen at the Ricardo Tormo track for the second year in a row, after testing for the electric championship's first three campaigns was conducted at Donington Park.

The season five test will reportedly use the 1.92-mile National Circuit configuration of the circuit, with all 11 teams set to attend.

The circuit will have 11 turns, including a chicane on the start/finish straight, but is much smoother than the usual city streets used for FE racetracks.

Each day of the test will be split into two sessions - the cars will run from 9am-12pm in the mornings and then from 2-5pm for the afternoon running.

Thursday 18 October will serve as a rest day and no on-track running will take place.

The session will be open to the public and there is no charge to attend, although anyone planning to visit the test will be required to register beforehand.

Valencia will be the first available testing opportunity for the Virgin Racing squad ahead of season five, which will get under way in Riyadh on December 15.

Virgin is expected to announce it will run an Audi powertrain as part of a customer deal with the German manufacturer for the 2018/19 championship in the coming weeks.

That arrangement means the British team - previously DS Automobiles' works outfit - loses the 15 days of private testing afforded to manufacturers.

The manufacturer teams have already begun testing their Gen2 cars for 2018/19 under that allowance, but Valencia will be the first pre-season running for both Virgin and FE newcomer HWA - which will be a Venturi customer.

Zdroj: autosport.com