Avis Budget Group EMEA: London ePrix Set to Be Fastest of the Season According to Senna

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Formula E racing driver, Bruno Senna is predicting that the London ePrix at Battersea will be one of the fastest races of the inaugural Formula E electric car race season. In an interview filmed with Avis Car Rental EMEA (http://www.avis.co.uk/), sponsors of the Mahindra Racing Formula E team, he also revealed that he expects drivers to find controlling the car during overtaking manoeuvres challenging due to the prominent crowning along some stretches of the track and that the Battersea circuit should provide fans with a thrilling conclusion to the sports first race series. The London ePrix takes place at Battersea Park on Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 June.

The Battersea track, designed using the existing perimeter roads of the park, features two straights long enough for the drivers to reach their top race speeds of 140 mph and a total of 17 turns including one high speed bend. At 2.922 km, it is one of the longest circuits in the Formula E calendar, only Beijing is longer (3.44km). Avis has mapped the Battersea track using its Avis Driving Ratio (ADR) which is based on the four key phases of a drive: bends, acceleration, cruising and braking and rates the track at 4.2 confirming Senna's thoughts that the track should be the fastest of any of the European Formula E circuits, with drivers having the opportunity to spend 4.2 seconds on the straight for every second spent cornering.

How the European tracks compare

Circuit		Length/Km		Number of bends		% short straights		ADR
Monaco		1.76		12		90%		1.9
Berlin		2.47		17		86%		2.1
Moscow		2.29		13		60%		3.8
London		2.92		17		81%		4.2

The London race is the only circuit in the Formula E calendar to be based entirely in a city park, with all the other races taking place on streets. The surroundings for the London race include one stretch of track which passes through a promenade of overhanging trees, which will provide an unusually tranquil setting for the drivers. In the Avis interview, Senna described the experience of driving the Mahindra electric race car as surprisingly peaceful due to the quiet nature of the engines, and also spoke of how the drivers can actually hear the crowd cheering during the race which has been an unusual, but welcomed, addition to his motor racing experience.

Motor enthusiasts looking for driving experiences that may give them a glimpse of what it's like to experience the intensity of a circuit like Battersea, could take a trip to Saxony in Germany, where the beautiful but testing S165 from Hohnstein to Bad Schandau (http://www.avisbestroad.com/uk/the-top-25-roads/) has an ADR of 3.8 – three seconds spent driving on the straight for every second spent cornering, making it one of the world's most-challenging drives. Like the Battersea circuit, the Saxony route is situated alongside a river, in this case the River Elbe. The 43 km route demands drivers' full attention as it features 63 bends along narrow roads, testing both their skills and the performance of their car.

The London ePrix encompasses two races; the final two rounds of the inaugural 2014/2015 season. 20 Formula E drivers including Bruno Senna and Karun Chandhok, the two Avis sponsored Mahindra Racing Team drivers, will tackle a mixture of fast straights, high-speed bends, challenging chicanes and braking zones over the course of two full days.

Troy Warfield, Group Commercial and Licensee Director, Avis Budget Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), comments, "Our involvement with the Mahindra Racing Formula E team takes us into new territory supporting an exciting new motorsport.

The Avis sponsorship deal with the Mahindra Racing Formula E Team includes Avis branding prominently displayed on the cars raced by Bruno Senna and Karun Chandhok as well as in the team garage.

Notes to editors

About The Avis Driving Ratio

The Avis Driving Ratio (ADR) was developed in conjunction with eminent quantum physicist Dr Mark Hadley and tested by legendary Formula One racetrack designer Hermann Tilke. Based on the four key phases of a drive, bends, acceleration, cruising and braking, the optimum balance between those components was calculated to find the ADR.

The most challenging drives have a ratio of between one and ten, with one being the most challenging. The Monaco Formula E circuit has an ADR of 1.9, which means for every 1.9 seconds spent driving along a straight 1 second will be spent handling a turn.

The key components of the ADR

a (acceleration – this is split into three parts)		ab		Braking deceleration		Allows you to slow for a corner
		al		Lateral acceleration		Holds the car on the roads round the bend
		af		Straight line acceleration		Allows you to move back up to cruising speed
r				Radius of bends
l				Length of straights
vc				Velocity (cruising speed)

-ENDS-

*The ADR for the Formula E race tracks was calculated using performance data from Bruno Senna's Mahindra Formula E race car performance at Long Beach, Miami.

** The ADR for the Saxony road was calculated using performance data for a Porsche 911 Carrera, Jaguar XKRS and Mercedes E350 and applied based on someone driving within national speed limits.

About Avis

Avis Car Rental operates one of the world's best-known car rental brands with approximately 5,450 locations in more than 165 countries. Avis has a long history of innovation in the car rental industry and is one of the world's top brands for customer loyalty. Avis is owned by Avis Budget Group, Inc. CAR, which operates and licenses the brand throughout the world. For more information, visit www.avis.com.

About Formula E

Formula E is a new FIA single-seater championship and the world's first fully-electric racing series. The inaugural season kick-started in Beijing in September 2014 and runs until June 2015, competing in 10 of the world's leading cities including Miami, Berlin and London. A total of 10 teams, each with two drivers, race on temporary city-centre circuits creating a unique and exciting series designed to appeal to a new generation of motorsport fans.

Formula E also aims to represent a vision for the future of the motor industry, serving as a framework for R&D around the electric vehicle, accelerating general interest in these cars and promoting clean energy and sustainability.

About Mahindra Racing

Mahindra Racing is one of only ten teams - and the only Indian team - to compete in the inaugural FIA Formula E Championship. It was also the first Indian team to participate in the FIM MotoGP™ World Motorcycle Racing Championship series in 2011 and the Italian National Motorcycle Racing Championship (CIV) in 2012.

Mahindra's bold decision to take on the world's best at the highest level of motorcycle racing has won the team a number of prestigious awards in India, including: the NDTV Car and Bike Awards - 'Mobil 1 Motorsport Award of the Year', 2012 and 2013; the Bike India Magazine - 'Motorsport Award', 2013; and 'ZigWheels Motorsport Award of the Year', 2012.

Mahindra Racing's Formula E team is based at Donington Park in the UK and will run the zero emissions M1-Electro (chassis number: SRT-01E) racing car, with its batteries producing 200kw, the equivalent of 270bhp.The team now hopes to build further on its success at the inaugural FIA Formula-E Racing World Championship in 2014.

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