The grid in open-wheel racing is an essential part of the pre-race strategy, as drivers get their final chance to do a few sighting laps of the track as they gather as much information as possible to recall to their engineers once they reach the grid.

That vital piece of information that the driver may feel on those laps to the grid could help the team find that optimum setting in the car to give the driver total confidence going into the race. However, in Formula E this is virtually impossible to do.

In Formula E, drivers crawl around the circuit on their way to the grid in order to protect their battery levels. Therefore, at slow speeds the driver can’t really get any indication of how the track is feeling as they are not running at representative speeds.

Once the cars are stationary on the grid, you become accustomed to seeing engineers crowd around the cars making sure everything is running at optimum temperature.

In Formula One, you see tire blankets on the tires, which keep the tires at the optimum temperature until the last possible moment when they taken off to start the race. The car is constantly being checked to see if they have any problems, or simply just to make sure that everything is running smoothly before the start.

In Formula E, the tires are sat on the grid for 30 minutes untouched before they pull away from the grid. This means they are stone-cold as they start the race, leaving the driver to quickly bring them up to racing temperature, which ultimately leads to a very cautious opening few laps.

Despite, not having the possibilities to test the car before the start of the race, there is still a few things that the driver and the engineer can discuss to make sure the car will run correctly at the start of the race.

We caught up with Vitantonio Liuzzi in Berlin who told us exactly what he and the team discuss before the start of the race.

“Obviously, we can’t manage the tires too much on the grid because as we start with cold tires, but we can check the tire pressures and the brakes to make sure the car is ready for the race.”

“We don’t get a chance to really test the car on the out lap, but we still have to make sure that everything is running smoothly on the lap to the grid.”

“Before the race, I normally discuss with my engineer about how we will approach the strategy for the race, so I have a clear understanding of what I have to achieve when I’m out there” said Liuzzi

Roger Griffiths, Andretti Autosports Director of Motorsport Development explains that when the drivers venture off the grid everything is stone-cold.

Griffiths continues to explain that the team can check all the systems in the car are working by plugging in their laptops to check that eveything is fully functional when the lights go out.

However, apart from checking that all systems are fully operational including the tires pressures and brakes, Griffiths tells us that is mainly what the engineers do to the cars before the drivers go racing.