Formula E’s Attack Charge concept will finally be trialled in a mock race during pre-season testing next month, with the FIA claiming the “technology is working”.

One of the longest-running sagas of Formula E’s Gen3 era has surrounded fast-charging pitstops, which could appear later this season, having already been tested extensively during the off-season by teams.

The concept, where drivers would be required to pit during a race for approximately 30 seconds and receive a charge of power equal to 10% of the battery, was initially slated for the start of the Gen3 era in 2023.

This was pushed back by a year due to the introduction of the new machines, which put a strain on available parts and the general Formula E infrastructure, with testing of the technology taking place at various points last season in official practice sessions.

The fast-charging, which could eventually have a huge impact for electric vehicle consumers if successful, was never implemented in a race due to reliability concerns that have since been addressed ahead of the Gen3 Evo era.

“It came with big challenges; it’s not only pushing boundaries on the charger side but also on the battery side,” FIA Head of Championship for Formula E, Pablo Martino, told Motorsport.com.

“Through all the summer period this year, the manufacturers have had access to this technology, so they have been testing with that technology in place.

“They have performed quite a relevant amount of charging already. The technology is there, the technology is working.

“There are just a few operational corrections that need to be addressed, but nothing related to the technicality.

“On how the system is operated, that part is something that is currently in the last phase of sign-off, let’s say, in terms of technology.”

Pablo Martino, FIA

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

Teams have been able to use the charge boosters during testing to work on the procedure from an operational perspective, with further running now set to take place at pre-season testing in Valencia.

The four-day test, which gets under way on 4 November, will include a mock race with the fast-charging pitstops set to feature, giving teams and the FIA the chance to see the technology used in a dynamic race situation.

Teams simulated pitstops during the same mock race in pre-season last year, but the technology was not used due to unreliability and safety concerns at the time.

“From an operational point of view, we’re pretty close,” adds McLaren chief engineer Albert Lau.

“But we just haven’t had, I guess, the volume of boost charges that would for me sign it off to the point where we’re happy that it’s all OK.

“You’re talking about a boost charge per race, per car, and you add that up; you need hundreds of boost charges signed off before you’re going to go into a season.

“You don’t go to Le Mans and do a 24-hour test. You’ve done a 36-hour test beforehand and it’s the same thing for this.”

However, even if the technology proves reliable and teams are up to speed with it operationally, there’s no guarantee that it will be implemented for the upcoming season.

Martino admits that further simulation and research will need to take place to ensure that adding the procedure into a race won’t diminish the spectacle or create any additional issues.

“There is also an exercise that needs to be understood, which is how this attack charge affects the race,” he said.

“This is something that needs to be captured, so even if the technology is there, we need to understand what’s going to happen in races. That will also be taken into account for a final decision.”

German football expert Raphael Honigstein joins BBC Sport to discuss the attributes of new England head coach Thomas Tuchel.

Honigstein was speaking on The Football News Show on Tuesday, before Tuchel’s appointment was confirmed by the Football Association on Wednesday.

Watch The Football News Show on iPlayer

Williams does not need reminding of the dangers of boxing, he’s lived the tragedy the sport can bring.

He was a stablemate of Nick Blackwell when he suffered a bleed on the brain in defeat by Eubank Jr in 2016 and spent nine days in an induced coma.

Six months after that, Williams went to support another stablemate, Dale Evans, as he fought local fighter Mike Towell in Glasgow in a fight that saw Towell seriously hurt and hospitalised. Towell died from his injuries the following day.

After several concussions and plenty of gruelling fights, Williams says the threat of further damage to his brain and the threat of CTE means he will not return as a fighter, tempted as he’s been.

“I’ve taken too much, I’ve had a long career, boxing has been all I’ve ever known,” he said.

“Heavy sparring, heavy hits, my resistance to punches is not as good and the risk are just too great, some hits you can’t come back from.”

Williams admits he is finding the adjustment tough after “boxing basically my whole life”, but admits he has had moments of doubt.

“Because of concussions I’ve had to retire,” he said. “It’s the right decision.

“But I did have a blip recently, I watched a fight, I can’t even remember which one and I immediately messaged my manager and said ‘get me a fight’.

“Then I rang him back the next day and told him to forget I’d said anything.”

Williams says he is “enjoying life”, having retired, with nights out with friends and “cheat meals”, now an option to him for the first time since he was a teenager.

With an eye to the future he has built a fitness gym at the back of his house and is currently doing personal training, but while he does not rule out a return to boxing as a trainer, Williams says he is “in no rush” to do so.

“I know I can offer good advice, I talk to my ex-stablemate (undefeated Welsh boxer) Rhys Edwards a lot and I don’t say this in a horrible way, but I know more about boxing than Rhys Edwards does, because of my experience,” he said.

“I like trying to help him. Maybe one day in the future I might want to do some training, but it’s a massive commitment.”

Williams retires with a 25-5-1 record, with 20 of his 25 wins coming via KO or stoppage.

“I would have liked to have won a world title, I was a bit unfortunate I suppose that when my opportunity it came against one of the best world champions (Andrade),” he said.

“I think I proved in my career that I could box at a world level, but I can look back and be proud of what I have done.”

CLOTHES have been seized by cops investigating rape allegations reportedly against Real Madrid ace Kylian Mbappe.

The France captain has been accused of sexually assaulting a woman in a Swedish hotel room by the country’s media but has slammed the serious claims against him as “fake news”.

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Mbappe, 25, is yet to be officially named as the suspect in the case despite Swedish news outlets saying they are “100 per cent sure” he is the focus of the investigations.

It comes as the footballing superstar reportedly has no idea what he is being accused of, according to his lawyer.

Marie-Alix Canu-Bernard told TF1 news that Mbappe is “calm” in wake of the allegations due to believing he is completely innocent.

The lawyer said: “He is never alone. He is never exposed to a situation where he would be taking a risk.

“And so, this totally excludes the fact that there could have been reprehensible actions on his part.”

Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet first reported that the French forward is being looked at by cops over allegations of sexual abuse last week.

A complaint was reportedly made to police on Saturday after the alleged victim sought medical attention.

Expressen reported that Mbappe dined at the Chez Jolie restaurant on Thursday and went to the V nightclub in Stockholm with pals.

He and his entourage then went back to the Bank Hotel where he was staying and where the alleged rape is said to have taken place.

Mbappe is yet to be spoken to by officials as he hasn’t been formally named in the case.

These accusations are completely false and irresponsible, and their propagation is unacceptable

Mbappe’s entourage

But investigators have started to build up evidence against a suspect after they seized several items of clothing from a room inside the Bank Hotel.

Police have taken a pair of underwear, black trousers and a black top from the room to analyse, report Expressen.

Officials are yet to confirm the clothes being seized or who they belong to.

Mbappe flew out of Sweden Friday on a private jet just before the complaint had been filed.

His entourage has since shot back at the allegations, telling AFP: “A new slanderous rumour is starting to spread across the web from the Swedish media Aftonbladet.

“These accusations are completely false and irresponsible, and their propagation is unacceptable.

“In order to put an end to this methodical destruction all necessary legal actions will be taken to re-establish the truth and pursue any person or media involved in the moral harassment and defamatory treatment that Kylian Mbappe is suffering repeatedly.”

The former Paris Saint-Germain and Monaco ace later addressed the report himself as he scolded the Swedish news outlets for allegedly spreading “fake news”.

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He put out a statement on X saying: “FAKE NEWS !!!! It’s becoming so predictable, just before the hearing as if by chance.”

Mbappe also included a winking emoji at the end of the message.

The tweet seemingly referred to a hearing Mbappe is set to face over unpaid wages he is disputably owed by PSG.

Mbappe claims he deserves 55million Euros (£45million) by his former club in unpaid wages from his seven-year stint at the club.

The footballer was also due to get a signing bonus in February but PSG have refused to pay up and follow the ruling by France‘s football governing body LFP, according to the claims.

A source close to PSG hit back at Mbappe by telling French newspaper L’Equipe they would “ignore” his claims the two incidents may be linked.

The source said: “Honestly, it’s a shame. PSG is responsible for everything with him.

“He didn’t score any goals (apart from penalties) for Madrid? It’s PSG.

“He missed the French national team matches even though he says he did, but he’s not injured? It’s PSG.

“PSG are now making up stories in Sweden. We will ignore it and keep our class.”

France’s manager Didier Deschamps, 56, was even made to respond to the allegations against his captain.

He warned people to avoid spreading “anything and everything” in regards to Mbappe.

He told reporters after France’s clash with Belgium on Monday night that the reports have led to a “negative atmosphere” in the dressing room.

Mbappe’s club side Real Madrid have also reportedly edited their star man out of a charity promotion just a day after the allegations were made.

Two almost identical images posted to Instagram appear to show the French striker in and out of a photo for the club’s Artist Pack promotion.

The first image was posted by English midfielder Jude Bellingham and showed him, Roberto Carlos and Mbappe with a group of artists.

But Bellingham swiftly deleted the group snap.

Real Madrid then posted an almost identical image to its main Instagram account on Tuesday – but now with Mbappe missing.

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Hartley used the example of Australia, the premier team in the world, continuing to overlook leg-spinner Amanda-Jade Wellington, who has not played international cricket since 2022.

“Australia have got 15 or 16 athletes, genuine athletes,” said Hartley. “They have the best leg-spinner in the world in Amanda-Jade Wellington, that doesn’t even get in their squads any more because she’s not fit enough.”

Asked about the fitness of the national team, England and Wales Cricket Board chief executive Richard Gould said: “Athleticism in cricket is increasingly important. We need to go back 10 or 20 years in the men’s game to see the difference that provides.

“We want to provide whatever support we can to all our players. We’ve under-invested in the women’s game for a long time. Only going back to 2019, we had 18 professional players. Next year, we’ll have closer to 200 professional women’s players.

“That’s a lot of progress in a short amount of time and there will be things that we want to continue to improve on.”

Knight took charge in 2016 and led England to their last major trophy in 2017. Hartley pointed to the chaos in the field in Knight’s absence as a reason for the 33-year-old to stay on. She also supported head coach Jon Lewis.

“When you have not won a World Cup for so long, things need to change,” said Hartley. “Last night showed how much England need Heather Knight on the field, because she’s a calm character. She wasn’t there and everyone was looking around all flustered.

“I don’t know where change comes from. I think Jon Lewis is the right man for the job. He has changed women’s cricket, getting the girls to realise they can have a better work-life balance.

“Whether or not they have potentially gone too far the other way, I’m not sure.”

Former MotoGP star Jorge Lorenzo believes Marc Marquez now displays more respect towards rivals while battling with them on track, having initially found his antics to be “very aggressive”.

Lorenzo was one of Marquez’s main rivals during his golden period in the 2010s, with the pair even becoming team-mates at Honda in the former’s final season in 2019.

Their careers have taken different turns since then, with Lorenzo going on to become a commentator for Spanish broadcaster DAZN and Marquez joining the Gresini Ducati team in 2024 after being saddled with injuries and an uncompetitive bike in his final years at Honda.

Lorenzo admitted that he wasn’t a fan of Marquez’s style of racing when the latter graduated to the premier class in 2013 as the reigning Moto2 champion, but feels his countryman has changed the way he rides against other riders over the years.

“In 2013, I didn’t accept his [Marc’s] way of racing, which was very aggressive,” the three-time champion said at Festival dello Sport in Italy. “Now he has a bit more ‘respect’ towards his rivals. It must be said that the rules are stricter than ten years ago.”

Marc Marquez, Repsol Hond and Jorge Lorenzo, Yamaha

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Marquez won six titles in his first seven years in MotoGP, with Lorenzo – then at Yamaha – the only rider to break his run when he triumphed in the controversial 2015 season.

Things started going downhill for Marquez after Lorenzo retired from MotoGP, with a horrific crash at the 2020 season opener in Jerez leaving him with career-altering injuries.

It took multiple surgeries and prolonged layoff periods to put the accident behind, but by the time he was close to full fitness the Honda RC213V had slumped to become the slowest bike on the grid.

Lorenzo believes Marquez would have been able to win several additional titles had his arm not been broken at Jerez four years ago.

“He is a beast on a sporting level,” he said of the 31-year-old. “Since 2020, he has had very bad luck in terms of his physical condition. Without those problems, he would have won at least two or three more world championships.”

Marquez’s struggles at Honda prompted him to leave the Japanese manufacturer with a year left on his contract and join Gresini at the start of the 2024 season.

Marc Marquez, Gresini Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

He will move up to the factory Ducati team next year, partnering Francesco Bagnaia, and will be in a position to challenge for the championship for the first time since 2019.

Lorenzo himself spent two seasons with Ducati in 2017-18 as part of a multi-million deal with the aim of leading the Borgo Panigale marque to its first title since 2007.

Although the Spaniard did hit his stride in his second season after a slow adaptation, the partnership ultimately ended with just three wins to boot.

He ended up moving to Honda for what turned out to be his final year in the premier class, while Ducati slowly turned the Desmosedici into a dominant bike.

Hailing Ducati’s general manager Gigi Dall’Igna, Lorenzo said he would have been able to achieve the target set out by Ducati had he stayed with the team for a few more seasons.

“We met in 2004, in my last year in 125cc. Fate brought us together at Ducati,” he said of Dall’Igna. “I was very sorry not to have won a title with the Italian brand. I am convinced that, if I had stayed two more years, we would have won it.

“Now it is the best bike. It has no weak points.”