Formula E, officially the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, is an open-wheel single-seater motorsport championship for electric cars. The racing series is the highest class of competition for electrically powered single-seater racing cars. The inaugural championship race was held in Beijing in September 2014.[1] Since 2020, the series has had FIA world championship status.[2]
The ABB FIA Formula E World Championship season consists of a series of races, each known as an e-Prix.[3] These take place in multiple countries and continents around the world, mostly on street circuits created specifically for Formula E on closed public roads in the centre of major cities, with a small number on purpose-built circuits such as Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City.[4] A points system is used at each e-Prix to determine two annual World Championships: one for the drivers, and one for the constructors (the teams).[5] Each driver must hold a valid e-Licence issued by the FIA to compete.[6]
Formula E cars are the fastest regulated electric road-course racing cars in the world.[7] Major changes made for the 2022–23 season in the development of the Gen3 car were delivered as software updates directly to the advanced operating system built into the car.[8] The estimated top speed is 322 km/h (200 mph). The battery is also designed to be able to handle "flash-charging" at rates of up to 600 kW, allowing pitstop recharging into the championship for the first time. The wheelbase has been reduced from 3100 mm to 2970 mm and the weight reduced to 760 kg.[9]
Formula E shareholders include Liberty Global and Warner Bros. Discovery.[10] As of 2024, Formula E’s founder and Spanish businessman Alejandro Agag is the company’s Chairman, and the Chief Executive Officer is Jeff Dodds.[11]
History
The proposal for a city-based, single-seaterelectric car motor racing championship was conceived by Jean Todt, the president of the world governing body of motorsport, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), and presented to politicians Alejandro Agag and Antonio Tajani at a dinner at a small Italian restaurant in the French capital Paris on 3 March 2011.[12][13][14] Tajani was concentrated on the electrification of the automobile industry, reducing carbon-dioxide emissions and introducing hybrid and electric systems. Agag supported Todt's proposal after the latter discussed the FIA opening up a tender to organise the series. Agag told Todt that he would take on the task because of his prior experience in negotiating contracts with television stations, sponsorship and marketing.[15]
The Formula E championship is currently contested by 22 drivers, and 11 teams as of the 2024 season.[17] The sport features electric-powered race cars similar in style to the hybrid-drive cars of Formula One. Racing generally takes place on temporary city-centre street circuits, that are around 1.9 to 3.4 km (1.2 to 2.1 mi) long, although the series is slowly moving towards racing on more traditional circuits, such as Portland International Raceway, and the Misano Circuit.[18][circular reference]
Practice
All practice sessions in Formula E are 30 minutes long, with the first practice session generally taking place on Friday afternoon, while the second takes place on Saturday morning (both sessions are held on Saturday morning in Monaco). During these sessions, the drivers are free to use the full qualifying power output (currently 350 kW (475 bhp)).[19] An additional practice session takes place on Sunday morning in "doubleheader" weekends, where the series runs two races on the same track on back to back days.
Qualifying
The qualifying session typically takes place later in the day and lasts approximately one hour. Under the current format (introduced in season 8), the drivers are split into two groups based on their position in the championship; those in odd-numbered places go into group A, while those in even-numbered places go into group B. The exception is in the first race of the season, where each team can nominate one driver into each group. Each group gets a 10-minute session to set a fastest lap at 300 kW, of which the top 4 of each group will advance to the "duels" stage, where drivers face off head-to-head at 350 W over a quarter-final, semi-final and final. The winner of the final then lines up in position 1, the loser of the final in position 2, the losers of the semi-final in positions 3 and 4, and the losers of the quarter-final in positions 5 through 8, in order of time set in their respective sessions. The rest of the drivers from the group stage are placed alternately from position 9, with the polesitter's group in the odd places, and the other group in the even places.[20][21]
Race format
Formula E, like most other major motorsport series, currently has races that have a certain lap distance set. Also, for every four laps that are spent under full course yellow or the safety car, an additional lap of racing is added to the race length.
A feature called 'Attack Charge' is expected to be introduced no earlier than Season 11, where the drivers will come into the pits to service a mandatory 30 second pit stop that will charge the batteries, and add 4kWh of energy to them, which will also unlock two enhanced Attack Mode boosts. In the race, the maximum power output of the cars is currently restricted to 300 kW (402 bhp).
Since the all-weather tyres are designed to last for a whole race, pit stops are only needed to change a punctured tyre or perform repairs on the car.
History of race formats
From Season 1–4, Formula E had a lap distance set, with pit-stops to swap cars halfway through as the batteries lacked the capacity to last the whole race. However, from Season 5, the race was set to 45 minutes plus one lap, as the introduction of the Gen2 car that year meant that pit stops were no longer necessary, as the battery now lasted for the full race, before the introduction of the Gen3 Car in Season 9, where Formula E reverted to the lap format.
For season 6 and 7,[22] for each minute spent under safety car or FCY, 1 kW⋅h of energy was removed from the total usable energy, giving drivers and teams more energy management tactics. In Season 8, a newly introduced 'added time' format was used, where every full minute under a safety car or full course yellow within the first 40 minutes, 45 seconds was added to the race time up to a maximum of 10 minutes, before the 'added lap' format that is currently used replaced the 'added time' format in Season 9.
In the 2020–21 season, the Puebla ePrix and Valencia ePrix were held on configurations comparable to their full-length configurations, being 381 m (by skipping the International Road Course' leftmost corners)[24] and 629 m (by skipping turns 9 through 12 of the Grand Prix Circuit)[25] shorter respectively.
The first-ever Formula E race held on a full-length racetrack configuration of a circuit designed for other racing leagues, or in fact a longer one than the main configuration, was the 2023 Portland ePrix at the Portland International Raceway.[26]
Points are awarded to the top ten drivers using the standard FIA system (25–18–15–12–10–8–6–4–2–1). The driver securing the pole position is also awarded 3 points, while the driver setting the fastest lap (if they finish in the top ten) additionally receives 1 point (2 points during the first two seasons). In addition, for season six and seven (2019–21) the driver achieving the fastest lap during group qualifying was awarded 1 point.[27] The championship consists of both a drivers' and teams' championship. A driver's end of season total is made up of a driver's best results. A team's total is made up by counting both drivers' scores throughout the season.[21]
Fanboost
For Formula E's first eight seasons (2014–22), fans could vote for their favorite driver via the official website or app to potentially provide teams with an extra power boost which can be activated by pushing an overtake button. Voting started three days before the event and closed after the opening 15 minutes of the race. The five drivers that got the most votes each received an extra power burst that could be used in a 5-second window during the second half of the race.[21] Since the 2023 season, Fanboost was discontinued.[28]
Attack Mode
Attack Mode area of a track.
With the fifth season, a feature called Attack Mode was introduced, in which drivers received an additional 25 kW in season 5 (35 kW in season 6 and 7)[29] of power after driving through a designated area of the circuit off the racing line. The duration of the boost mode and the number of boosts available are decided only shortly before each race by the FIA to reduce the time the teams have to find the optimal strategy.[30] All attack modes must be activated at the end of the race, but do not need to be used up (i.e. if a final attack mode is activated in the penultimate lap, the driver is not penalized for having it still activated at the end of the race). If there is a full course yellow period or a safety car, attack mode is not allowed to be activated.
The Attack Mode format was changed up for Season 9, as instead of a constantly changing number of times the drivers had to drive through the activation zone during the race, and also the changing amount of time that each Attack Mode period lasted, the drivers would now get a combined 4 minutes of Attack Mode to use, that would be used in 2 activation periods throughout the race. During the first activation period, drivers would have to choose their Attack Mode activation time 'strategy', where they could either pick from having 2 2-minute attack mode periods, a 1-minute to start and then a 3-minute period, or vice versa. From the 2023 Jakarta E-Prix, it was lengthened to a combined 8 minutes that could be deployed in 2 minutes and then 6 minutes or vice versa or 2 4-minute periods.
Attack Charge
In Season 9, a new feature known as Attack Charge was set to be introduced in a few races later in the season, however, due to the need to solve issues with the Gen3 car's new batteries, the production of the fast chargers were delayed, and as a result, after criticisms from the teams about shifting to a new race format midway through the season, the debut of Attack Charge was pushed back, and was not ready as of the end of Season 10. In Attack Charge races, the teams will be required to do a mandatory 30-second stop to recharge the car's batteries, and the stop will unlock two enhanced attack mode boosts, while also giving the drivers an extra 4 kWh of power to use throughout the rest of the race.[31]
Felix Rosenqvist at the 2017 Berlin ePrix, showing the updated season-3 spec front wing
For the first four seasons, an electric racing car built by Spark Racing Technology, called the Spark-Renault SRT 01E, was used. The chassis was designed by Dallara, a battery system was created by Williams Advanced Engineering and a Hewland five-speed gearbox was used. Michelin was the official tyre supplier.[32][33][34] For the first season, 42 electric cars were ordered by the series. 4 cars were made available to each of the 10 teams and 2 cars were kept for testing purposes.[35]
This first Formula E car had a power of at least 190 kilowatts (250 hp). The car was able to accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h (0 to 62 mph) in 3 seconds, with a maximum speed of 225 km/h (140 mph).[36] The generators used to re-charge the batteries are powered by glycerine, a by-product of bio-diesel production.[37]
In the first season, all teams used an electric motor developed by McLaren (the same as that used in its P1 supercar). But since the second season, powertrain manufacturers could build their own electric motor, inverter, gearbox and cooling system although the chassis and battery stayed the same. There were nine manufacturers creating powertrains for the 2016–17 season: ABT Schaeffler, Andretti Technologies, DS-Virgin, Jaguar, Mahindra, NextEV TCR, Penske, Renault, and Venturi.[38]
The second-generation ("Gen2") Formula E car was introduced in the 2018–19 season and featured significant technological advances over the previous Spark-Renault SRT 01E car – its 54 kWh battery and power output rising from 200 kW to 250 kW and top speed rising to around 280 km/h (174 mph). The arrival of the Gen2 car also saw an end to the series’ mid-race car-swaps.[39] They were equipped with Brembo braking systems, chosen by Spark Racing Technology as the sole supplier.[40][41] The cars were also equipped with the halo, a T-shaped safety cage designed to protect the driver's head in crashes and by deflecting flying objects.[42] Michelin remained as tyre manufacturer, supplying all-weather treaded tyres.[43]
The Gen3 Formula E car was unveiled to the public at the 2022 Monaco ePrix, for use in the ninth Formula E season (2022–23) onwards. Power levels for the car are 350 kW in qualifying and 300 kW in the race, while regeneration is allowed on both front (250 kW) and rear (350 kW) axles for a maximum of 600 kW recovery under braking. Regenerative braking could provide 40% of the total energy used within a race.
The estimated top speed is 322 km/h (200 mph).[44] The battery is also designed to be able to handle "ultra-fast charging" at rates of up to 600 kW,[45] allowing pitstop recharging into the championship for the first time.[46] The wheelbase has been reduced from 3100 mm to 2970 mm and the weight reduced to 760 kg.
The development of the Gen4 era of Formula E is already underway, with the extensive GenEVO programme, the championship’s development car. The intention is to introduce the new Gen4 car into the championship from Season 13 (2026–27) for the Gen4 era.[48]
Teams and manufacturers are already expressing interest in the Gen4 era, with the idea that many of the current championship teams will sign for all four years. Jaguar Racing is advancing in the field of Gen4 cars with by setting up a specialised Mechatronics unit under the supervision of Muin Ahmad, who recently lead the development of twin battery system of Formula E Cars.[49]
The second season of Formula E started in October 2015 and ended in early July 2016. The calendar consisted of 10 races in 9 different cities. For this season eight manufacturers were introduced, who were allowed to develop new powertrains. Sébastien Buemi won the championship with only 2 points more than Lucas di Grassi by claiming the fastest lap in the final race in London.
The 2016–17 FIA Formula E season was the third season of the FIA Formula E championship. It started in October 2016 in Hong Kong and ended in July 2017 in Montreal. Lucas di Grassi won the championship in the last race of the season, 24 points ahead of Sébastien Buemi and 54 points ahead of third-placed rookie driver Felix Rosenqvist. The Renault e.Dams team successfully defended their team championship title.
The 2017–18 FIA Formula E season was the fourth season of the FIA Formula E championship. It started in December 2017 in Hong Kong and ended in July 2018. Jean-Éric Vergne clinched the title with a race to spare in New York by finishing fifth while title rival Sam Bird failed to score enough points to keep the fight going into the final race of the season.[54]
After a difficult first half of the season, Audi SportABT Schaeffler improved in the second half and passed Techeetah at the final race to claim the teams' championship by two points.[55]
A SRT05e at the Geneva motor show 2018 (in Nissan concept livery) that was used from Formula E's 5th season onward.
The Gen2 race car was introduced for season five with significantly improved power and range, thus eliminating the need to change cars and pit stops altogether except for damage. However, cars are still vulnerable to power exhaustions if red flags and safety cars lengthen races. Gen2 also saw the introduction of the halo driver protection system.[56] The car was unveiled in January 2018.[57]
BMW, Nissan and DS Automobiles would join Formula E as official manufacturers for the 2018–19 season, with Nissan replacing Renault, which had exited the championship to focus its resources on its Formula 1 team.[58] The format of the races also changed from a set number of laps to 45 minutes plus one lap.[59]
The 2019 Hong Kong ePrix was the 50th race of Formula E since its inception in 2014. Formula E raced in 20 cities, across five continents, seen 13 global manufactures commit to the series. Four drivers have started all 50 Formula E races: Lucas di Grassi, Sam Bird, Daniel Abt and Jérôme d'Ambrosio.[60]
After the first race in New York City, Jean-Eric Vergne won his second Formula E championship, becoming the first driver to win more than 1 championship title, and a back-to-back championship title.[61]Techeetah won their first constructor's championship.[62]
For the sixth season of Formula E, two more manufacturers joined the series: Mercedes-Benz and Porsche.[63][64] A number of rule changes were introduced to the championship, most notably the deduction of usable energy under safety car and Full Course Yellow conditions, with drivers having energy subtracted at 1kW⋅h per minute.[65] Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the championship was suspended in March 2020 and all scheduled races were eventually cancelled.[66] The season was completed in August with six races at the Tempelhof Airport Street Circuit in Berlin on three different layouts (a race on the reverse layout, a race on the normal layout, and a race with a new extended layout) with two races each.[67]
The season's champion was António Félix da Costa who clinched his first title with two races left. DS Techeetah became team champions for the second time in a row.[68]
Starting with its seventh season, the Formula E Championship was granted FIA World Championship status, due to it having met the criteria of having four manufacturer competitors and races on three continents since the 2015–16 season.[69] The facelift of the Spark Gen2 car called the Gen2 EVO, was originally scheduled to debut in this season, but was later delayed and eventually cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[70]
In late 2020, Audi and BMW announced their withdrawal from Formula E after the 2020–21 season, although BMW and Audi allowed Andretti Autosport and Envision Racing respectively to continue using their powertrains during the 2021–22 season.[71]
The season ended in August 2021 with 15 races. Nyck de Vries claimed his first world champion title after winning two races, while Mercedes-EQ won the teams' championship.[72]
The 2021–22 FIA Formula E season is the eighth season of the FIA Formula E World Championship and the final season of the "Gen2" car era.[73] The season started in January 2022 in Diriyah.
Instead of removing usable energy from drivers under the safety car and FCY, there will be added time to the race. For every full minute the race is neutralized within the first 40 minutes, there is 45 seconds of added time. This can add up to a maximum of 10 minutes.[74]
Race power was also increased to 220 kW and attack mode was increased to 250 kW, matching the power from Fanboost.
Season 8 also introduced a new qualifying format, featuring 2 groups, A and B, where the top 4 in each would progress to duels.[75]Stoffel Vandoorne won the Drivers title, whilst Mercedes EQ won the teams championship for the second time in a row.
The 2022–23 FIA Formula E season was the ninth season of the FIA Formula E World Championship, and the debut season of the Gen3 era. It saw Maserati and McLaren make their debuts in the series and the return of Abt Sportsline with the Spanish brand Cupra Racing. Laps replaced timed races, and for every safety car or FCY intervention, there were added laps to compensate for missed racing laps.
Pit stops were originally also supposed to make a return to the series (in the form of Attack Charge) which was set to be trialed at select races, however the introduction of this race format was delayed to the 2023–24 season and beyond, after several issues with the new car's batteries came up before the season, which caused delays in the production of the fast chargers.
Originally also, in at least two races, each team would have to field a driver with no previous Formula E experience in the first practice session. However, after teams criticized this rule, the series then decided that instead as a compromise, they would hold two rookie test sessions, one being after the doubleheader Berlin E-Prix, and the other being before the doubleheader Rome E-Prix.
The 2023–24 FIA Formula E was the tenth season of the FIA Formula E World Championship, with 16 races taking place from January to July 2024 across 10 venues. For the first time, it featured a championship for manufacturers (in addition to the existing drivers' and teams' championships).
The calendar Season 10 was announced in November 2023, featuring new venues Misano, Shanghai, and a world-first race held in the streets of Tokyo, Japan, with Portland expanding to a double-header.[76]
Attack Charge was scheduled to be introduced starting at the Misano E-Prix.[77] This new feature would have seen drivers take a mandatory pit stop in a specific window during the race, during which the car would have been recharged to award drivers two attack mode boosts and an extra 4 kWh (14.4 MJ) of energy throughout the rest of the race.[78] This feature was originally planned to be introduced in season 9, but after delays in production of the fast charging units it was postponed until season 10. This timeframe was then delayed once again, with the feature not introduced during season 10.[79]
The 2024–25 FIA Formula E is scheduled to be the eleventh season of the FIA Formula E World Championship, with 16 races set to take place from December 2024 to July 2025 across 10 venues. The races are set to be held across two calendar years for the first time since the 2019–20 season. Lola and Yamaha are set to join the series, and cooperate in developing their new powertrain, partnering ABT.
The calendar of Season 11 features new venues in Jeddah and Miami, and the return of the Jakarta ePrix, with Monaco and Tokyo expanding to double-headers.
Esport series
In 2019, the Virtually Live Ghost Racing app was launched. It allows fans to virtually drive alongside the real drivers as the race is going on.[80] In 2020, during the season suspension due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Formula E held an esport series called Race at Home Challenge.[81] In 2021, Formula E introduced a new series called Formula E: Accelerate using the online game rFactor 2. The first season of six races was held between January and March 2021. All Formula E teams participated in the series.[82][83] The series currently consists of professional sim racers racing virtually on selected race tracks from the season, with the events being called “majors”, before the finale on the London Circuit.
Support Series
FE School Series
During the first season, the FE School Series for student teams that developed their own electric car took place as support races at selected events.[84] The series was not continued during the second season.[85]
Formula E and Jaguar ran a production-based support series with Jaguar I-Pacebattery electricSUVs.[88] The series was called the I-Pace eTrophy and ran together with Formula E's fifth and sixth seasons (December 2018 to summer 2020). In May 2020, Jaguar announced the cancellation of the series, due to financial issues caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic.
NXT Gen Cup
In 2024 Formula E announced the NXT Gen Cup, founded in 2023, and the world's first 100% electric junior (ages 15–25) touring car series with both male and female drivers, would join as support series to the championship.[89] The NXT Gen Cup is set to feature at all four European rounds of season 10 in Misano, Monaco, Berlin and London.[90]
Up until Season 9, the world feed was presented frequently by Jack Nicholls and Dario Franchitti, with Nicki Shields acting as pit lane reporter. However, just before the 2023 Jakarta E-Prix, Nicholls was fired after allegations of inappropriate behaviour towards women, and Ben Edwards, who had already done motorsport commentary for 3 decades, replaced him in the commentary booth from Jakarta E-Prix until the Portland E-Prix. Later that season, Tom Brooks, known as "the Voice of Gran Turismo" became the main commentator of Formula E from the Rome E-Prix onwards.
Formula E debuted its own documentary series, called 'Unplugged' on 22 November 2021, which was similar to Formula One's NetflixDrive to Survive series. The series gave a behind-the-scenes look on every driver’s journey through the 2020–21 season. Unplugged returned for a second season in March 2023, showcasing the 2021–22 season, and for a third season in January 2024 showcasing the 2022–23 season.[95]
Gallery
Track signage highlighting sustainability.
E-Village, 2015.
At the podium in 2017.
Alejandro Agag (far right) helped to create the championship series.
_at_2017_Berlin_ePrix.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
