The new Formula E season was supposed to begin today on the streets of Santiago in Chile.
However with the Covid-19 pandemic continuing to cause widespread disruption, the double-header event has been postponed until later in the year.The seventh running of the all-electric series is now due to start in Saudi Arabia next month with a double-header night race on February 25th and 26th.
It’s an auspicious year for Formula E, which has been officially granted world championship status for the first time. But logistical problems around its calendar caused by the pandemic are just the first of the challenges it has to overcome.
Uncertain schedule
Every championship has its own difficulties under Covid-19 restrictions but Formula E’s street races are particularly tricky to arrange behind closed doors, being exposed by their very nature. As a consequence, the latest calendar was planned to be released in tranches, with the double-headers in Santiago and Riyadh as the only initially confirmed rounds.
However the rocketing rate of Covid-19 infections since the end of last year in Britain, where Formula E and most teams are based, and consequent restrictions on staff and media there put paid to the Santiago round, despite freight already having been packed from the December test in Valencia. The second double-header, in Ad Diriyah, was therefore confirmed as the season opener, but no other events have yet been announced and the provisional calendar has been scrapped.
It’s possible Formula E will need to resort to permanent venues in order to ensure events can take place. However a Marrakech double-header on the Moulay el Hassan street circuit is understood to be on the table.
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World championship status
Formula E has fulfilled the requirements to count as a world championship (multiple manufacturers, racing across several continents) several years ago. Formal confirmation of its status followed pressure from manufacturers and a change of leadership at Formula E, although in effect nothing changes but the trophy.
Cost saving
‘Gen 2 Evo’, a development of Formula E’s three-year-old second-generation cars, was intended to be introduced this year. However the alterations, including changes to front wings which were previously so rigid they invariably damaged rivals’ diffusers, has been completely written off to avoid development costs. Additionally, teams can only homologate one new powertrain design over the course of this season and next (between now and mid-2022) to further limit expense.
Additionally, spare parts and telemetry – already very limited in the series – have been further restricted to control costs. At Valencia testing, the (generally unpopular) false chicane on the start/finish was removed this year to spare front wing damage.
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Software restrictions
Powertrain management software updates are crucially important in Formula E, often referred to as similar to F1’s aero upgrades over a season.
Different circuits have different challenges, from the aggressive heat and heavy braking of Santiago to Berlin’s bevelled runway concrete. Powertrain requirements change accordingly, to manage thermal limits on regeneration and maximise the efficiency of lifting and coasting, among other things.
There have been rumours for some time about the way Formula E teams use software, for instance that some teams were using the Gen 2 brake-by-wire system to effectively introduce torque vectoring to optimise traction. At the time it was covered over by controversy about Nissan’s powertrain but the championship and FIA have remained suspicious about programming, from driver aides to the alleged use of local hotel rooms as data centres by some manufacturers.
This season no software updates will be allowed over a race weekend. Whether that will make any difference or only add to teams’ already fraught logistics remains to be seen.
Manufacturer changes
However, plenty of other manufacturers are still interested in Formula E. As the German giants bow out, expect to see announcements from, in particular, Asian marques – Korean brands Hyundai and Kia are amongst rumoured entrants. Meanwhile McLaren has secured an option to join the grid in 2023.
F1 career graveyard no more
When Formula E was first announced many of its seats were taken up by ex-Formula 1 drivers. But the days of teams snapping up all F1 talent as soon as they appeared on the market seem to be behind us.
Ex-F1 drivers are expensive and the past years have indicated there’s little advantage to having them over a long-term GT driver or up-and-coming talent from junior series. This isn’t to say recent F1 converts haven’t had success in the series, but a smaller number have made the switch.
2021 Formula E drivers and teams
| Number | Driver | Team |
|---|---|---|
| 13 | Antonio Felix da Costa | DS Techeetah |
| 25 | Jean-Eric Vergne | DS Techeetah |
| 23 | Sebastien Buemi | Nissan e.Dams |
| 22 | Oliver Rowland | Nissan e.Dams |
| 5 | Stoffel Vandoorne | Mercedes |
| 17 | Nyck de Vries | Mercedes |
| 4 | Robin Frijns | Envision Virgin |
| 37 | Nick Cassidy | Envision Virgin |
| 28 | Maximilian Guenther | BMWi Andretti |
| 27 | Jake Dennis | BMWi Andretti |
| 11 | Lucas di Grassi | Audi |
| 33 | Rene Rast | Audi |
| 20 | Mitch Evans | Jaguar |
| 10 | Sam Bird | Jaguar |
| 36 | Andre Lotterer | Porsche |
| 99 | Pascal Wehrlein | Porsche |
| 94 | Alexander Lynn | Mahindra |
| 29 | Alexander Sims | Mahindra |
| 48 | Edoardo Mortara | Venturi |
| 71 | Norman Nato | Venturi |
| 7 | Sergio Sette Camara | Dragon |
| 6 | Nico Mueller | Dragon |
| 8 | Oliver Turvey | NIO |
| 88 | Tom Blomqvist | NIO |
Formula E’s season starts with two races on February 25th and 26th in Ad Diriyah, Saudi Arabia.
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Formula E
- Wehrlein wins second Misano race after Rowland’s last lap heartache
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- Da Costa becomes sixth different winner in six rounds in first Misano race
- Aron and Eriksson to replace WEC-bound Buemi and Frijns at Envision in Berlin
- Guenther wins in Tokyo after Rowland gives up the lead
Browse all Formula E articles
Retired (@jeff1s)
16th January 2021, 10:31
My appeal for the series has faded after season 2.
As much as I love open wheel racing I just don’t find enthusiasm for a category I was accredited to report on.
I follow F4 to F1, Indylights to Indycar and WEC to Nascar but following a series competing into narrow street circuits only with large cars and no view for spectators/freelancers but advertising is asking a bit too much to petrol-electrical heads.
Patrick (@paeschli)
16th January 2021, 10:36
So there’s even less reason to watch it now vs 5 years ago?
Dave
16th January 2021, 11:38
I hope Formula E will be bigger in the future.
RL
16th January 2021, 12:25
Are they still into the gimmicky fan stuff?
Love the idea of an electrical single seater, but FE will just float along until it races in circuits, not some poor cousins of Sochi and Albert Park (the former isn’t particularly a great circuit which proves my point). I feel like last year it was eclipsed by F2, having more anonymous drivers won’t help.
Balue (@balue)
17th January 2021, 12:55
+1
MJA
16th January 2021, 12:41
The problem is, as long as you have a single chassis for all teams, there’s not really much point in F1 outfits like McLaren and Ferrari making the jump other than for e-exposure.
For me, the cars need to be more powerful, faster (hopefully we will get there soon) they need to have proper tyres and we need to see some scope for individuality (not as much as F1 or it will just become “spend to win”).
anon
17th January 2021, 13:52
MJA, and yet McLaren is involved in IndyCar, which has had a spec chassis for even longer than Formula E – should they not be bothering to compete in that series either?
MJA
17th January 2021, 22:58
@Anon Apples and oranges. The Indy presence raises the brand value in the US.
Plus, it’s the premier open wheel racing series in the US. Formula E isn’t the prime open wheel racing series anywhere.
The Ranting Brummie
16th January 2021, 13:02
Formula E will never interest me until they race on real circuits, with real tyres.
Two simple things.
Jack (@jackisthestig)
16th January 2021, 16:56
Does anyone here watch Formula E with genuine enthusiasm?
F1 frog (@f1frog)
16th January 2021, 18:16
Yes, I enjoy Formula e. It is not as good as Formula 1, or the BTCC, but it is still exciting to watch. I think many F1 fans dislike Formula e because it is very different to Formula 1, whereas F2, F3 etc. are more similar, but I think it is better that it is different. We don’t want all motorsports to be the same, do we? An important reason why many people seem to hate Formula e is because of fanboost, and while fanboost is a stupid gimmick, I can assure you that it very rarely makes any difference to a result, and many drivers never even bother to use it. Attack mode, on the other hand, is a really good feature, and is one of the reasons why I think the second generation of Formula e is better than the first.
Duncan Idaho (@didaho)
17th January 2021, 1:47
I’ve been known to watch every race in a season – on replay. I really appreciate some things about it: attack mode, Franchitti’s commentary, the spec series nature of the racing and the aggression level of some of the drivers to counteract that. In contrast to F1’s ongoing requirement to limit speed and downforce to maintain safety and the show, FE’s development is just starting up a long curve for endurance and speed – hopefully in the next 3-5yrs they can migrate to open tracks (I’m fine with a mid-race battery/car swap or two if it allows even just full Monaco) and allow competitive development to differentiate the cars.
I could live without Fanboost and Jack Nicholls’ pitch tomorrow.
Aiii (@)
16th January 2021, 17:13
Isn’t it technically a worse thing to not be a place for old F1 drivers, but rather one in which all the drivers never even made the cut to get into F1 in the first place? There’s good drivers in FE, sure, but there’s also a lot of, lets say, not as good drivers in FE.
Not that that really matters, personalities are personalities regardless on level of talent and if the entire grid is roughly the same quality, it ultimately evens out for the spectacle of it all.
But FE’s real problem to this day is that it can’t be taken seriously as a competition in my opinion. The tracks look low rent with over half of them almost literally being on abandonded parking lots, it just comes off awful looking. Those tracks just being somewhat randomly placed gates and curbs just doesn’t inspire anything. Now Covid has normalised the no-crowd type of racing, but Formula E -again, especially on these industry-park tracks- too often has such a lifeless look to it. Just nobody around. Last year they started in Marroco to the sound of literal crickets. Who gets excited for that?
Add to that the gimmicky nature of how they chose to do it, with fan boosts, attack modes, and -luckily retired- switching cars mid-race, it’s just such a tough sell and it’s no wonder tv stations aren’t queueing up to watch it.
In the coming years it’s sink or swim, they need to upgrade the tech to the point where the cars are quick enough to run real tracks. They need to find a way to become a support series for F1 so they can lift on it’s popularity and have some exciting rookies join the ranks, rather than just having older drivers (De Vries and maybe Wehrlein are way more exciting to me than a Lotterer or Bird will ever be), and they need to rid themselves of all the gimmicks. Let the racing speak for itself.
Hazel Southwell (@hazelsouthwell)
16th January 2021, 20:06
Marrakech is a very well-attended race with a packed eVillage; we do start very early in the morning there for FP1 and there are quite a lot of cicadas in the scrubland on the edge of the Sahara but otherwise that’s not a very credulous claim unless the broadcaster you watched was going for atmosphere.
(& I have to say I personally get quite excited about the sounds of dawn breaking over the Sahara to the backdrop of Marrakech’s ambient noise; it’s staggeringly beautiful and extremely atmospheric, watching the light creep over the track as the morning mist lifts and long shadows turn into sharp lines of red sandstone, dust swirling before some nearly-tonne race car screams a line of Michelin smear through it)
Aiii (@)
16th January 2021, 20:28
My apologies, the season opener is in Saudi-Arabia, not Marocco, I mixed the two in my head, my bad.
However, I went specifically on YouTube to check on the Saudi race last year to make sure, but yes, it is exactly as I remember. All but one shot during a full lap shows a spectator stand, and it is virtually empty. Most of the race I am looking at iron gates that surround the track, with buildings and walls almost right next to them. Now there might be five more stands and maybe they’re packed. But I don’t see them on the broadcast, nor do I hear a crowd during said broadcast. And that’s the point here, part of sports spectacle is a crowd emoting to what’s happening. It is why sports during Covid feels weird even now. Even if they pipe in crowd noise. It’s not the same.
Formula E on TV kinda feels like I’m watching e-sports instead of regular motorsport.
Hazel Southwell (@hazelsouthwell)
17th January 2021, 12:15
Riyadh last year had a huge ticketing problem that the organisers acknowledged; basically that it was too long in the sun – Riyadh is unbelievably hot, even in winter – as a whole day including the race + concerts, which undeniably were the big draw for a lot of the young crowds. Thousands of people arrived for the post-race concerts but there was a fraction of that number there during the day, the shift to a night race is one of the ways of conceivably fixing it.
FE does have attendance problems, especially in places like Punta del Este where we race off-season in a near-empty town but given the limitations on placing grandstands in cities, it does sell out most places. Rome and Paris go in minutes after they go on sale, London took a few hours with a large crowd. You might not like FE but lots of people genuinely do.
Retired (@jeff1s)
18th January 2021, 6:22
Paris and Rome go on a minute it’s exact, but walk through the spectators to hear the fiasco of people stuck behind fences covered with advertising. People can’t see ship and will not return.
Retired (@jeff1s)
17th January 2021, 7:53
Your second paragraph describes your love for travel, not for the sport.
Hazel Southwell (@hazelsouthwell)
17th January 2021, 12:12
Yes famously no one cares where circuits are, which is why Le Mans or Spa have never been romanticised and everywhere might as well be held in a car park.
Retired (@jeff1s)
17th January 2021, 17:52
Car parks, exactly where Formula E is racing.
Cristiano Ferreira
16th January 2021, 17:47
I’m baffled that somehow this crap series managed to be granted “World Championship” status.
Well it doesn’t matter, because FE is still inferior to F2, F3 and below.
Hazel Southwell (@hazelsouthwell)
17th January 2021, 12:16
It’s because it fulfilled the FIA requirements and then paid them some money.