MOTORSPORT: Extra spark for electric racing

The fifth season of the all-electric international single-seater city street racing series kicks off next weekend, ironically in Riyadh – the capital of the world’s largest oil producer, Saudi Arabia.

Formula E will introduce its Gen2 cars, with twice the energy storage capacity of the Gen1s, ending the need for mid-race car swaps for the drivers.

The new cars still have a generic chassis made by France’s Spark Racing Technology but their own powertrains now.

They have 250kW of power (although the maximum is only allowed in qualifying), they accelerate from 0-100km/h in 2.8 seconds and have a top speed of 280km/h.

FE has many more car manufacturers involved than Formula 1 and the avid support of the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) because of its relevance to everyday motoring, but fans haven’t exactly embraced the silent racing, with the most noise when tyres screech.

The category has already been to lots of the world’s great cities, although once was often enough for some of the venues.

One thing FE has over F1 though is that the race results aren’t anywhere near as predictable.

Events are held on a single day, although the season finale is a double-header weekend in New York.

Apart from the ‘fanboost’ FE has always had, allowing favoured drivers to use extra power based on the votes of fans, all drivers will now be able to access more power, or an ‘attack mode’, by passing through an activation zone marked out and visible on the circuit for spectators and TV viewers.

When a car passes through the activation zone the driver will be able to use 225kW of power rather than the 200kW allowed the rest of the race.

Lights on the halo will tell watchers when a car is in ‘attack mode’, which inevitably will deplete its energy store faster.

BMW becomes a fully-fledged manufacturer in the series this season, rather than simply a backer of America’s Andretti Autosports.

Nissan has taken the place of its related marque Renault, which along with Audi has been the most prominent manufacturer in the category.

Porsche and Mercedes are set to join in season six (2019-20). Mercedes is already associated with the Monaco-based Venturi team – which is headed by Susie Wolff, wife of the three-pointed star’s motorsport chief and F1 team principal Toto Wolff.

HWA, the specialist tuning operation that has been the most successful team in the German touring car championship (DTM) running Mercs, becomes FE’s 11th team this season, running as a Venturi customer.

Mercedes says FE will ‘complement’ rather than replace its super-successful F1 hybrid activity.

“F1 is clearly the top class in racing, but electrification happens and it is a good message for every brand,” Toto Wolff says.

“Three years ago I would not have given FE a chance, but that has changed. It addresses a young, urban target group. The series creators have done a good job.

“For us it’s like a start-up we’re interested in. But it is complementary to F1 for us, not a competition.”

Many of the drivers have F1 experience, with the latest addition being Brazilian veteran Felipe Massa at Venturi, which is co-owned by Hollywood actor Leonardo di Caprio.

Chinese-owned Techeetah (pronounced Ta-chi-ta) produced the FE champion driver last season, former Red Bull contemporary of Daniel Ricciardo, Frenchman Jean-Eric Vergne.

Techeeta’s team principal is Australian Mark Preston, a long-time F1 engineer, and it’s aligned with DS Automobiles, the premium French brand spun out of Citroen.

Australia has never been on the FE calendar, although the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) supports the idea of a round in Adelaide – as do industrialist Sanjeev Gupta, who wants to build electric road cars in South Australia, and technology entrepreneur Valdis Dunis.

Although Saudi Arabia is renowned for its oil exports, FE founder and chief executive, Spaniard Alejandro Agag, says it is a country concentrating on the development of new technologies, renewable energies and electric vehicles.

FE and the kingdom’s sports authority and national motor federation have struck a 10-year agreement, with Sunday’s race to be on a 2.495km circuit in the ancient surroundings of Riyadh’s Ad Diriyah district.

“Saudi Arabia is looking to the future and Formula E is the motorsport of the future,” says Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Faisal al Saud, vice-chairman of the country’s sports authority.

Agag says FE and the FIA’s long-term priorities are to contain costs and be road-relevant.

There had been talk that FE’s Gen3 cars scheduled to be introduced after three seasons of Gen2 be four-wheel-drive, but Agag says: “The first four-wheel drive car was on the road in 1901, so where is the innovation with four-wheel drive?

"Super-fast charging can change the world of electric cars. You go to the electric station, whatever you call it, and in two minutes your battery is full.

"That will be road-relevant, so it's very clear to me the roads we need to take and the roads we don't need to take.”

Formula E 2018-19 teams and drivers:

Virgin Racing Spark-Audi Audi e-Tron FE05
Sam Bird (Great Britain)
Robin Frijns (Netherlands)

Jaguar Racing Spark-Jaguar Jaguar I-Type III
Nelson Piquet Jnr (Brazil)
Mitch Evans (New Zealand)

HWA Racelab Spark-Venturi Venturi VFE05
Stoffel Vandoorne (Belgium)
Gary Paffett (Great Britain)

Dragon Racing Spark–Penske] Penske EV-3
Maximilian Gunther (Germany)
Jose María Lopez (Argentina)

NIO Spark–NIO NIO Sport 004
Tom Dillmann (France)
Oliver Turvey (Great Britain)

Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler Spark–Audi Audi e-Tron FE05
Lucas di Grassi (Brazil)
Daniel Abt (Germany)

Venturi Spark–Venturi Venturi VFE05
Felipe Massa (Brazil)
Edoardo Mortara (Switzerland)

Nissan e.dams Spark–Nissan Nissan IM01
Oliver Rowland (Great Britain)
Sebastien Buemi (Switzerland)

DS Techeetah Spark–DS Automobiles] DS E-Tense FE
Jean-Eric Vergne (France)
Andre Lotterer (Germany)

BMW Andretti Spark–BMW] BMW IFE.18
Alexander Sims (Great Britain)
António Felix da Costa (Portugal)

Mahindra Racing Spark–Mahindra Mahindra M5Electro
Jerome d'Ambrosio (Belgium)
Pascal Wehrlein (Germany)

Formula E 2018-2019 calendar:
December 16 - Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
January 12 - Marrakesh, Morocco
January 26 - Santiago, Chile
February 17 - Mexico City
March 10 - Hong Kong
March 24 - Sanya, China
April 13 - Rome, Italy
April 27 - Paris, France
May 11 - Monaco
May 25 - Berlin, Germany
June 22 - Bern, Switzerland
July 13-14 - New York, USA