What is Formula E? I thought this was something most people knew but it would seem that some people including Elon Musk have overlooked it and that’s okay, if you do want to know what Formula E is, (Elon I’m looking at you) please keep reading.
Formula E is a single seater racing championship using electric vehicles or EV. Ideated in 2011 by Alejandro Agag, Formula E founder and the former FIA President, Jean Todt, the series became reality just 3 years later in 2014 when the first Formula E race took place in Beijing with Lucas Di Grassi becoming the very first Formula E race winner! Di Grassi still races in Formula E and is currently with Mahindra Racing alongside his teammate Oliver Rowland.
Formula E is the first racing series to become net zero, emission free racing! These days things like this are so important for our planet, if we want to keep the world as beautiful and full of life as it is today then more series needs to take a leaf out of Formula E’s book! This said, there are some series that are working towards lowering their emissions, one of which being Extreme E (another racing series I love watching!). The drivers race the Gen3 car, a light and sustainable car designed specifically for street racing. A race weekend looks fairly similar to Formula 1 with free practice, qualifying and of course the race as well as the same amount of points awarded to drivers from 1st to 10th.
Formula E has two practice sessions lasting 30 minutes rather than the 3 sessions lasting an hour they have in Formula 1. The biggest difference however, I would say is the qualifying format, they begin by splitting the drivers into 2 groups of 11 based on the Drivers World Championship standings. They then have a 10 minute session to set the fastest lap time! The fastest 4 from each group progress to the duels stage and quarter finals, now this is where it might start to get a bit confusing…
The fastest driver from each of the 2 groups go head to head to achieve the fastest lap time as do the other 6 that make it to the duels. The winners of the semi-finals then battle it out for fastest lap in the finals and the driver that wins the final gets the Julius Baer Pole Position, earning themselves an extra 3 points. The rest of the grid is then determined by the results of the rest of the duels. As for the drivers that didn’t make it to the duels, if the polesitter comes from group 1 the drivers from that group will fill the odd numbered positions on the grid and group 2 will fill the even and vice versa. For example, the polesitter is from group 1 and so the driver that was 5th fastest will start 9th (after the top 8 that progressed to the duels) and the 5th fastest from group 2 will start 10th and so on.
Still following? In case you aren’t or I’ve done a terrible job of explaining (or even got some elements wrong because I’ve confused myself by trying to get the Formula E qualifying format in writing) here’s a diagram that will hopefully make things clearer!
(Image from Formula E website)
The 2023 season is made up of 16 rounds in 11 different countries, it began with the Hankook Mexico City E-prix with Brit Jake Dennis taking the win, racing for Avalanche Andretti Formula E. For the most recent race, we saw the drivers take Monaco with New Zealander Nick Cassidy coming out on top with Envision Racing! The next round is the Jakarta E-prix in Indonesia on the 3rd of June.
Will you be watching?
will for sure be watching!