Formula E returned to London after a 5 year absence
and took no half measures in making sure everyone took notice. It could have raced on the streets,
it could have gone back to the a park. But instead the circus has chosen… here!
With a massive 22 corners, this 2.25 kilometres track sits literally in and around the ExCeL
exhibition centre, planted in the artificial docks in the Borough of Newham.
Flanked by City Airport and the wonderful driverless DLR, across from the giant dome
of the O2 and the sky-scraping trading block of Docklands, this particular area of London
is home to a diversity of happenings and people.
Including me. I live literally up the road.
As we’ll soon see, this track is weird and fascinating and a hell of a project to put
together. With a huge exhibition centre in the middle,
railway tracks bordering the north and water to the south, they’ve had to do quite a
lot in a surprisingly constrained amount of space.
Why did they do it here? And, more importantly, HOW did they pull it off?
So join me, won’t you, as we discover how the hell you transform part of a city into
a Formula E race. ,
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year subscription.. Nice! Now, back to the weirdness of London...
Aside from a couple of exceptions, particularly around navigating the pandemic, Formula E
- as part of its mission - takes place in cities, not on custom built, ready-to-go tracks.
And with this comes logistical headaches and a LOT of planning as cities… tend not to
have a lot of free space lying around that can easily be transformed into racing facilities.
I spoke to Oli MCCrudden, Formula E’s City Development Director and the Event Director
for London.
[Oli McCrudden] And you were absolutely right; the logistics, what's the space available?
Can we build a track, but more importantly, can we also build a pit lane? And if we can't
build a pit lane, is there anything novel that we can do about it? Like sticking it
in an exhibition center in Bern or building a remote pit lane and paddock in Montreal
and doing things like that.
Formula E likes its circuits to be 2 and half to 3 kilometres long, with tracks wide enough
to go racing in a safe and entertaining way. [Oli McCrudden] We know very well the parameters
of the car. So we start to look at some of the speed impacts and speed simulations to,
to understand, you know, how safe the track design is going to be and we work closely
with the FIA circuit commission on those details. And then, of course, there’s everything
surrounding the racetrack itself. The grandstands, the Allianz E Village, hospitality… all
the things that bring fans and partners to the event and, essentially, pay for a lot
of what they do.
In its first two seasons, Formula E used to race in Battersea Park
Bumpy, tight, very little room for overtaking. Though it did provide an incredible season
finale as the two championship contenders collided on the first lap.
Wandsworth council loved hosting the race as it netted them almost $3M over the first
two seasons, but local residents were in arms - not over the sound of the cars, of course,
but the constant TV helicopters covering the action. After a bit of a vicious fight, the
race was discontinued after just two seasons.
So what brought us to ExCeL? Well interestingly, there had been sketches drawn up around the
ExCeL centre from as far back as Season 2 as Formula E became aware their time at Battersea
Park was becoming untenable. [Oli McCrudden] So we were looking around
even back then because we knew we needed an alternative. It was a bit too much for everybody
to get their heads around. to be honest with you. It's a little bit too out there for the
FIA and us to look at and go, yep. Running a track through a building. It was just a
bit too much. Formula E continued to explore ways of returning
to racing in London, launching feasibility studies on around 14 locations, including
Alexandra Palace, RAF Northholt and Greenwich Park
[Oli McCrudden] We had a great one around St James's Park, which would be with the palace
in the background and it's, you know, our plan was to, for the paddock down on on horse
guards parade and you could finish the race you got under Admiralty Arch turn left onto
Trafalgar square and do the podium and have the village there and, and, you know, we,
we worked on that for quite a bit of time and we were looking at how to make sure that
the Changing of the Guard fitted in and it worked, you know, everything was there and
unfortunately the Royal Parks felt that that was a little bit too far as well.
But as they kept balancing the good and the bad across the many proposed projects in London,
they kept coming back here, to the ExCeL Centre. [Oli McCrudden] You know, that it's not a
typical racetrack, it's not a typical venue, but once we had figured out how we could get
the required grip levels inside the Hall and that everything would work inside that part
of the track.
There are two standout features of this circuit. The most obvious is that part of the circuit
is indoors - cars without emissions easily allow for this! And this provides tremendous
and interesting opportunities – and not just as a place to keep the fans and VIPs
dry when the British weather starts to play up!
[Oli McCrudden] We can do some amazing things with the grid, you know, and we are planning
on doing it here this year. You know, when I was in there about half an hour ago, and
some of the lights were being tested above it, you know, we could create something really
spectacular that hadn't been seen before in motor sport, notwithstanding the fact that
it's a grid and a pit lane inside a building, you know, you start to really jazz up the
grid process.
But bringing the racing into the Exhibition Centre comes with its own problems to solve.
The floors here are way too slippery.
For a racing car.
[Oli McCrudden] So the floor of the halls are a pre-tension, concrete slab basically
and as the venue – they had painted it, so it's a nice sort of shiny black smooth
floor, and you're absolutely right. The grip levels are not appropriate for racing.
So the technical team, including Simon Gibbons, the track architect, set to work on finding
solutions. But where do you start ? This still has to be a working exhibition centre when
it’s not running a race one weekend a year. What do you do about this shiny concrete?
[Oli McCrudden] You couldn’t dig into it and of course we couldn't just lay new asphalt
down on the top because we'd have to skim it off year on year. Sustainability wise,
that's not the way to go and we can’t leave it in place, of course, because the venue
need to push stuff over it. New exhibitions have to take place on top of it.
So, in the areas where the track and the pitlane were going to go, they captive blasted 2.5
millimetres from the surface of the concrete.
They then lay down a bonding agent across the shaved concrete and essentially spray
emery over the top. Emery is a very abrasive rock, finely ground down to a sand-like fineness
– you’ll often see it on certain grades of sandpaper.
The emery then is bonded to the concrete and then the whole thing is sealed in with a polymer
coating and thus we have a high grip surface that meets the FIA’s required Slip Ratio
Value for the racing circuit, without disrupting the venue for the rest of the year.
[Oli McCrudden] And when you run your hand over it, you need to be a little careful because
it can take the skin off your fingers. It's that abrasive.
The second stand out feature of this track is that it takes place over two floors. The
grid, the pitlane and the first 3 corners are all on the first floor of the ExCeL centre
(or the second floor if you use the sensible, non-British way of counting floors).
The cars enter the ExCeL via this ramp at turn 20 at the end of the track.
They then exit out there at turn 4, before negotiating a very tight turn 5, diving down
another ramp back to ground level. [Oli McCrudden] It was, it was a challenge
and we had to widen things there because there are kerbs that were in place that, that meant
we needed to take those out and steal a bit of width where we could do the, the challenge
on that particular ramp is that it's, again, it's cast and there were weight loading limits
on it.
So the run from turn 4 all the way down the ramp couldn’t be tarmacked over as that
would be way too heavy, so two years ago they gave that whole section the shave and emery
treatment just as they did inside. [Oli McCrudden] So it has been driven over
constantly by trucks and things going into that venue. So we're fairly confident that
it is durable.
And having removed some of the kerbing to add to the width around this section, Formula
E consulted with the FIA and Motorsport UK to get agreement that it would all work and
they were good to go!
The eagle-eyed among you may have noticed the track being used at this years E Prix
is different to the design originally released when the ExCeL project was announced.
For starters, the double hairpin at turn 10 has been reversed.
[Oli McCrudden] The sort of hairpin section on the north side: I’ll tell you an interesting
story on that one. So my father was called Stuart McCruddon.
My father was a racing driver raced in British saloon cars. He won the 24 hour race at Snetterton
driving with Matthew Neill back in 1990. He got me into motor sport and was in it.
And he passed away a couple of years ago before you could see this track coming together.
But I knew that I needed a bit of extra length on the race track and I thought, “well I'll
put big S in there and have it a little bit In Memoriam of the old man”. But then we
showed it to the FIA and appropriate given the old man was quite quick, they said it
was far too fast. So we had to change that set up.
[Stuart Taylor] The problem was the original run through this section here was far too
fast with it’s quick entry and narrow track and the FIA flagged potential impact speeds
of cars losing it in this section. [Oli McCrudden] So we needed to slow the cars
down and [I forget the number, but] just that sort of left-right before you get into that
section there, that was put in because the FIA wanted to get the cars to slow down a
little bit before they go in there, hence we re-profile the S into a very conveniently
on brand “e” and put that in the right place.
So that's the reason behind it and it all comes down to those parameters much like in
the car park.
This East car park section used to fling the cars left before sending them into a series
of open right handers, and a fairly wide hairpin left before a fast right hander sent them
up the ramp and back inside.
Now they’ve since transformed Turn 16 into this more dramatic hairpin which allows the
cars to regenerate energy, go for an overtake, maybe take this attack mode.
They then go into a new chicane designed to slow the cars down before they go up that
ramp and back into the hall
But this was reimagined following discussions with the drivers, the designers and the FIA
to transform turn 15 into a proper hairpin with some hard braking and opportunity for
overtaking as well as throwing in a chicane to slow the cars down before they head up
the ramp into turn 21.
Now, some Formula E circuits are fixed to whatever public roads they choose as their
circuit map, but others, like New York, Berlin and a significant portion of this new London
track get to invent a layout from their imagination within a given open space
And as we’ve seen, several variations were imagined in the open spaces like this car
park or the area behind the exhibition centre where the double-hairpin sits.
I asked Oli about the differences between essentially drawing a track over existing
streets and using open spaces to create your own track from scratch.
[Oli McCrudden] It's interesting. I mean that we started out and it was all CBD street race.
That's smashed into the, into the center. It’s disruptive, everyone takes notice and
it, and it was fantastic and it was, it was very, it was spectacular.
But unlike series that just rock up to a permanent track and plug into all their facilities…
organising a street race is a LOT of work. [Oli McCrudden] You have to build everything,
the blocks, the fences, you have to cut the timing lines in the streets. You have to build
all the tents where hospitality is, the garages, everything needs to go in there.
And to do that in an urban environment is a big ask and it takes incredible planning.
So there’s a balance the series has to make in terms of making their work a little more
manageable if they can give themselves a little more space and potentially operate in a less
disruptive way.
Not that they want to leave the city - part of Formula E’s mission is to demonstrate
electric vehicles right in urban areas, where they’re needed most. It more... just placing
themselves more conveniently if need be. [Oli McCrudden] We need a bit more space and
you – you noticed – we will sort of migrate a little bit away from that CBD to these exhibition
type areas, maybe to stadia where there is some infrastructure that already exists, where
there's a bit of space. We're not giving up on street circuits altogether.
You know, we love it. If it can be done, we absolutely want to do it
And with that space comes the opportunity for change. And this finalised layout, as
I described earlier, in the East car park is the perfect configuration for grandstands,
TV cameras and - in 2021 - Attack Mode. Had we been in a normal year free of Covid, Attack
Mode would likely have been up there, inside the exhibition hall.
[Oli McCrudden] It touches on another point in terms of spectators and spectator numbers.
If we were in a position to have a full spectator load inside the hall, then I suspect we were
going to put it on turn 22 on that last corner, so the people that are in there can see that
and experience it. The truth is we can't do that under COVID.
We can't bring people inside a big hall – not withstanding any “Freedom Day” that may
or may not exist, right?
So putting attack mode here at turn 16 – the big final hairpin – makes a lot of sense
in terms of the viewing spectators, expected action and for capturing on live TV.
And speaking of TV - when designing a city circuit with all the constraints that brings
- as well as finding places for the fans, the teams, event operations and marshalling…
you also have to consider that it’s a TV show. And you need to be able to broadcast
every aspect of the race live and clearly.
And here at the ExCeL, there are some challenges. Broadcasting both inside and outside with
all the variations in light that brings - which is not only an interesting challenge from
a technical standpoint but from a narrative standpoint as well.
You want your audience to follow the race but the lighting can make the cars look very
different indoors –
– and outdoors. And - if you’re more of a casual fan - FE needs to make sure you can
quickly identify the cars inside and out.
There’s also the issue of turns 6, 7 and 8, which are not only quite tight from a driving
AND filming perspective - it’s also much darker than the open part of the track.
[Oli McCrudden] Once we get a track design that's essentially approved by the FIA, one
of our first ports of call is to Formula E TV and we speak to our director and we look
at those camera positions that he might want, we have a walk around with him and the team
and we start looking at it and then of course here, because you'll go again inside and in
that particular little sequence down underneath the “undercroft” as we call it the lighting
levels are not right.
So for the HD cameras, you need 2000 Lux for light levels.
Lux is a unit of visible light intensity over an area. It’s a logarithmic scale, not linear
so the numbers across the scale appear to increase rapidly, but for some context
A clear sky on a summer day. That’s probably about 50,000 lux.
If it’s a cloudy day, we’re looking at about 5000 Lux.
A good, well lit office. More like 500 Lux.
So what do they do inside the Halls and in that little chicane underpass? They light
it up like Singapore!
So did they succeed in rebooting the London E Prix at the ExCeL centre?
Well, I think some pretty dodgy racing and even dodgier rule bending overshadowed something
quite incredible, honestly. Formula E - in that was that Formula E is
wont to do - turned a frankly bonkers idea on paper into a reality.
And we got races that saw strategy, overtaking, some nonsense, and a new winner to celebrate.
I will imagine there will be some tweaks around energy limits and that chaotic double hairpin
before we go green again next year but I have to say… well done.
You pulled off an indoor/outdoor, upstairs/downstairs race. Somehow.
And the funny thing is, the next visitors to the ExCeL might never even know we were
there.