Season 5 of Formula E starts this weekend (or December 15th if you’re watching this
in the future from the comfort of futuristic 2019 home). As the series have been given
a revamp with the introduction of a new, Gen 2 car and a twiddle with the rules, now seems
as good a time as any to give an introduction to this fun and extremely curious racing series.
There are some that seem to have a reactive distaste for Formula E as they approach it
from a Formula 1 mindset and see just slower cars and hear the absence of that petrolly
growl. But Formula E is a whole different game and plays out in a whole different way,
going out of its way to bring new ideas to the table.
Let’s start with the cars. Everyone uses the same Gen2 chassis, which
is designed to be stylish and streamlined. The wheels are covered to massively reduce
the way spinning wheels can throw chaos and inefficiency into the airflow around the car.
There’s no real rear or front wing - only minor elements instead.
Remember, the power delivery from electric engines is constantly being developed and
pushed forward, so in order to get the most of of these cutting-edge power units, the
cars should be as slippery as possible. Instead, the cars have massive diffusers,
focussing more on capturing downforce from the underfloor instead. This means the cars
are much less sensitive to dirty air and can run with noses much closer to tails than their
Formula 1 cousins. This is useful as they’re often competing
on tight, twisty street circuits without the acres of open run offs seen in other sports.
In these scenarios it also helps that the cars don’t have those traditional single-seater
front wings as the racers tend to be full of pushing and shoving between the barriers
and you certainly don’t want your nose popping off on lap one.
The electric power units are capped at a maximum power output of 250 kiloWatts, which is the
equivalent of about 335 brake horsepower. But depending on which session they are running
in and what bonus scenarios are activated, the power unit may be be limited to different
maximum levels, as we’ll see. So a Formula E has a top speed of about 280
kilometres per hour but is torquey as all hell and can get to 100 kilometres an hour
in easily under 3 seconds. So they tend to be a lot of fun, very lively and pretty racey.
So, say you fancy watching a Formula E race to find out what it’s all about. How does
it all work then? What will you expect to see when you tune in?
Well, a Formula E event is run across a single day. Sometimes there will be a double-header
when two races are run back-to-back in the same city one day after another but each day
is treated as a separate “event”. A driver can only use two full sets of tyres
across the entire event. There are no wet and dry tyres, just the one type of treaded
Michelin tyre to cover all whether types. Except ice, a blizzard or monsoon, I guess.
But those conditions haven’t come up yet. It all starts with a couple of practice sessions
- a 45 minute first practice and a 30 minute second practice. The cars can fun at the full
250 kiloWatts through practice should they choose.
We then move to qualifying. Qualifying is r un in a grouped format, with the drivers
arranged into four groups or five or six defined by their championship position (or, for race
1, their previous year’s championship position). Drivers can also use all 250 kiloWatts of
power in this session. The whole session lasts an hour and the groups
go out one at a time, with each group getting just six minutes to set the fastest lap time
possible. Once every group session has been completed and all the times have been set,
everyone from P7 downwards has their times locked in and their grid positions set.
The top 6, however, get to continue on to the Super Pole Shootout. This is basically
a six person, single-lap qualifying event with each driver going out in turn to set
a fastest lap. These times will set up the top six on the grid and the driver who gets
pole position also gets a handy 3 points towards their championship.
Next comes the race. As the cars don’t want to waste energy and are designed such that
they don’t need to warm the parts and tyres to a certain optimum temperature, there is
no warm up lap. Instead, the cars line up a little way back from the grid and simple
drive to their slots to start the race. Interestingly, the races are time limited.
So instead of the drivers having to complete a set number of laps to finish the race, the
races are capped at 45 minutes… plus one lap.
So, when 45 minutes are up, the first driver to cross the line starts the final lap and
the race to the chequered flag. The interesting part here is that the teams go into the race
unsure of exactly how many laps (and therefore what total distance) a race will run.
I mean, they’ll have a decent idea, but if the lap times are about a minute and a
half you can squeeze in 30 laps, plus the extra one lap. But if the race runs slightly
faster than expected, the race may run for one more lap. This could mean a couple more
miles of race distance and - in a race in which you are managing battery power - this
could certainly throw a few drivers for a loop. There are no scheduled pit stops and
no external recharging is allowed during the race.
There’s a lot to think about during the race and drivers will need to know in advance
just how long the race looks to run if they’re going to strategise speed, power and energy
effectively. So let’s talk about this electric power
unit and how it’s used during the race. Under normal race conditions the power is
limited to 200 kiloWatts, which is about 270 ish horse power. So most of the time during
the race, the cars will be running with this upper limit of power.
There are two ways of increasing the amount of available power. Fan Boost and Attack Mode.
Fan Boost is a system that gives the driver an extra 25 kiloWatts of power for about six
seconds. So if they’re trying to pass the car in front, being able to press a button
to give them an extra boost of energy deployment may be exactly what they need to get the move
done. Not every driver will get to use Fan Boost.
In fact, only 5 drivers in each race will get this ability and which drivers get given
this small advantage are voted on by the audience in a period starting a few days before the
race and ending 15 minutes after the race has begun.
They can only use it once and only after the 22 minute mark. So it’s a minor, one-off
trick up their sleeve but potentially a race-changing one.
The other way drivers can unlock more power from their car is via Attack Mode. This has
been casually dubbed ‘Mario Kart mode’ but really it’s ‘F-Zero mode’ and I’m
frankly furious about this misnomer. Attack Mode is available to all drivers and
to activate it, drivers have to pass through a certain, designated area of the track away
from the racing line. This is, of course, a slight disadvantage at first.
But, having passed through this area, the driver will have an extra 25 kilowatts of
power available to them for a decent amount of time. The amount of time Attack Mode lasts
and the number of times it can be triggered in a race will not be revealed ahead of the
race so teams can’t crunch a strategy together too quickly. In Formula E, they want you to
do a lot of thinking on the fly. And yes, you can double up by using Attack
Mode and Fanboost together for a combined extra 50 kilowatts of power, bringing the
car up to its full 250 kilowatt potential. Expect to see lots of different strategies
at play here. But how on earth can we tell which of these
power modes a car is in? Well, the Formula E car’s Halo is equipped with a band of
light that signals the car’s power mode. Red lights indicates Attack Mode, purple shows
Fan Boost is active and both colours together means the driver has used both together in
a devastating double attack. At the race finish, drivers are awarded the
standard amount of FIA points as seen in F1 and other series. On top of this, the driver
with the fastest lap who finished inside the top ten will get an extra point. There’s
a lot to play for. Formula E races are fun, short and lively
with strategies and race shapes very different to those found in Formula 1. It’s not Formula
1, nor trying to be Formula 1; instead it’s doing some pretty incredible things at the
forefront of technology and trying a new twist on the racing formula. And, at just 45 mins,
it’s definitely worth a shot.