Motorsport’s desire to become more road-relevant and reduce carbon emissions omitted from vehicles has taken a step forward with the Formula E championship being the FIA’s first full-electric racing series, going beyond following in the footsteps of the World Endurance Championship (WEC) and most recently Formula 1, which both feature hybrid technology, and adopting electric technology.
10 teams, 20 drivers will contest the inaugural season, which kicks off in the capital of China (Beijing) this weekend. With the drive roster being dominated by former F1 drivers looking to re-establish their presence in motor-racing, while being joined by drivers with pricey experience in sportscar racing, as well as other single-seater and touring car series. Race weekends will actually take place over a single Saturday, with the action-packed day being comprised of two practice sessions, a qualifying session divided into 4×10 minute intervals, with a group of five drivers each taking up a 1o minute slot, and the race itself respectively.
The presence of female team personnel in racing teams take a step up in FE, with Briton Katherine Legge joining the Amulin Aguri outfit after stints in DTM, Indycar and American Le Mans 24 hour series, while she’s kept company by 27-year old Michela Cerutti, whose fellow compariot is no other than FE team-owner and 2004 Monaco Grand Prix winner Jarno Trulli, a driver pairing that should be tell an interesting story with Trulli effectively racing for his own team.
2o14/2015 Driver-Team Lineups
Amlin Aguri – Takuma Sato (1st race), Antonio Felix da Costa, Katherine Legge, Fabio Leimer (Reserve Driver)
Andretti Motorsport – Franck Montagny, Charles Pic (To be officially confirmed)
Audi Sport Abt – Lucas Di Grassi, Daniel Abt
China Racing – Ho-Pin Tung, Nelson Piquet Jr., Antonio Garcia (Reserve Driver)
Dragon Racing – Oriol Servia, Jerome D’ Ambrosio
E.DAMS Renault – Nicholas Prost, Sebastien Buemi
Mahindra Racing – Karun Chandhok, Bruno Senna
Trulli GP – Jarno Trulli, Michela Cerutti
Venturi GP – Nick Heidfeld, Stephane Sarrazin
Virgin Racing – Sam Bird, Jaime Alguersuari
The first season will consists of ten races over two calendar years, unlike the traditional Motorsport season. Much unlike 
it are races taking place during the winter season, with the first race happening at a time most of the racing categories approaches its twilight, while the season finale inversely takes place in the first half of the start of many racing categories. The series’ circus will travel to some of the most renowned cities around the world, the inaugural and sixth races in Beijing and Long Beach seeing drivers race around historic landmarks and backdrops such as the Birds Eye Olympic Stadium and Long Beach itself.
2014/2015 Race Calendar
Round 1 – Beijing, China – 13th September 2014
Round 2 – Puntrajaya, Malaysia – 22nd November 2014
Round 3 – Punta Del Este, Uruguay – 13th December 2014
Round 4 – Buenos Aires, Argentina – 10th January 2015
Round 5 – TBC – 14th February 2015
Round 6 – Miami, US – 14th March 2015
Round 7 – Long Beach, US – 4th April 2015
Round 8 – Monte Carlo, Monaco – 9th May 2015
Round 9 – Berlin, Germany – 30th May 2015
Round 10 – London, United Kingdom – 27th May 2015
The sophisticated machinery that the drivers will get behind the wheel of is the single-spec Spark-Renault SRT-01E chassis, with drivers being tipped to be reaching speeds of up to approximately 150 mph (225 kph) and the aero packages designed to be less sensitive than the consistently developed and more intricate seen in Formula 1, promising the fans closer racing between the drivers as the cars will be less disturbed by their turbulence. The construction of the cars were spearheaded by newly-found French car company Spark Racing Technology and Italian car manfacturer Dallara, whose experience with designing single-spec cars stretches to GP2, GP3 and Indycar series. The likes of McLaren and Williams transfer their work on their F1 and road cars and supplying some of the car technology such as the power units with integrated energy-recovery systems, electronics and batteries. The power units and batteries allowing the cars to produce up to 270 bhp, although that’ll be permitted only in practice and qualifying sessions as drivers will be limited by the cars being in a power-conservation mode during races, thereby power being subsided to just 200 bhp when the lights go out for racing.
The eco-friendly nature of FE meant that it was a natural habitat for Michelin to supply the tyres, Michelin who have 
always expressed an interest in manfacturing tyres that leaned towards minimal expenses and being environmentally-friendly bring in all-weather tyres, designed to be raced in all tyres of weather conditions mother nature throw at the drivers and teams, with their durability meaning that a change of tyres at pit-stops will unlikely be a necessity. The essence of the tyre technology brought into the fold by Michelin, particularly the durabiity and the peculiar weather-emphasised construct, should hopefullly pave way to drivers being on the limit of the cars, something that could prove to be source of appeal to racing fans, especially with the drivers’ skill set and freedom being a prevalent question mark in F1.
In a bid to bring the fans closer to the track action, the series sees the launching of a concept known as “FanBoost”, which grants the three drivers with the most fan votes prior to every race extra power of 40 bhp for a duration of five seconds they can use only once during the race, sharing overtaking gadget traits with F1’s Drag Reduction System (DRS) and Indycar’s Push To Pass button. Not only does the concept bring the fans closer to the racing, but it has them influence the racing and the fact that the size of a driver’s fanbase on social media and pivotal to race results can present itself to be somewhat of a flaw in the unfolding of the championship.
Placing the controversial “FanBoost” aside, FE ensures that motor-racing doesn’t fall asleep during the fall and winter months (albeit going a bit quieter!). With the featuring of circuits in the streets of global cities enriched with iconic landmarks and boasting strong heritages, along with a majorly level playing field in terms of machinery and very competent racing drivers, with half of the teams having a driver leading their country’s outfit ( which can always be a plus marketing-wise). It could well be a good, fresh package introduced to Motorsport and has all the ingredients to live up to its economical philosophy.
