Howdy! It’s Tanja. I’m a longtime Formula E fan having watched since the first race it ever held. The first generation car really started the series off with a bang, with that first race accident bringing publicity and shooting the series up in the rankings. Some incredible title fights between Lucas Di Grassi, Sebastien Buemi, Nelson Piquet Jr and later Jean Eric Vergne really helped it make its mark. Then we got Gen2, and with it a faster car, the advent of attack mode, and no more pitstops. The racing was pretty great once again, though fans and drivers complained about Fanboost like they had done before, but also that the cars were so strong it seemed to encourage touring car-style shoving and bullying. The cars were also wider and, from the top, a lot more square, making them look a bit more large and ungainly, like one of those Red Bull Soapbox Race cars – don’t get me wrong, I liked the aero, but the body underneath didn’t sit well with me. The social media presence and marketing of the sport went up a notch, and more fans came along for the ride. Many countries could watch for free, and highlights of every session were available on Youtube, alongside side-shows and games that tried to get the audience more involved.
So then we get Gen3, just having finished its first season, with Jake Dennis being its inaugural champion. Some old tracks, some new tracks, still no pit stops, attack mode has been altered, gone is Fanboost, and most strikingly, we got a new, smaller, lighter, faster car. So let’s have a look at Gen3, see what went right, and see what went… less right.
We were all pretty excited last year to see what Formula E had in store for Gen3… The reception to it was… mixed. It is smaller and lighter than the Gen2 car which was a positive, but the shape was a little odd. From above, it looks like an arrow, presumably the arrow of progress. The rear end has four fins protruding like the XFA-27 jet fighter from Ace Combat, one V upwards and one V downwards, each with lights on, making it seem like a properly fast machine. I’d have to say, though, that in racing, outside the showroom, this machine looks great. But then the front has this trapezoid front wing which is attached to a nose that doesn’t really go down. Reminiscent of the F1 cars from 2013 in that way, rather than the low down nose the Gen2 car had. The front wing is attached by the piddliest struts you could imagine. What this means is that if a fly lands on it, the front wing will probably fall off, go under the tyres, and send the car hurtling into the nearest wall. And that’s what has happened. Any little impact on the front, which is almost inevitable due to the concertina effect on sharp corners on what are tight and narrow tracks, has caused many a front wing to need replacing. Sacha Fenestraz could probably agree that this thing is too flimsy. Now, the thing with a flimsy wing is that, as with all aspects of a racing car, it alters the way drivers behave and strategise through a race. Think back to refueling in F1. Because cars could overtake through refuelling and it was safer than going wheel to wheel, it was encouraged, meaning drivers went for a traditional overtake less. With a strong front wing and bodywork like Gen2 had, drivers could afford to touring car knock about each other a little more. And so they did. A lot. And that worked pretty well for racing but at the same time it didn’t do wonders for the reputation of Formula E amongst fans. So the flimsier front wing encourages a cleaner racing style, which you’d think is great, but then you consider the tracks and the drivers… It’s in the nature of a street circuit to be likely narrower than a purpose built circuit – bumpier too – so it’s not always easy to avoid tiny front wing on rear tyre collisions – that, I’m sure Nick Cassidy would agree. Perhaps a better balance could be struck for the evolution of the gen 3 car. The tyres, also, have been a focus point of discussion. These new Hankook tyres, replacing the all-weather Michelins from the last few seasons, are super hard, so they last the distance and can work in all conditions. Of course, that means the rubber has a low contact patch with the tarmac and cannot flex as much, meaning the grip is just not there very often. Thus, the cars are not particularly fast around the corners. But that isn’t a problem for me, as what really matters is the quality of the racing, which is definitely still there.
With an extra 100kW maximum power, up to 350, used in duels and attack mode, the car doesn’t half go off like a stabbed rat, if you’ll forgive me for being uncouth. With a supposed top speed of around 200mph, it’s plenty fast down the straights, though you’re not going to see it outdrag an F1 car. Without much aero gluing it to the ground and super hard all weather tyres, it’s not going to be seen attacking corners quite as quickly as that kind of car either. But what you lose in that downforce style of cornering you gain in pure driving. Without an internal combustion engine to explode thousands of times per second, you hear everything else. The whine of the transmission, the squeal of the tyres, the scraping of the underside on bumps, every little stone and marble striking the car, and the crunch of carbon fibre. It’s brilliant. And without lots of that pesky aero creating outwash and dirty air, cars can follow and race each other no problem. And we sure did get a lot of that. This season of Formula E might have the most overtakes of any season for anything on four wheels – none of which were done using DRS or push to pass. What FE has instead is Attack Mode, which instead of simply giving a power boost the car can use sometimes, is a specific power unit mode which is activated when the car (once armed) passes over a strip of track off the racing line. Introduced in Gen2, it used to be mandatory to activate it twice, in two bursts of 4 minutes. Now that time has become flexible. The total Attack Mode time stays the same in a race (4 minutes in the earlier races and 8 in the later ones) but the driver can pick whether to use 1 minute then 3, or 2 minutes then 2, etc. The issue with it in the earlier races, which is why it changed to be 8 minutes total, was that if a driver picked 1 minute, some tracks would not actually have an overtaking opportunity within the next one minute of racing – Hyderabad was a notable example of this.
Attack Mode is a pretty neat idea. The driver loses out on a little bit of time but then the extra power gives them an opportunity to make back that time and more. However, as the famous game design phrase goes, “players will meta the fun out of anything”. Instead of a way to overtake, the Attack Mode was seen as a burden they had to go through reluctantly, because: overtaking is a risk drivers and strategists naturally want to avoid, and: attack mode uses the same limited pool of energy the drivers have to get themselves all the way to the end of the race. And there isn’t much energy, as the saving they have to do is intense – lifting off and coasting through half of the straight in some examples. Using that little bit more energy to perform an overtake is a calculated risk, one that many engineers and strategists would rather avoid, since any extra usage now would have to be paid back later, at a time closer to the end of the race – when the end of the race is naturally the most important part as that’s where points are scored – and that drivers are saving less energy at the end for their final burst. But then that’s what happens when you get the world’s best drivers and engineers together. They’ll try their darnedest to make races less interesting, and so the sport has to push back. Sometimes it makes mistakes – putting the attack mode activation zone where it was in Hyderabad, for instance, didn’t work so well, as it was right before a technical section where the extra power didn’t really come in handy.
Which I suppose leads us on to:
With some returning tracks and a bunch of new ones, there were plenty of discussion points, so why not go quickly through them one by one?
The Mexico City ePrix, as usual, takes place on the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, a shortened roval-style layout, in fact. The race was pretty interesting, but with the Porsche powertrain cars of Jake Dennis and Pascal Wehrlein storming off to 1st and 2nd in what was a very efficient power unit to start the season with, it was fairly dominant. The track does struggle in that there aren’t very many good places to use Attack Mode and get a good overtake down – a long straight into a sharp corner. The first corner should be that place but it’s very fast and with a wall jutting out next to the racing line, no one really wants to overtake there, meaning you may not be able to carry that overspeed into turn 3, the next overtaking spot. But we still had a good race.
One of my favourite circuits on the calendar, this track is a spectacle to watch. The cars running down the narrow S-curves may not have any overtaking opportunities, but any mistakes are punished harshly, and the chicane after the start line makes up for it with plenty of action there on both weekends. While Pascal Wehrlein won with Jake Dennis in 2nd in both races, they were far from boring. An oldie but a goodie.
A new track to Formula E! Before the one we got now, there was a different, planned layout, which according to Norman Nato, uh, “looked like a dildo”. And, um, sure buddy. A very painful one. The one that was actually used looks more like a toilet, but it was genuinely a very good track! With an excellent overtaking opportunity into a hairpin, unless you are part of team Jaguar, in which case, I’m sorry dude.
And now onto a very different beast. Where Hyderabad was technical and slow (aside from its back straights), Cape Town’s street circuit was fast and flowing, with a lot of sweeping corners reminding you of an old-style circuit – and by old-style I mean 1930s, where ‘racetracks’ were just triangles of roads. An incredible race, best of the season so far, but then I’d said that about every one so far. Difficult but brilliant.
Best race so far. Lots of heavy braking zones and long straights made for quite the spectacle, though I imagine this one wasn’t quite so fun to drive as the others, as most of the corners were either 90s or hairpins. All three of these new tracks so far have been excellent!
Back to something a little more familiar, the Tempelhof airport circuit. This one’s been on the calendar since the start of Formula E itself, and is normally a mixed bag. Sometimes producing the best race of the season, as in 2018, and sometimes producing a bit of a procession, like the 6 races in a row in 2020. So I kept my expectations low, and was pleasantly surprised! We had some great racing in both races. With the higher speeds of the new cars, the corners that previously were not quite enough of a braking zone to be a good overtaking spot became one. The early domination by the Porsches has now since completely faded and the championship is very open.
Okay, I’m not sure how, but in Formula E, Monaco always delivers. There’s no obvious overtaking opportunity, and yet there are always plenty. Sure, you could pass into Mirabeau, or Nouvelle, but we saw them all over the track. Truly, it has become one of the most anticipated and celebrated Formula E events on the calendar.
A track returning from its debut last year, Jakarta wasn’t great that time, and wasn’t brilliant this time either. I’m not sure what it is about this circuit, but for me, it never really works. It’s pretty flat, but the layout should lend itself to better racing than it does. As a TV-watcher, though, it’s not great. Every corner looks the same, so you never really know where you’re looking. It’s just confusing. The racing was better than last year at least, but it’s not as good as the races before.
This one was bizarre. Portland International Raceway was used as a substitute for the New York ePrix due to construction works in that area and the Formula E guys desperately needing a race in the USA. Portland is a longer and more high-speed track than Formula E normally races on, so more energy conservation would be required. What we didn’t realise, unfortunately, was quite how much energy conservation was needed. It was like a cycling peloton, with no one wanting to take the lead for too long. The racing was ridiculously close and rather slow. These are cars that can reach 200mph and yet they’re trundling around like Sunday Drivers because they’re saving the batteries for the last few laps. There were almost 400 overtakes in under an hour. It was certainly an interesting experience and spectacle, one which I’m glad happened but wouldn’t want to occur too often.
Another returning track, Rome is a modern classic, now known as Mitch Evans’ backyard the way he always seems to dominate here. The first race was no different, but the second one ended his streak and place in the championship alongside Nick Cassidy. A lot of 90s in this track but the two high speed sweeping sections from the start line up to turn 7 are incredible, not to mention incredibly dangerous, as Sam Bird and everyone behind him found out due to the blind-corneryness of it. Always delivers a great race, though.
The last track on schedule, with two races held here. With an indoor section through the ExCeL and a narrow outdoor section around the byroads surrounding it, this is the most technical track on the calendar. But there are still overtaking opportunities into turns 1, 10, and 16, and that’s what makes this track magic. Imagine, then, this technicality combined with a classic British rainy day, and that’s what we got in the 16th round. Wet outdoors, dry indoors. It was wild, and it’s one of those all time great tracks for that.
So, overall, we mostly had hits. Almost every race was excellent.
The races were indeed all pretty much legendary, some of the best we’ve seen… ever. But that doesn’t mean they weren’t without controversy. Many teams and manufacturers entered FE heading into Gen2, but many left by the start of Gen3. Mercedes joined for two years (three if you count HWA) and then skedaddled out of there. Audi and BMW also left, leaving a lot of fans worried about the future of the sport. Those manufacturers simply didn’t see the technology being used in FE as something that could be transferred into their production car programmes, and for the latter two, their lack of long term success could be a part of that feeling too, having finished well but not taking any championships in the Gen2 era. But then, we were given new information. Maserati and ABT Cupra would be joining the existing roster, bulking up the list of manufacturers competing once again. And now it looks pretty safe. We were worried about FE, but it seems to have bounced back well.
This season wasn’t without its hitches, though. The introduction of ‘Attack Charge’, a pit-stopping system in which the car was to charge up the battery super quickly in the pitlane was planned to come in the second half of the season but never arrived due to opposition from the teams and difficulties getting it implemented within the current format before next year. As with any motorsport, there were some questionable decisions made by stewards – one notable one being Antonio Felix Da Costa being given a massive 30 second penalty for tyre pressures after running over debris and getting a slow puncture. The DS team was given a fine and penalty for being found to have used RFID scanners to check tyres and allegedly other parts of their rivals’ cars.
The idea we covered earlier of ‘peloton racing’ became a huge issue on tracks such as South Africa, Berlin, Sao Paulo, and especially Portland. The idea was that due to the lead car punching a hole in the air ahead, if you get close enough to that lead car you are running through a lower density of air and will thus meet less air resistance, thus using less battery charge to reach the same pace. And in a series that has so much strategic depth, needing to save energy, being able to use that little bit less is the boon teams will be looking for. And they did. Drivers physically did not want to lead the race and would slow the pace down to a crawl so their rivals could overtake if they had to. But when the car ahead slows down more than expected, that slows the car behind more, and that slows the car behind them even more, causing a huge concertina effect, where a dozen cars may be trying to enter the same piece of road at the same time. It led often to a bit of a mess and more than a few broken front wings, with Dan Ticktum often vocalising his frustrations with the whole system much to the amusement of everyone listening in. Aside from in Portland, where I think it went a bit too far, I think this style of racing has been pretty interesting! Lots of action, a huge amount of strategy, and the best driver still wins in the end.
There were also some scary crashes too, which unfortunately led to the safety equipment being tested rather vigorously on the field. Sam Bird, Sebastien Buemi, and Edoardo Mortara’s horrific shunt in Rome led to no injuries but many damaged cars, which was a huge relief for everyone. That track will now not be run in 2024, partially thanks to this crash. Muller in Portland smashing head on at full speed into the wall led also to no injuries but it was bizarre. It seems as if his front wing went underneath his front wheels meaning he could no longer turn, a problem with that new flimsy front wing. We also had more than one incident which hurt the driver’s hand, Robin Frijns in the first race being the most notable in which he collided with the back of another car and broke part of his hand, having to miss multiple races. Of course, that is one of the well known dangers of racing in these sorts of cars, which is why drivers are advised to let go of the steering wheel in the event of an impending crash, but Robin did not have the time to react like that. Buemi also injured his hand at one point. These incidents come from the lack of power steering, and the high caster and steering angle the Formula E Gen3 cars have. After seeing it three times in the last year we were starting to worry about Formula E, but then Daniel Ricciardo broke his hand in an F1 car so we could take solace in the fact that FE wasn’t alone.
We were initially concerned about the lack of rear brakes that weren’t regenerating ones causing an incident, but it seems like we didn’t have to be, at least not yet. Drivers were fairly careful in the first lap of a race meaning the lack of these brakes never seemed to cause an issue.
The social media has been decent – not quite as good as it was in the early days of Gen2. I definitely miss highlights from practice sessions being shown on the YouTube channel, but the rest of the content they’re delivering has been great, and fairly timely. During long breaks between races, some more content focusing on tech or development or clips from the history of Formula E would be pretty great – or perhaps even the history of the city and the circuit that they’re visiting? Unfortunately in 2024, the news has come out that FE will no longer be free to view in the UK, which is a great shame and potential turning point where the series may struggle to grow in the UK from now on.
So, is Formula E’s Gen3 a success? Many were sceptical at the start, but I think we can say for certain that it proved the doubters wrong with an incredible season of racing, and the big shame is that we have to wait so long for the next one to start. Gen3 wasn’t without its fair share of issues, but overall, we can absolutely say it blew it out of the park. Great, fast cars, with excellent racing marred only by a flimsy front wing that liked to go underneath the tyres, on an excellent selection of tracks from Formula E of old and new ones, and a season not dragged down by too much controversy, besides Robin’s unfortunate incident. With a bit of tweaking, a light chiding for the stewards, and a warm mug of hot chocolate for Sam Bird so he cools down and stops hitting his teammates and walls, we could have an even greater season next year.