Your textbook to Formula E
Fast car, famous drivers, extraordinary places, innovation and revolution: this is the brand-new series on the horizon. Formula E welcomes you into its spectacular world. The new series will be launched this weekend when Beijing hosts the first ever race for fully-electric racing cars.
The championship will be decided over ten rounds. The calendar includes China, Malaysia, Uruguay, Argentina, USA, Monte Carlo, Germany and the United Kingdom. USA will host two races, one in Miami and one in Long Beach. One venue still needs to be announced. The final round will be held in London.
Ten team will contest in the inaugural season, each of them will have two drivers on the grid. The organizers went safe when they lured famous and proven drivers like Takuma Sato, Frank Montagny, Charles Pic, Lucas di Grassi, Nelson Piquet, Jerome D’Ambrosio, Sébastien Buemi, Karun Chandhok, Bruno Senna, Jarno Trulli, Jaime Algersuari and Nick Heidfeld. Next to these Grand Prix drivers will line up other fast and experienced racers like Katherine Legge, Daniel Abt, Ho-Ping Tung, Oriol Serivá, Nicolas Prost, Sam Bird, Stéphane Sarrazin and Michela Cerruti.
Drivers need to have a special eLicense next to their FIA International license.
The FIA president Jean Todt hails the governing body’s new adventure: “This spectacular series will offer both entertainment and a new opportunity to share FIA's values for clean energy, mobility and sustainability. The FIA is definitely looking to the future!"
As most of the races will be held on streets, the organizers have decided that all on-track activities of each ePrix will take place on one day (Saturday). On Saturday morning the drivers will get two practice sessions to get used to the actual track, that will then be followed by four qualifying sessions and the race will get underway late in the afternoon.
Formula E aims to exploit the increasing interest in alternative motive power and is probably helpedain in increasing interests in stands for the future and represents a vision for new generation’s cars in a world where the population is on the verge of running out of oil. Formula E is hence adamant to search for alternative energy and hails a new era in the motorsport industry. From next year on it will operate as an open championship which means manufacturers will be allowed to develop their own electrical energy systems. It might then result in a more advanced technology which can be carried over into the road car industry.
Charging a car's battery completely takes approximately 50 minutes. Any such charging must however happen outside of a timed session or race. As a result, drivers will need to make a stop during races to switch cars, knowing that a fully charged car will not suffice to complete the total race distance. These pitstops will also need to take a minimum amount of time, defined during race day.
Each driver will be given 5 front and 5 rear tyres per event. The official tyre supplier is Michelin. The French manufacturer has a three-year contract with the Series.
Teams get nine test days to master their cars. Five of them are pre-season, two in-season and two post-season test days.
The points systems is the standard system of the FIA which is also used in Formula 1. Drivers will score points as follows: 1st = 25pts, 2nd = 18pts, 3 = 15pts, 4th = 12pts, 5th = 10pts, 6th = 8pts, 7th = 6pts, 8th = 4pts, 9th = 2pts and 10th = 1pt. The driver who sets the fastest lap in the race will receive two extra points and three bonus points will be added to the tally of the driver securing the pole position.
There will be a huge difference between the qualifying and race mode of the cars. During the hunt for grid position drivers will enjoy a power of 270 horsepower. This will then clamped down on 202,5 bhp in the race. For qualifying drivers will be divided into four groups, each of that will have ten minutes to get the most out of the electrifying electric machinery.
Formula E also hopes to attract fan interest by closely involving them. One such example is the possibility to vote on the favourite driver prior to a race. The three drivers with the most votes will each receive a 5-second ‘power boost’ per car per driver, temporarily increasing their car’s power from 150kW to 180kW.
Timing and results will be made available on the series' official website, http://www.fiaformulae.com/
