Formula E is a new FIA World Championship featuring Formula cars powered exclusively by electric energy. The Championship will have ten teams and is classed as an open championship – so its an amazing place for teams and manufacturers to showcase what they can do and develop the technology. They say racing improves the breed and that is what will happen here. For anyone that conjures up images of disabled shopping scooters when they think of electric vehicles then this will be a pleasant surprise!
The big boys are getting involved in the Formula E Series. The latest team to officially launch their entry is the ABT car above. Heavily backed by automotive super power Audi. ABT is a top DTM squad so they know about serious racing and Audi will most likely field its Factory racers and make a good show of it.
The Formula E series will run ten rounds across the Globe including the UK on urban street circuits. The exact race calender is due for release in December and will run from September 2014 through to June 2015 with each driver using two cars per team during the one hour race – which should make for a busy pit (bus) stop.
Another competitor is the British based Drayson Racing. In October they picked up an electric land speed record with their Lola Drayson LeMans adapted car that has been clocked at 219MPH with 670KW which is the equivalent of over 800BHP. The land speed record was held at Elvington airfield near York where you can try out Supercar driving experiences in Lamborghini’s and Ferrari’s or take your own car on track. Drayson Racing are fielding their Spark Renault SRT. The SRT01E has a carbon fibre/Aluminium monocoque chassis made by Dallara. the motor, gearbox and electrics are from McLaren and Williams F1 are providing the battery management system.
China racing are competing with what looks like a F1 car from the early 90’s. Dragon racing are a top Indy car racing team from the US (Ofcourse) as are another Indy Series race team – Andretti Autosport. The French are being represented by Formula Renault team DAMS. This company also runs a Formula One Driving Experiences similar to the one Trackdays has at Three Sisters race circuit near Wigan. Tokyo’s Super Aguri team has a big F1 background and, being positioned in the heart of one of the biggest electric vehicle markets in the world, they are super keen to use the series to promote and develop their abilities.
Performance figures from the teams are very closely guarded but you can expect 0-60 in 3 seconds, 0-100 in 6 seconds and power around 200KW which translates into 270BHP. Needless to say they are going to be light, agile and quick. Imagine trying to hold onto that around the streets of London? Good luck to the drivers!
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