FormulaE
Latest
After two years of prep, Formula E cars are here and ready to race
What does it take to create an entirely new motorsport? In Formula E's case, two years, ten teams and ten city-street circuits, which will play host the first championship. Since the idea of Formula E started taking shape towards the end of 2012, several public demos have kept buzz for the all-electric racing series alive, but the atmosphere was different at the UK's Donington Park circuit yesterday. Attendees of the official opening of Formula E's operational headquarters and team facilities at Donington weren't there to watch a traveling circus visit a racetrack, but to witness a milestone in a sport where, until now, petrol has been king.
Formula E's first public tests to begin in the UK on July 4th
After it completed its successful test debut at France's La Ferté Gaucher circuit late last year, the Spark-Renault SRT_01E Formula E car now has a place to call home: the UK's Donington Park. Organizers of the Formula E Championship, the world's first fully electric race series, have confirmed that the first official team tests will be hosted at the circuit, which will also serve as home for all 10 of the race crews during its inaugural season. The first public tests will be spaced intermittently between July 4th and August 19th, three weeks before the series kicks off in Beijing on September 13th. They'll be truly public too, allowing fans to attend completely free of charge. Donington's state-of-the-art facility is set to open in early May with the first car deliveries arriving a few weeks later. Once teams get their hands on the 200kw (270bhp) single-seaters, it'll only be a couple of months until all of the cars run together for the first time.
Formula E's electric-powered race car takes its first test laps (video)
A few months ago we got our first look at the Spark-Renault SRT_01E Formula E teams will be racing next year, and just recently, that car hit a test track in France for the first time to see how it held up. Spark Racing president Frédéric Vasseur reported things went well, with the car turning about 40 laps over two days of testing at La Ferté Gaucher without taking a sip of fuel. The video after the break captures a few clips from the laps -- running on a smaller 50kW battery, just 25 percent of the 270hp-equivalent power race-ready cars will have -- and while we'll need to adjust to the lack of noise, perhaps its impressive torque and handling can make up for it. More tests are planned before the first race in Beijing next September as the team pushes its mileage up bit by bit before running a full race simulation.
Formula E details Spark-Renault's SRT_01E electric race car
If you plan to watch the inaugural Formula E season, you'll want to get used to the race car shown above -- you'll see a lot of it. That's the just-unveiled Spark-Renault SRT_01E, the official electric vehicle that all 10 Formula E teams will use next year. The car melds a Spark Racing Technology design with a McLaren-sourced, 270BHP equivalent motor based on that of the P1 supercar. Williams supplies the batteries, while Renault is responsible for tying all the systems together. As you'd imagine, this first-generation ride has its limitations; drivers will have to swap cars in the middle of an hour-long race, for example. Still, the FIA is quick to remind us that the SRT_01E won't last beyond the 2014 season. Formula E is an open championship meant to advance EV technology, and manufacturers are likely to produce faster or more efficient cars in the future.
Qualcomm's Halo wireless charging tech headed to Formula E, safety cars get first dibs
Ahead of the Frankfurt Motor Show this week, Qualcomm has come out to announce that it'll be bringing its Halo wireless charging technology to the first-ever Formula E electric vehicle race next year. But before y'all get too excited, only the safety cars will be equipped with Halo for the first season, which goes from September 2014 to June 2015 in London, Rome, Berlin, Beijing, Kuala Lumpur, Los Angeles and many more places. As with these safety cars plus trial vehicles from London taxi firm Addison Lee, the current-gen Halo requires electric vehicles to stay still on large charging pads, which isn't ideal for racing cars. That said, Qualcomm CMO Anand Chandrasekher told us that his folks are already looking into bringing dynamic charging to racing cars starting in the second season. In other words, these battery-powered vehicles will eventually be able to recharge while still running on the race track!
Fox Sports becomes official Formula E broadcaster
What good is an EV racing league like Formula E if there's no way to watch it? Not much, which is why the FIA has reached a deal making Fox Sports the official Formula E broadcaster. The agreement gives Fox a US exclusive for TV coverage as well as a mixture of exclusive and non-exclusive rights (including online content) in over 80 regions. We won't know if Fox is truly ready for the job until the first Formula E race begins in September 2014, but it won't be hard to tune in.
LA is on the Formula E schedule next year, electric racer hits the streets to celebrate
The FIA's upcoming Formula E series has revealed two US dates on its début 2014 calendar (Los Angeles, Miami) and yesterday it took to LA's streets to promote the partnership. For Earth Day, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa welcomed Formula E Holdings CEO Alejandro Agag downtown along with a Formula E racecar for the exhibition. The race will run on downtown streets next year, although the exact route the 140MPH-capable EVs will take has yet to be locked down. Unfortunately there's no video of the event so while you can't not-hear its electric engine humming along as it burned rubber in the streets, the pictures in this gallery and video from its Moscow and Rome exhibitions will have to do. Update: Now there is a video available of yesterday's event, shot from onboard Lucas di Grassi's car. You can find it embedded after the break, complete with high pitched electric whine.%Gallery-186548%
Rome to bring Formula E to Europe, joins a growing eco-racing scene
Although Formula E racing is still very much in its infancy, all the ingredients are quickly coming into place: Rome has just volunteered itself as the first European city to host the electric-only circuit. It's just the second city to enlist for the league following Rio de Janeiro's move in August, but it gives the league a truly international reach as well as a fifth of the 10 urban racetracks it needs for the initial 2014 season. Additional cities are expected in the weeks ahead, and should quickly lead to a solidified race itinerary, the FIA says. Having Rome onside won't get cars to the starting line any sooner, but it may underscore Formula E's advantages in noise and pollution over gas-powered leagues -- when its cars can race around the Colosseum without creating a ruckus, other cities (and spectators) might just follow suit.
McLaren to supply EV groundwork for Formula E cars, take pro racing electric
McLaren isn't a brand that most would associate with eco-friendly motoring. That very nearly makes it a surprise to see the supercar builder throw itself wholeheartedly into performance EVs with a new deal for Formula E racing: it's supplying all the motors, electronics and transmissions for Spark Racing Technology-made cars to be used in the pure-electric league's inaugural 2014 season. Full technical details await, but the championship's choice of noise-sensitive urban racetracks guarantees that we won't hear attempts to recreate an F1 engine's high-RPM buzz anytime soon -- we're more likely to hear the tire noise. We'll deal with any lost romanticism if it means giving Formula E, and performance EVs, a healthy dose of credibility.
