You have your first race in Beijing coming up on the 13 September. Are you all ready? Are there still a lot of things to finalise before that first race?
We can’t wait for the first race! We’ve been working for two long years or two short years – it depends how you look at it – two years is a short time to put together a championship like this. But now it’s the moment of truth. We’re really looking forward to it and are ready. Throughout the year until the month of August the cars went through five official tests and two race simulations at our operational headquarters in Donington Park. We’ve left nothing to chance. Everything has been ‘stress-tested’ from cars to scrutineering. It’s going to be a fantastic show.
Why are you changing cars instead of batteries?
Changing cars was a joint-decision between Formula E and the FIA for safety reasons and safety comes first. It’s also important to remember that while Formula E is a racing championship - it’s also a testing ground for electric vehicle technology. Technology takes time to develop, just look at the evolution from ‘brick’ phones to smartphones, and desktop computers to tablets. In the same way, we believe electric cars need time to evolve and we’re just at the beginning of the electric racing era – this is very exciting. At present our batteries last 25-30 minutes but as technology improves – our goal will be to run the entire race with one car and one battery.
What makes Formula E different and exciting when there are other racing championships out there?
I’m a big fan of all motor sports especially Formula 1 and GP2. Formula E is ‘disruptive motorsport’. Absolutely everything is new and pioneering. We’re trialling the unknown – the beginning of the electric motor sports era.
We race in new venues - in city centres not existing racetracks. We’ve produced 100% electric racing cars from scratch and watching 40 electric cars racing around city centres on a Saturday afternoon – is unprecedented.
We’re also merging social media and motor sport in a way that’s never been done before – making Formula E a fusion between a real race and a video game. Fans will be able to vote directly for their favourite driver and potentially influence the outcome of the race.
On the sustainability front, we aim to become the first carbon neutral motor sport championship. And finally, Formula E is aimed at a new younger motor sport fan – the smartphone millennial generation.
Looking at the driver line-up, how difficult was it to attract elite drivers into a new form of motor sport?
Attracting good drivers was a challenge at the beginning because the drivers wanted to see what Formula E was all about and most importantly - they wanted to see the car.
I think the turning point was when Jarno Trulli – a former Formula 1 driver tested the car for the first time and was very impressed by it. Lucas di Grassi and Ho-ping Tung did an amazing job developing the car too.
To have a car with such a great performance is what has attracted the drivers. The drivers also wanted to see that this is a real race. It’s not a demonstration or a show. This is a real race and drivers have a machine with which they can fight and that’s the hook.
What kind of spectacle in term of noise and razzmatazz does Formula E have to entice fans?
Formula E does have a unique, futuristic and entertaining sound. I think the sound that Formula E will deliver is a cool sound; it’s the sound of an electric motor. I think it’s the sound of the future of racing. I think the sound is loud enough to make fans excited but it’s low enough to allow us to race in city centres – without causing noise pollution. So it’s the ideal noise level for us.
How will you charge the cars?
In some cities we will charge from the grid but we have to make sure that electricity comes from renewable sources. In other cases we’ll use Aquafuel generators – which obtain their energy from glycerine obtained from sea algae. We think that is a completely new technology that has extremely low emissions, no smoke and no noise. It also shows that the championship is committed to sustainability – not only by promoting electric cars but also all the other aspects in the championship as a whole.
What’s the five-year plan for Formula E?
We have two growth avenues for formula E – geography and technology. Geographically, we would like to be racing all over the world. We would like to be in Africa and Australia or New Zealand, we would like to expand in Asia and Europe. We’re planning on adding one or two more races per year – until we get to a calendar of between 16-18 races. In terms of number of races – that’s the objective. We have a lot of demand from different cities.
Technologically: the growth will come from the manufacturers that design and prepare cars for the championship, especially electric power trains. We are talking to different OEMs. From year two we’d like to have new manufacturers coming in, not necessarily making the whole car, but making the powertrain – battery, electric motor, etc.
Are you expecting the cities and the public to change the way they approach urban mobility after Formula E?
We want to be a leading force in spreading the idea of clean and sustainable urban mobility. We’re confident we can achieve this due to the power of global sport.
We want Formula E to become a framework for R&D and to accelerate the early adoption of this technology into everyday electric vehicles. In short, we want people to believe in electric cars. One of the biggest problems EVs face is image. Many people think electric vehicles won’t work for them or will be too slow. People don’t know the truth and we want to show everyone what electric cars can really do.