Electric Car Racing

As you know from reading earlier posts, I'm a huge proponent of electric cars. I recently found Formula E racing. You can learn more at http://fiaformulae.com.

They've been preparing for a couple years now and in September 2014 had their first race. Yesterday was the third race of the series, so if you're just learning about it, you haven't missed much. What you have missed you can catch up on quickly from the Video Gallery.

The racing series is primarily based on Formula 1 racing. American racing fans will find it significantly different from NASCAR and Indy Car racing. Additionally it is brand new. As I post more about Formula E, many of my complaints or criticisms need to be balanced with the fact that the drivers, race organizers, racing teams, and sponsors are all learning this right now. It will take a few seasons to iron out the early kinks.

With that the racing series is off to a great start from a strong foundation. Formula 1 racing has been going for many decades and has a lot of experience. Like Formula 1, Formula E travels to different cities around the world. The hosting city sets up a street course. There will be no ovals here.

Like Formula 1, Formula E uses a points system to establish driver rankings and team rankings. (I'm not real familiar with Formula 1, so I'm just learning how the points system works.) In each race there are two drivers from each team. Drivers earn points for their position in the race finish. There are also points awarded for fastest lap. Race drivers are going to be race drivers. It seems with the team points there is more cooperation between drivers in this series than I'm used to in teammates of Indy Car racing.

The biggest difference in Formula E (and I may write it as Formula e from time to time since a lower case e is the series logo) is that the cars are all electric. This is the first ever Electric Vehicle racing series. I think there are a bunch of people like me who are not big racing fans and are big electric car fans and this series will draw a whole new crowd in as racing fans.

The cars are designed by Renault and every team has the same car design. This means that the cars are very evenly matched and racing comes primarily down to driver skill. This makes for very tight races and one slight mistake could cost two or three positions on the track. The car design looks very much like a Formula 1 car. There are some differences to accommodate the electric motor and battery system. It will be interesting to see how the differences in electric vehicles drive the design away from the existing Formula 1 design.

The electric cars don't produce the same level of sound that gasoline cars produce. (I was about to say level or noise, but I know that true racing fans consider that sound music, as I love the sound of a P-51 Mustang or an F-16 Viper. Loud engines don't generate noise.) The fact that the sound levels are around 80 db, instead of the 130 db of Formula 1, the race courses can be closer to downtown or population centers. This offers new opportunities for course design. I'm hoping that different host cities find ways to highlight their towns and bring in new fans while keeping it safe for drivers.

One completely new feature of Formula E racing is the FanBoost. This allows fans to vote for their favorite driver before the race. Each fan gets one vote. The three drivers with the most votes earn a FanBoost for the race. They find out who won this after Qualifying on race day. There is a paddle on the steering wheel. When the driver with a FanBoost taps this paddle, they get a surge of additional energy from the battery for a few seconds. I'll do a separate opinion piece on FanBoost. This brings the fans into the race and gives them the ability to influence the outcome. This has opened up a whole new Social Media angle to the racing.

The electric cars provide a challenge to race designers because it isn't as easy as dumping gallons of fuel in during a pit stop to refuel. Even with the innovative, self-contained, zero emissions recharging system, it takes hours to recharge the Formula E battery. The team in Formula E solved this by having each driver get two cars. At the start of the race both cars are fully charged. The driver starts with one car. Then some time during the race, they will make a pit stop where they have to get out of one car and into their second car. The battery capacity and race design is such that there is a window of 5-8 laps in the middle of the race where the driver can pit and still finish. Like with fuel strategies in other racing series, when to pit and exchange cars will become a key driver and team strategy. At this point drivers and crews (and fans) are still learning how the batteries perform and how to leverage this for victories and points.

There is a minimum time for a pit stop. This prevents radical or dangerous behavior during the pit stop. You don't want drivers tripping over things or rushing to get out of the pits and not have all of their safety devices connected before getting back on the track. Race drivers have always been athletic and in good shape to handle the rigors of race driving. Holding up in a race car for a few hours is one thing. I'm interested in seeing how drivers will respond to having to switch between driving position to hoping out of the car and hoping back in will go. So far it hasn't been an issue for any of the teams. I may be making more of it than it really is. During the pit stop, the driver is allowed to have two of the crew members in the pit with them to help with getting the car strapped to them.

The second car also means that an early crash into the wall doesn't have to be the end of the driver's day. They have a new car ready to race in the pits waiting for them. Depending on when the accident is, they may not have enough power in the second car to finish. They can still get out on the track and go for some points for fastest lap. I think in the first race in Beijing one of the drivers had this very thing happen to them.

I'm excited about this new racing series as an electric car driver and aficionado. I plan on posting more articles about it here. There are some ideas floating around about starting up a podcast to cover Formula E racing.