As far as the teams go, it has received some heavyweight backing from far and
wide. Sir Richard Branson, after dipping his toes in F1, has a team, as does
the four-time world champion Alain Prost.
Leonardo DiCaprio, the actor and ‘environmental campaigner’, has also founded
the Venturi team, based in Monaco.
Michael Andretti, who had a brief career in F1 and a much longer one in
IndyCar, also has his own team.
How is a race going to work with those batteries?
There are 10 teams, each with two drivers, and each driver has two cars.
Races will last around an hour with one mandatory pit stop to change cars
(the batteries are expected to last about 25-30 minutes, and can’t be
changed during a race). There will be no desperate scramble to find a power
socket, as mid-race charging is banned.
The whole event takes place in one day with practice, qualifying and the race.
Points are on offer for pole and fastest lap.
Will they be particularly quick?
Yes and no. Off the line, they are fairly rapid – 0-60mph in three seconds.
But the top speed is limited to about 135mph.
What are the cars like?
For the first year, they have all been given the same Spark-Renault SRT 01Es,
which have a combination of transmissions from McLaren and batteries from
Williams.
From the second season, it becomes an open formula, where the might of
manufacturers such as Audi will be put to use designing the cars.
F1 is now famously quiet, surely this will be even quieter?
It will. At just 80 decibels, they are some way off from even the new quiet
F1 engine, which are 134 decibels. They also sound more like aeroplanes than
racing cars, but it won’t be as if a jet engine is taking off next to you.
It will take a clever use of microphones on television (it will be shown
live in ITV4), to hear much.
It might be a novelty, but is it going anywhere nice?
There are 10 events, and the whole point is they race in city centres and not
only traditional circuits.
For the 2014/15 season there 10 are races including the opener in September in
Beijing (around the Olympic Park), Miami, Los Angeles, Monaco, Berlin and
London.
A layout of the Beijing Formula E track
Speaking of novelty, what’s this fanboost all about?
‘Fanboost’ is one of the more controversial elements of the new series. In a
bid to get younger people involved (the theory is that only young fogies
watch Formula One), they have tried to harness the power of social media.
Literally.
Three drivers with the most social media votes will have the power of their
cars increased from 133kw to 200kw prior to the race so that they can use a
‘boost’ of 90hp during the proceedings. Ridiculous, but some new thinking.
How big a deal is Formula E?
At the moment, fairly. Jean Todt, the FIA President, is massively behind the
idea, and most of the world’s motorsport bigwigs will be in Beijing (the FIA
handily arranged from the World Motorsport Council to be held in Beijing to
coincide with the race).
That said, until it starts becoming the formula of choice for the world’s top,
top drivers, it will always have a slight second-rung feel to it.