“If you want to sell people on EVs, they’ve got to be sexy.”
Pioneering EV drag racer John Wayland uttered these prophetic words — and he would know — well over a decade ago. Wayland’s “White Zombie” homebuilt EV was made from an old Datsun economy car, but it screamed through sub-10-second quarter miles, which was pretty sexy at the time.
The auto industry got the message, too, as today’s EVs are all about performance, with 0-60 times and top speeds that would have seemed absurd even to Wayland.
Motorsports, whether it’s drag racing or international formula car world championships sanctioned by FIA, often leads in technological development and certainly leads in creating public acceptance of automotive technology. Items as fundamental to modern motoring as disc brakes, turbochargers and even rearview mirrors were developed and tested on race courses before they became part of your daily driver.
That’s why the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship is critically important for increasing acceptance of EVs. The all-electric series brings world-class drivers and teams to deliver a show that is not only the equal of any internal combustion series; it’s better. Automakers including Porsche, Nissan, Jaguar, Maserati, McLaren, and Mahindra are in on the series as well, using it as a testbed to increase efficiencies in motor development, regeneration, and battery management software.
Racing in the United States
The Formula E series is in its ninth season, and its U.S. stop this year was this past weekend in Portland, Oregon. New Zealander Nick Cassidy won the race for Envision Racing in a Jaguar-powered car. After a race with a half-dozen leaders, Cassidy ran a smart strategy that had him in the lead for the final laps.
He was joined on the podium by British polesitter Jake Dennis of the Avalanche Andretti team in second place, and António Félix da Costa of Portugal in third place racing for the TAG Heuer Porsche team.
“I’ve had a good run in America the last couple of years,” Cassidy said from the podium. “I love racing here. Jake [Dennis] did an amazing job in qualifying. And António [Da Costa] in these races is always fantastic as well.”
The Portland race was a showcase for how EV racing can be a premier product. Because the cars are evenly matched, Formula E racing tends to be closer than most other series. On Portland’s wide track with flowing curves, the drivers formed a peloton similar to bicycle races like the Tour de France, to take advantage of drafting wherever possible.
That meant that drivers spread out up to seven cars wide on the front straight, looking for any possible advantage. Series scoring noted over 400 individual overtakes in the race, which lasted less than an hour.
“It’s close, it’s fun, it’s Formula E,” Cassidy said.
It’s still racing, after all
One team that didn’t have a great weekend was DS Penske. At the track, journalists were told that FIA officials assessed a penalty to the team, and both drivers would be forced to start the race from the pit lane, waiting to enter the track until the rest of the field had gone. Only later did the racing world learn the reason for the penalty, which also included a €25,000 fine.
According to a story first reported by TheVerge.com, DS Penske had placed equipment in the pit lane that could potentially allow the team to read telemetry data from the RFID chips molded into the series’ spec Hankook tires. The equipment was capable of reading data from every car as it passed by. In levying the penalty, the FIA stewards said the infraction gave DS Penske, “a huge and unfair advantage.”
DS Penske denied any intention of misusing competitor data, and drivers Jean-Éric Vergne and defending series champion Stoffel Vandoorne were understandably not happy with the decision. However, judgments of fact by the FIA are not subject to appeal. The drivers started the race from the pit lane and finished the race in 11th and 12th place, respectively.
You can follow FIA Formula E racing online, and there are still four races left in the 2023 season.