The growing need for greenhouse gas emission control has led to rise of electric car racing amongst several other trends. One of the best championships concerning this sport is FIA’s Formula E races, which began its debut campaign in 2014. Formula E 2024 is sixth sport’s campaign. Main idea of this sport was put forward by Jean Todt, who is former principal at Ferrari, and it has since grown exponentially into a position where there is tremendous interest surrounding Formula E schedule.
Since its introduction, Formula E calendar has seen a regular growth in the number of races and host cities. This first campaign involved 11 races that were held across 10 cities. Now, calendar comprises of 13 competitions that are held across the globe. As expected from a new sport, regulations have undergone changes since their introduction. This calendar, however, is mainly similar to style employed by non-electric cars in Formula 1. These races take place on street circuits that have a distance of 1.9 km to 3.4 km on each lap.
The races begin with a practice session. They are two in number. Both practice sessions are held in the morning with the first lasting 45 minutes. This will be followed by a second practice session that is 30 minutes long. This sport started out with two drivers for each car, but 2018-19 campaign resulted in a revision that permitted just one car for a driver.
The practice sessions are followed by a qualification session, which takes around one hour. These drivers are divided into several groups, with each setting their time in the allocated six minutes. At the end of qualifying session, six fastest drivers are once again required to establish their best lap time. This will determine position on grid.
The race takes place over a time of 45 minutes along with one lap. The practice of mandatory pit stops was carried out until season four. Now, races happen with just 200 kW of power available to drivers, although individual sections of track have an additional 25 kW of power permitted for overtaking or extra top speed. Teams are not informed about this section, as it could be incorporated into strategy for the race.
Since its introduction, Formula E calendar has seen a regular growth in the number of races and host cities. This first campaign involved 11 races that were held across 10 cities. Now, calendar comprises of 13 competitions that are held across the globe. As expected from a new sport, regulations have undergone changes since their introduction. This calendar, however, is mainly similar to style employed by non-electric cars in Formula 1. These races take place on street circuits that have a distance of 1.9 km to 3.4 km on each lap.
The races begin with a practice session. They are two in number. Both practice sessions are held in the morning with the first lasting 45 minutes. This will be followed by a second practice session that is 30 minutes long. This sport started out with two drivers for each car, but 2018-19 campaign resulted in a revision that permitted just one car for a driver.
The practice sessions are followed by a qualification session, which takes around one hour. These drivers are divided into several groups, with each setting their time in the allocated six minutes. At the end of qualifying session, six fastest drivers are once again required to establish their best lap time. This will determine position on grid.
The race takes place over a time of 45 minutes along with one lap. The practice of mandatory pit stops was carried out until season four. Now, races happen with just 200 kW of power available to drivers, although individual sections of track have an additional 25 kW of power permitted for overtaking or extra top speed. Teams are not informed about this section, as it could be incorporated into strategy for the race.
There are 11 teams taking part in Formula E. Each team has two drivers making for a total of 22 drivers on grid. More and more of reputed car companies are showing interest in being Formula E teams’ part and likes of BMW joined up only recently. These likes of Mercedes and Porsche will also be sport’s part soon. The introduction of Gen2 cars for 2018-19 campaign resulted in sizeable technological advancement. The power available to drivers has risen from 200 kW to 250 kW. As a result, Formula E top speed is now at a remarkable 280 km/h. Furthermore, Gen2 cars have ended the rule of mid-race swapping of vehicles.
The 22 Formula E drivers in the standings primarily compete for Formula E championship for drivers, while they also help their respective teams win constructors’ championship.
The Drivers’ Championship standings are competed over campaign with race finishers being awarded different points depending on their position. The winner takes home 25 points followed by runner-up, who gets 18 points. Third place on podium gives to driver 15 points. From here, points return diminishes a lot with the 10th position and in just one point. These drivers who qualify on pole get one point while the fastest lap earns an additional one point.
There are a couple of concepts that have made Formula E quite different from regular motorsports. A lot of efforts have also been taken to improve popularity of this relatively new form of motorsports.
This is a relatively new concept which is quite unusual for motorsports. FIA not only conduct races, but it also provides fans with opportunity to interact on social media. They can vote for their favorite driver in upcoming ePrix and this, in turn, earns driver a Fanboost ahead of race. Top three drivers who have received the most amount of votes from fans will be receiving an additional 100 KJ of energy, which can be used in the race.
The voting starts six days before the race, while it closes very late. Hence, drivers who would receive boost is known quite late to spice up things. This energy boost may be a small amount compared to overall power possessed by cars, but it can make a sizeable difference in terms of overtaking. Fanboost is considered a crucial part of race, and popularity of drivers should be considered in any betting strategy concerning this sport.
This aspect has been introduced to make Formula E results more exciting as it increases overtaking phenomenon even further. The governing body determines duration in which boost mode and boost number are available to driver. This information regarding boost availability is also kept under wraps until the last moment. It eliminates any identification of patterns and even implementation of those in race strategy.
There are many betting markets when it comes to this sport. Apart from ability to take a punt on various individual factors in the race, it is also possible to pick up outrights like drivers’ Champion. There are also unusual prop bets that can involve a punter. Some of common markets are following.
This is a straightforward market that consists of predicting driver who could win Drivers’ Championship at the end of campaign. A good idea to succeed in this market is by looking at past winners of championship along with current trend. Unlike Formula 1 where drivers tend to repeatedly when championship due to large gulf in quality between the top and bottom end of grid, Formula E races are more competitive. There have been no repeat winners of Championship so far. Sebastien Buemi, though, is the most successful driver in this sport with 12 wins.
The Formula E standings for team are an accumulation of points by drivers in each team. Nissan e.dams has been the most successful team in victories (15) terms, but Renault e.dams has been overwhelmingly successful when it comes to championship. This team has picked up three successive titles from inauguration before being overwhelmed by Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler in 2017-18 campaign.
There are also other markets like pole position and fastest lap, just like in another motorsports case. That markets availability is based on sportsbook that has been picked. Since points are available for fastest lap on pole position, there is generally an intense competition amongst drivers to pick up these points on offer.
Although races can be exciting, some fans do not yet to watch actual races. Formula E highlights are provided by FIA to give fans with all information surrounding the race. These highlights are as comprehensive as Formula 1 highlights. Apart from encompassing information about competition, these highlights also give information about qualification and practice sessions. This information can be valuable to any punter ahead of next race.
Apart from finding how fast are Formula E cars, one can also come across a lot of information and the latest news surrounding this sport. They take growing popularity and interest advantage. It is possible to get news on various aspects of sport like drivers, teams, and any technological innovations that are about to make its way. Since electric motorsport is a relatively new field, growth happening in the sport is quite immense, and access to latest news is the best way to be on these changes’ top.