The Formula One season ended last weekend with a pretty solid race and some decent excitement. If you ask me, however, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was completely overshadowed by the chaos and manic nature of Formula E’s season-opening Sao Paulo E-Prix and the debut of the new Gen 3 Evo cars. When I tell you this race had everything, I mean it was packed from wall to wall with strategy, pack racing, more overtakes than an entire season of F1 and some incredible wheel-to-wheel action. In F1, the polesitter ran away and hid with the victory, but in Formula E, the polesitter ended his race upside-down in the wall, and the guy who qualified 22nd stormed through the field and stole the win. It was sensational.
If you like racing even a little bit, you no longer have any excuses for not watching this series because the constant action in Formula E is better than any other series in the world right now.
It’s taken Formula E an incredible 11 seasons to get here, but it’s finally figured out the formula for exciting and unpredictable racing. The series has reduced the number of gimmicks from earlier seasons, and allowed the teams to develop some seriously powerful electric open wheel monsters.
When Formula 1 wanted to introduce more passing to the series, it gave drivers the fakest non-engineering Drag Reduction System solution, and I still hate it. When Formula E wanted more passing, it gave drivers several minutes of “Attack Mode,” which is the equivalent of getting a Super Star in Mario Kart — minus the invincibility. Attack Mode provides an 70-horsepower boost and access to use the front motor to provide drive. Temporary all wheel drive on a tight street circuit is a huge advantage and allows drivers to make up a bunch of places if they time it just right.
With the added power and occasional AWD, the new Formula E car is capable of over 200 miles per hour, and it’s quicker from 0-t0-60 mph than a Formula 1 car. The speed is there, the great racing is there, some of the best drivers in the world are there racing for some of the best teams in the world. Why wouldn’t you want to see Porsche, McLaren, Jaguar, Maserati, Andretti, Penske, Lola, and Nissan fighting it out for race victory? If you still aren’t watching Formula E, you should be.
The next race of the season takes place in Mexico City on January 11th. I’ll be watching, will you?