Formula E's stepped up its game as it switches to pay TV

Cape Town has been lost from the schedule after just one appearance, which is a shame. But new rounds have popped up, such as a first-ever visit to Tokyo, a return to China in Shanghai and the substitution of the tight Rome street track with a proper race circuit, in the form of Misano. I have a hunch that a place most associated with MotoGP will suit Formula E very well.

Before we get into the smattering of driver changes it’s worth taking a moment to talk about how you can watch Formula E – which hasn’t always been communicated too well by this championship. Now there’s a turning of a new leaf, as David Coulthard’s Whisper TV production company takes over the coverage. Unlike previous seasons which have been available to watch free-to-air, the series will be broadcast from 2024 on TNT Sports – the channel that also shows MotoGP, the World Rally Championship and the World Endurance Championship. I’m loathe to add another subscription service to the Smith family household outgoings, but this one is becoming hard to resist.

Does anyone watch Formula E? The championship has claimed a 4% uplift in 2023, but we’re cautious about quoting figures. Beyond F1 and the British Touring Car Championship on ITV, the reality of how many genuine pairs of eyeballs tune in to live motor sport can be a little depressing. But the signing of Whisper does represent a renewed effort to properly engage with an indifferent and perhaps even ignorant potential audience.

The broadcast team is made up of the familiar faces from previous seasons, including Nicki Shields, Karun Chandhok and Dario Franchitti who know this series and the people involved inside out. But the main presenter this year, replacing Vernon Kay who has a high-profile Radio 2 show to focus on, will be retired footballer and motor racing newcomer Jermaine Jenas. What does he know, you might well be asking? Probably not much. But that’s OK – he’s only the anchor, with a team of experts on hand to tell the stories. Kay proved an adept big-name signing who caught the racing bug, and so too might Jenas in the long-run. It’s certainly a stretch away from The One Show and Match of the Day.

In the past couple of weeks the ‘Whisper era’ has begun with a trailer for the new series, entitled ‘It’s On’. The minute-long clip is a sleek piece of advertising, featuring what appears to be some kind of Japanese antique shop – although to suggest the arrival of Formula E in Tokyo will trigger an earthquake seems a touch insensitive given the city’s history of such natural disasters. Still, we should expect further ‘creative’ approaches to publicise a series that has been far too easy to ignore for far too long.

So if you’ve got this far… what will you be missing if you stick to your guns and refuse to tune in? The so-called ‘peloton’ style of motor racing triggered by Gen3 isn’t to everyone’s taste, and it tends to be hit and miss depending on the venue – but it sure leads to close finishes. The records created for overtaking in 2023 are fairly meaningless, because drivers are simply managing energy and jostling to keep themselves in the game for when it really counts in the final laps. But the explosion of action at the climax, as drivers finally unleash what energy they have stored up, can be genuinely thrilling. And not all the mid-race overtaking is meaningless. António Félix da Costa’s move on Jean-Éric Vergne in Cape Town last year was sensational, and a repeat of a pass he’d also pulled on Nick Cassidy.

Sure, sometimes the peloton energy-saving goes too far. The spectacle on the great IndyCar road course in Portland became a little daft last year amid 403 ‘overtakes’. But on the street circuits upon which Formula E was originally bred, it can be an enticing waiting game – and at international level, which form of motor sport isn’t complex and strategic nowadays?

As for those driver line-ups, Britain’s world champion Dennis will defend his crown with Porsche-powered Andretti, and is likely to once again butt up against a determined Jaguar attack. A Porsche powertrain was the thing to have at the start of season nine, but Jaguar impressively clawed itself into contention and then into a position of superiority. That was no mean feat mid-season, especially with new tech.

Mitch Evans will once again help lead the Jaguar line, although this time he’ll be joined by fellow Kiwi Cassidy for what has to be Formula E’s most potent driver pairing. Cassidy has switched from Jaguar customer Envision, which undercut the factory and grabbed the manufacturers’ crown last term. Meanwhile, Evans made a rare error of judgement in the penultimate round in Rome and smacked into the back of Cassidy’s car, effectively ending both of their chances of beating Dennis to the title. But the countrymen know each other well and optimism for a first title for the Jaguar team, for drivers, the squad or ideally both, will be high coming into Mexico.

Envision has re-signed quick Dutchman Robin Frijns, who spent a year within the new but misfiring Abt Cupra alliance last season. Frijns will be busting to get back to where he belongs at the front, in a team that has its own crown to defend.

Pascal Wehrlein and da Costa are back for the Porsche factory outfit. Wehrlein really should have been champion last season after setting the pace after Mexico, building a healthy points lead, then driving cannily to protect it – until his team’s season began to unravel. How will Porsche now respond to Jaguar’s performance surge and its own failings? One key point is that da Costa has been ordered to step down from his Jota World Endurance Championship drive to focus fully on Formula E, another sign of how serious the commitment to the electric world championship must now be for the frontrunners.

Formula E perennial Sam Bird has joined McLaren after a poor final campaign for Jaguar and has a point to prove beside fellow Brit Jake Hughes; Nyck de Vries will be licking his F1 wounds back in a series he conquered two years ago – but now with lowly Mahindra; and that most voracious series loyalist, Lucas di Grassi, has pitched up at Abt Cupra following tough times with Mahindra. Musical chairs is par for the course in Formula E, certainly much more so than in F1, and creates plenty of juicy storylines for Jenas and Co to explore.

Have I convinced you? I fear the answer to that one! But I’ll maintain Formula E is worth persevering with, especially in city centres where electric mobility is most relevant. It’s no threat to F1, but it never has been – and that’s beside the point. What it does provide is a genuinely innovative playground for top professionals who either hit the F1 glass ceiling on their way up or found themselves ejected from the pinnacle too early. The manufacturers that have stuck with it still see the value – even if the genuine audience size remains a worrying shadow. But Formula E is now well established as a genuine ‘destination’ championship for talented racers, and is better than it’s given credit for.

Once last time, to stick to my groove… come January 13, give it another try.