The birth of Formula E: From napkin sketch to electric racing reality

There is a heavily romanticised legend in Formula E that the genesis of its existence can be traced to a hidden-away restaurant in the 8th Arrondissement of Paris and a dinner that happened in March of 2011.

As with all urban legends, there is a kernel of truth in it, but ostensibly it’s not the entire picture.

It certainly played host to a dinner between then FIA president Jean Todt, then GP2 team owner and former political mover and shaker Alejandro Agag, along with future president of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani.

Some aspects of a plan to showcase all-electric powertrains via a single-seater motorsport championship were discussed at that meeting and from it came a typical piece of Agag theatre. A signed napkin by all three dinner guests sketching out a championship which Agag would promote.

Three and a bit years on and 20 Formula E cars were lined up on the starting grid outside the Bird’s Nest Stadium in Beijing, where the day before a World Motorsport Council meeting had taken place.

All-electric motorsport was having its day in the sun, but as all the sceptics knew, it would soon cloud over as the inevitable reality front came rolling in. Surely these cars wouldn’t even get off the grid? They make no noise, so where is the spectacle? And, who’s going to pay for an international championship that shuts down areas of capital cities for days on end?

But the detractors were ultimately proved wrong.

Later this year Formula E will celebrate a decade of racing, and while its had significant bumps along the way it still has prestige OEM’s such as Nissan, Jaguar, Maserati and Porsche fighting for world titles on tracks in São Paulo, Tokyo, Berlin, London and Shanghai.

It didn’t look like a fairy-tale was going to happen at all back in the early months of 2015. Agag looked forlornly into empty coffers and at one stage was using personal credit to help move freight from one race to another.

He was even briefly fired by his main investor as the series lurched from race to race, not even at the halfway point of the first season. It was dying before it had even started to grow.

But Agag had an ace up his sleeve and it came in the shape of contacts at Liberty Global, which knew promise when it saw it. Eventually a deal was done for a majority stake and the first season’s financial deficit was shored up.

On the track there was a major surprise when the little-fancied Team China Racing squad came out of nowhere to win the title with Nelson Piquet Jr. Victories in Long Beach and Moscow, and getting just enough points in a tetchy final round held in Battersea Park sealing the deal for the Brazilian driver and his Anglo-Chinese team.

More importantly investment came in, and despite a difficult second season when Renault largely dominated and several races were cancelled or postponed for a myriad of reasons, Formula E started to gain credibility and momentum.

It was the season where the powertrains were opened up with manufacturers now designing the motors, inverters and gearboxes rather than using the spec Renault powertrains from the opening season.

That initial domination by Renault tapered off and the season enjoyed its greatest ever crescendo when Sébastien Buemi and Lucas di Grassi memorably went head-to-head in the final race, again at Battersea Park.

With the pair on level-pegging, Buemi took a crucial pole, and with Renault e.dams team-mate Nicolas Prost riding shotgun in second. Di Grassi knew the start at the sinuous and bumpy London track was vital.

Heading down to the first left-hander the Brazilian went to out-brake Prost, did so but then careered in to the back of Buemi, spearing both of them spectacularly off the track. If it was a moment of madness from di Grassi; it didn’t work because Buemi was able to rejoin and set fastest lap, which was rewarded by two points and enough for the title!

Di Grassi came back strongly the following season, which featured several upgrades to the cars, including a new look with cosmetic bodywork changes and a 50% increase in the available regeneration progress from 100kW (130bhp) to 150kW (200bhp). With new Michelin all-weather tyres, the cars were a little quicker and di Grassi swept to the title after notching up wins in Mexico City and the Montreal finale. That was the venue of an unforgettable weekend in which Buemi, who had been forced to miss the preceding New York City event to race in the World Endurance Championship in Germany, went into full post-race meltdown after a superb climb from last to fourth following a practice shunt that forced his team to build up a whole new chassis.

For the final Gen1 season in 2017-18 a new force arrived with Jean-Éric Vergne and the Techeetah squad taking a surprise but well-deserved title with its Renault-powered cars.

Formula E really came of age the following season with the advent of the Gen2 design. Here was an otherworldly piece of design that looked part single-seater and part space-age prototype. Aside from the looks, it also proved a cultural breakthrough as with enough energy onboard the Gen2 cars to complete a full race distance, it meant the clunky and unpopular mid-race car-swap pitstops could be done away with.

This is what truly opened the floodgates for a host of manufacturers to show interest with BMW, Audi, Nissan (taking over sister brand Renault’s slot), Porsche and Mercedes all announcing the intention to field factory teams.

It was what the organisers had been dreaming of since day one, and their belief and promotional chutzpah had seemingly paid off.

The Gen2 era was also heralded by a significant new venue with Riyadh in Saudi Arabia hosting its first race after a mega-deal was struck for a decade-long contract. It was the start of Formula E’s close bond with the Saudi royal family and its 2030 Vision of accelerating more sustainable energy sourcing and evidencing it through giga-projects such as the NEOM development and Red Sea Projects.

One of the promotional tools to leverage these was sport, with motor racing, boxing and golf becoming three of the main tools used to do this.

The first season of Gen2 racing in 2018-19 was a success with a close title chase ultimately going the way of Vergne again. This time he was driving a DS-powered car after the Techeetah team struck a successful factory deal with the French manufacturer.

They negotiated the new challenge of a Mario Kart-style Attack Mode initiative that involved cars going off line to trigger transponder loops and get an extra charge of power.

The 2019-20 season was arguably Formula E at its peak as Porsche and Mercedes EQ joined the show and made it nine manufacturers vying for supremacy. But just as the championship looked set to be another thriller, the global Covid-19 pandemic struck. Formula E was affected more than some other sports businesses due to its reliance on city centre street races, and any notion of hosting events such as Paris, Hong Kong, Rome and New York were clearly folly.

The two new races announced for that season in Seoul and Jakarta were also cancelled, but both eventually came onboard for the 2021-22 campaign.

António Félix da Costa made it an incredible hat-trick for the Techeetah team with a brilliant wrap-up to the championship with a double in the hastily arranged Berlin series of six races in August of 2020.

Formula E was in survival mode at this point, knowing that its very existence was under threat. It adapted with a raft of financially frugal decisions including homologating cars for two seasons each.

But this was not enough to keep some of the bigger names from leaving as BMW, Audi and Mercedes all departed between December 2020 and August 2021.

Ironically for Mercedes, having not even completed its second season, it won twin drivers’ and teams’ championships in Berlin at the end of the 2020-21 season as Nyck de Vries did just enough in what proved to be a chaotic season.

It had been one that forced Formula E to be creative with its calendar, using the little-known Puebla track in Mexico and the testing staple of Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia as stop-gap races to fill any voids in the schedule. The latter of these events proved controversial when on the final lap the majority of cars ran out of usable energy, leaving only four to cross the line in healthy state. That apart, Formula E had survived the pandemic years and was upgraded to official FIA World Championship level for its seventh season.

The eighth season, the last of the Gen2 era, brought with it new races in Jakarta and Seoul, but also featured the final race held in New York as ferry terminal land reclamation meant a new US home had to be found. This was eventually Portland for the 2022-23 season, but rumours of a big-time Los Angeles race for 2025 continue to gather momentum.

Stoffel Vandoorne was able to send Mercedes off in style with a Keke Rosberg-style 1982 title push in which he made consistency cool again with just one win at Monaco to his name.

The Gen3 era opened up with a thrilling season set against the backdrop of several growing pains for the teams and manufacturers, but ultimately the racing delivered.

And it delivered in a unique way with ultra-energy efficiency strategies playing out in events that became more like cycling peloton contests than motor races. Three drivers stood out: Nick Cassidy, Jake Dennis and Mitch Evans. And between them they took 10 of the 16 wins, but it was Dennis that had the consistency to match, securing a hard-fought title.

Dennis will go again this season and so will Formula E. Having proved its critics wrong, the all-electric series looks like it will be celebrating its 10th anniversary in style.

Has Formula E influenced the motorsport landscape?

People like to use the word ‘legacy’ a lot these days. In Formula E circles the ‘L’ word is an interesting case study, especially in relation to how it has paved the way or influenced other series in the sport.

Truth be told, no floodgates were opened by Formula E. Plans for an Electric GT championship faded into the background and died, while the Electric Touring Car series only lasted two seasons in 2021 and 2022, with only three manufacturers committing to it.

Additionally, Formula E has struggled to spawn other series even within its own playground. The Jaguar I-PACE e-TROPHY ran for just two seasons before being canned early, while plans for former Mahindra boss Dilbagh Gill to start up a single-seater ladder are still at the formative stage.

However, it would be unfair to say that Formula E does not have any direct legacy. The formula has redefined the perception of electric racing by proving that it can be entertaining and credible at the same time.

The Gen3 designs may only have performance similar to a Formula 3 car, but they have explosive acceleration which, if plans for a more active front powertrain kit are sanctioned for 2025, will be a key marketing weapon that the world championship can deploy.