Story & Photography | Simon Boucher-Harris
This June the beautiful city of Portland hosted a round of the FIA Formula E World Championship, an all-electric single-seater racing series, for the first time.
As a lifelong petrol-head, motorsport fan and sometimes competitor myself I was fascinated to experience how the racing compared to its more traditional counterparts. Would I miss the sounds of a race engine screaming past and that heady smell of race-fuel and burnt rubber? Is it more than just a tech-showcase?
Jaguar–Combining Heritage with Next-Level Innovation
As a guest of the Jaguar TCS racing team I was given a front row seat to watch the action, gain an understanding about this exciting race series, the TCS team, and learn more about how JLR’s electric road vehicles are already benefitting from the research and development of their Formula E racecar-and its Jaguar-built powertrain.
Few automotive companies can claim as rich, storied and illustrious history of racing than Jaguar. Competing, and winning, in everything from road rallying to Le Mans to Formula 1 and now Formula E, Jaguar TCS team principal James Barclay confirmed that the road-going applications of the teams achievements in powertrain development are already happening. James explained that “EV development of the Formula E car is translating to real-world applications for our road vehicles, for example software developed for the race car had resulted in increasing the range by over 30 km in the road cars.”
Having experienced the relentless acceleration and power of the new Jaguar E-Pace both on the road and on track, I’m betting they had a hand in the performance development too.
With Formula E steering the course for the company’s future electric vehicles, observing the meticulous and passionate approach of the team and their commitment to becoming the pinnacle of the sport, one can only feel the future is in safe hands and certainly looks electrifying for JLR.
E Explained
Formula E, in one guise or another, has probably been around longer than you think. The inaugural championship race was held in Beijing in September 2014 and since 2020 the series has gained official FIA world championship status and with 381 million viewers last year interest continues to climb.
Featuring highly competitive, fully electric racing, 22 world class drivers and 11 teams race in iconic city locations all over the globe.
Formula E racecars compete on a much more level playing field than other race series. Cars share the same chassis, battery and tyres. The only variable is powertrains, where teams can develop or deploy their own choice of electric motor or gearbox. With the current 3rd generation models capable of exceeding 200mph and hitting the equivalent of 476bhp in attack mode, performance is certainly impressive, and power and battery management feature highly in the teams race strategy.
The Gen3 models are the most efficient formula racing car ever, with more than 40% of the energy used within a race produced by regenerative braking and around 95% power efficiency from the dual electric motors compared to approximately 40% for an internal combustion engine.
The Racing
Fast, furious and frenetic. One of the first things that strikes you is not what you can’t hear, but what you can. Without an exhaust note drowning it out, the sounds of the series Hankook race tyres being tortured to their limits is astonishing and it really helps you appreciate how important grip is over anything else in racing. Whilst unusual at first you quickly get used to it and getting home without your ears ringing certainly makes a nice change!
The racing itself was exciting and incredibly close with the lead changing hands multiple times in the same lap. The Formula E cars feature an Attack Mode—a temporary 50kW power boost activated by drivers twice during the race and is a key feature of Formula E. The use of this boost is dramatic and drivers were able to fight from the back to the front of the grid in a single lap and as a fundamental part of race strategy, the decision on when to activate can be the difference between disaster and the podium.
The future of motorsport?
Undoubtably. Whilst arguments will forever rage over whether battery power is preferable to other alternatives the reality is simple, the world’s top automakers are planning to spend nearly $1.2 trillion through 2030 to develop and produce millions of electric vehicles, no alternative can compete with that level of investment and racing is an intrinsic part of that. With racetracks and motorsport in general under increasing pressure to reduce the environmental impact and especially noise levels, this is what lies ahead, and while different, racing is racing and the passion, on-track thrills and off-track drama continue uninterrupted.
