FIA is the governing body for most auto racing events, including Formula One. It also licenses the World Rally Championship, World Endurance Championship, World Touring Car Cup, World Rallycross Championship and various other events on circuits worldwide — from Monaco to Sao Paolo, Rome, London, Singapore, Cape Town some of whom host multiple forms of auto racing.
Featuring single-seater, electrically powered Formula E cars with batteries charged by solar farms in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh and then fed to the grid, the event featured teams such as Maserati MSG Racing, Tag Heuer Porsche, Neom McLaren, Avalanche Andretti and Envision Racing as well as Mahindra and Jaguar TCS from the Tata Group. All 20,000 tickets were sold out.
“We’re seeing a seismic shift in the moment globally about how people think about the environment,” said Ian James, a racing veteran, managing director, McLaren Electric Racing.
“Electric vehicles play a key role in that shift. Performance of electric vehicles, the excitement that you get along with it, and also the sustainability credentials. That’s something that we can really push to the maximum. And I think, again, McLaren’s uniquely placed to be able to do that having a team across the F1, Formula E, IndyCar Racing and even extreme motorsports.”
The marriage between technology and energy consumption has to be perfect to make magic on the asphalt, said Florian Modilinger, team principal for Tag Heuer Porsche. “The technical product is quite a big step forward compared to the Generation II cars. It’s double what you have as actual technology on the road cars. The possibility to recuperate with a boost charger 600 kilowatt, is impressive. It’s double than what you have as actual technology on the road cars. That’s one thing. And the second thing, during racing, uh, we recover around 40% energy of what we spend during racing in the breaking phase of the car. Both these numbers are impressive.”
For Greenko, India’s largest clean energy company, which was title sponsor, this event fits nicely with its ongoing energy transition thesis. “The opportunity and responsibility to promote this EV transition is enormous. We will use this property as a platform to enable all our Indian EV manufacturers to participate and promote an entire new ecosystem,” said Anil Chalamalasetty, CEO, Greenko Group.A new electric racing series, the ACE Championship, is set to kick off globally in 2024 with a focus on talent development in underrepresented markets. It will have two levels — the entry-level Challenger Series and the top-tier championship. This will be a feeder platform for drivers and engineering talent to move into other racing series.
This is beyond racing,” said Mahesh Kolli, Joint Managing Director, Greenko Group. “This opportunity was to bring and showcase the best in the world technologies, to the wider market much like how Formula One has been the, the benchmark. And we wanted to bring that through Formula E all the big brands and the technologies that in turn will create confidence among a billion plus population to increase the option for electric vehicles. And we hope at some point this electric will transition to hydrogen as well.”
Auto makers say they see a direct link between Formula E performance and EV adoption and sales. The year 2022 saw EV sales in India jump a record 210% to cross a million vehicles for the first time.
Veejay Nakra, president, automotive sector at Mahindra & Mahindra, said the company has benefited from technologies used in the Formula E car, such as its Inglo platform for EVs. “It’s truly bringing race to the road,” said Nakra. Mahindra’s Inglo platform can accommodate variable lengths, widths, wheelbases and overhangs. This is possible as the auto maker has gone with a lightweight skateboard architecture for the platform making it easier to add different top hats.
Formula E is more than just a racing series,” said James Rossiter, Team Principal, Maserati MSG Racing. “It serves as a competitive platform for global car manufacturers and mobility providers to test and develop road-relevant technologies.” For Maserati, the Formula E Championship is a new technological laboratory to accelerate the development of high efficiency electrified powertrains and intelligent software for its sport road cars.
Still only a few years old, the pandemic took a toll on Formula E. It’s been looking for opportunities to scale up quicker, adding more races in emerging markets such as Saudi Arabia, Brazil, South Africa, US and India to deliver more content and widen the fan base, even though it does not intend to prioritise the monetisation of its media rights in the short term, according to chief executive Jamie Reigle.
