The revolutionary electric race car of Formula E

Nearly five years after the 100% electric racing series, Formula E, made its exciting debut, the book is about to end its fifth season. It's also a first season with the second-generation, second-generation electric racing car, which is faster, lasts longer and could help propel the series into a more legitimate area of ​​motor sport.

In April, I drove one on a race track.

In fact, I drove the first generation car of the series in 2017, but I have been wanting to try the new since its announcement in 2018. Not only does it look like totally crazy, but it's an important update in just about every way. The old car had a maximum power of 200 kW, about 268 horsepower. The second-generation car (or "Gen2 car", as everyone calls it in sports) peaks at 250 kW or 335 horsepower. The maximum speed of the old car was 150 km / h; the new car reaches 174 km / h and can go from 0 to 100 km / h in less than 3 seconds. Considering that the series had not run a single race that day five years ago, that's fine.

One thing that shocked me when I found myself driving the all-electric all-electric racing car last April is the simplicity of driving. There are no gears like in the original car. Like his predecessor, he uses notched tires instead of slick tires, so I do not have to worry about heating them up. exactly the right temperature, like in a Formula 1 car, for example. Even the halo – the safety device that looks like a rocker that is now over the cockpit of the car – has practically disappeared from my vision once seated.

The most surprising thing, though, was that the Gen2 car of Formula E was feeling Easier to drive only the first generation – and not just because I drove in a limited power mode. The throttle is softer. The brakes are much more tolerant and progressive than those of the old car (which were very easy to lock), thanks to a new cable brake design. The steering is more fluid and precise. Overall, the car felt less agitated, which is very easy to notice given the lack of engine noise.

I'm not saying that the Gen2 car is actually easy drive. That's not the case: 335 horsepower does not seem much, but accelerate too early when you leave a bend or with too much pouffe, and the electric motor and its instantaneous torque will turn the rear wheels (and probably the car) before you know it. Slowly slow braking after driving 100 miles an hour right away, no matter how much you brake the brake pedal. The circuit of Calafat, the track on which I drove it, is narrow and technical, and more than another person who was there that day sped or sent the car in the gravel.

In addition, after a few laps in the Gen2 car, which weighs 900 kilograms and has no power steering, my arms were fully cooked. Not to mention that I did not have to handle all the other aspects of racing in this car, like spending 12 hours a day on a simulator to prepare for a race or manage the battery level while fighting for a position close to the imposing walls of an urban circuit.

Still, I felt comfortable enough with the Gen2 car for the first generation to feel like a prototype. In the old car, I felt a little near his limits. In the new, I felt how much he could bear more.

Photo of Sean O'Kane / The Verge

I did not rely solely on my memory here; Mahindra Racing, the team that let me drive the new car, also made me do some laps in one of their first generation cars in Spain. I was working with a new comparison and the differences were glaring. Even after four seasons of development, the original car resembled the beta version of Formula E, one that allowed the series to solve all the problems.

This is largely true! We knew that the first-generation car was overheating from time to time. He used a battery that could only last about 25 minutes, forcing drivers to queue halfway to change cars. It costs about half as much (about € 400,000, or about $ 445,000) as the Gen2 car, which costs just over € 800,000 (or about $ 900,000).

More than anything, the calm of Gen2 made me understand that it was a car that could be pushed higher in good hands. The technical specifications may be a little more impressive on the paper, but the improvements I've noticed during my few laps in the cockpit have finally helped to define a car capable of handling more aggressive driving. Drivers are not as much at the mercy of this new car as in the old car, where, for example, they had to manually change the balance between traditional brakes and regenerative braking of the electric motor. every turn using a dial on the steering wheel.

Photo of Lou Johnson / Spacesuit Media

The genius of Formula E during its first seasons is that the organizers of the series did not fight the perceived shortcomings of the first-generation car, but embraced them. They used these limitations to the benefit of the series. Cars do not make a lot of noise? Awesome. The host cities are going love this. The batteries do not last long? Wonderful, the younger audience we are targeting has a short attention span anyway. The speeds are not blinding? Fantastic. The smaller urban circuits will make the top speed out of the question, create more braking possibilities to send energy back into the batteries, and they also (still) be more acceptable to host cities as they take up less space.

Now, with a more solid, capable and frankly exciting car at the center of the series – not to mention the takeover of some of the world's biggest automakers such as Audi, BMW, Nissan, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche – Formula E's the organizers build on this basis. They have fewer constraints with which to work and find themselves in a rare position in the world of motor sport where they can now try even more daring ideas that could distinguish the series and, if they have enough, help define the future of the race. No pressure.