The opening race of the 2018/19 Formula E season is on December 15th, 2018 from Saudi Arabia. This is the first of thirteen races across the course of the season in what is becoming an increasingly popular form of motorsport. The key difference from Formula E to Formula 1 is that there is more of a level playing field in this. More drivers are able to go out and win a race.
Here we take a preview of the 2018/19 Formula E season.
Formula E 2018/19 winner odds*
Lucas Di Grassi 4/1
Jean-Eric Vergne 4/1
Sebastion Buemi 8/1
Felipe Massa 8/1
Daniel Abt 10/1
Alexander Sims 10/1
Antonio Felix da Costa a12/1
Andre Lotterer 16/1
Sam Bridge 16/1
Pascal Wehrlein 22/1
Nelson Piquet 25/1
Robin Frijns 25/1
33/1 bar
* (betting odds taken from bet365 on December 13th, 2018 at 9:40 pm)
Table of Contents
What is Formula E?
This is the all-electric version of F1. The first-ever season of Formula E was only back in 2011. The cars look fairly similar to those in F1, but a bit more futuristic you could say. All of the races in a Formula E season are held on temporary street circuits. Before the 2018/19 season, each driver had two cars for a race, in order to reach the full distance of a given race. All cars are the same chassis and use the same battery, only the powertrain differs between teams (exhaust systems, transmission, drive shaft, suspension). All of them have 250 kW of power to use during the race. So teams have different pre-set power modes to use within the race to plan for strategic racing. But still, there is really no advantage to any team through it.
Gen II Race Car
You will hear a lot about this. The new and even more futuristic Gen II race car is being used for the first time this season. Think more Batcar than an F1 car. It has more power and a bigger range, to the point that it has eliminated the need for pit stops. The Gen II has 250 kW of power (double that of Gen I) and will hit top speeds of 280 km/h
Teams & Drivers
Envision Virgin Racing (UK) – Sam Bird, Robin Frijns
Panasonic Jaguar Racing (UK) – Nelson Piquet Jr., Mitch Evans
HWA Racelab (GER) – Stoffel Vandoorne, Gary Paffett
Geox Dragon (UK) Maximilian Günther, José María López
NIO Formula E Team (UK) – Tom Dillmann, Oliver Turvey
Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler (GER) – Lucas di Grassi, Daniel Abt
Venturi Formula E Team (Monaco) – Felipe Massa, Edoardo Mortara
Nissan e.dams (JPN) – Oliver Rowland, Sébastien Buemi
DS Techeetah Formula E Team (CHN) – Jean-Éric Vergne, André Lotterer
BMW i Andretti Motorsport (USA) – Alexander Sims, António Félix da Costa
Mahindra Racing (IND) – Jérôme d’Ambrosio, Felix Rosenqvist, Pascal Wehrlein[29]
Reigning Champion
The winner of the 2017/18 Formula E season was France’s Jean-Eric Vergne. Vergne won four races across the course of the season and he finished in the points in all of the races that season. In the end, it was a bit of procession for him as he held off the defending champion that was Brazil’s Lucas di Grassi, who put on a late surge of form. But really a couple of early retirements messed up the Brazilian’s entire season. The top British driver last season was Sam Bird who finished one point behind di Grassi in third.
Fanboost
This is a great feature of Formula E. Basically fans can vote for their favourite driver through social media platforms. What that does them is that the top three in the voting for that particular race with each get an extra boost of 100kj of energy to be used during the race. Voting for the Fanboost begins six days before a race and closes after six minutes of the race. So that completes throws an element of unpredictably into a race as no-one knows who is going to get the boost and when they will use it.
Attack Mode
This is a brand new feature for the 2018/19 Formula E season and it is another element of unpredictability which just makes the whole thing even more exciting. Ahead of each race, the FIA will determine the duration of the boost mode and the number of boosts which are made available. This is all kept a secret to stop teams planning through race strategy. When it is activated, drivers can get a boost driving through a designed area of the track which will be off the normal driving line. Think Mario Cart when you drive over a boost.
Race Times
Formula E races don’t have a set number of laps. There is a 45-minute set time for a given race and once that is hit, there is one additional lap before the end of the race.
Race Day Set up
All of the action takes place on one day. There are two morning practice sessions, the first being an hour long and the second 45 minutes. Then there is a break before the E-Prix starts. Qualifying sees drivers divided into groups and each has just the six minutes to produce their fastest lap. All drivers have full power at their disposal to set the best lap. The top five quickest then go out again one by one to have a shootout for the order of the top five.
Points
The exact same scoring system that the FIA use for F1 is also used in Formula E, giving points to the top ten finishers (25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1). The person who earns pole position gets a bonus three points.
2018/19 Races
1 Ad Diriyah ePrix – Saudi Arabia – 15 December 2018
2 Marrakesh ePrix – Morocco – 12 January 2019
3 Santiago ePrix – Chile – 26 January 2019
4 Mexico City ePrix – Mexico – 16 February 2019
5 Hong Kong ePrix – Hong Kong – 10 March 2019
6 Sanya ePrix – China – 23 March 2019
7 Rome ePrix – Italy – 13 April 2019
8 Paris ePrix – France – 27 April 2019
9 Monaco ePrix – Monaco – 11 May 2019
10 Berlin ePrix – Germany – 25 May 2019
11 Bern ePrix – Switzerland – 22 June 2019
12 New York City ePrix – Race 1 United States – 13 July 2019
13 New York City ePrix – Race 2 – 14 July 2019
Formula E Prediction
The great thing about this version of racing is that the playing field looks really even. There are new elements like the attack mode and the new chassis which is adding further unpredictability. So this should be a great season. The leading race winners in the sport are Sebastion Buemi with 12 ePrix victories, followed by Di Grassi with 8, Sam Bird with 7 and the reigning champion Jean-Eric Vergne with five.
The bookmakers are expecting a toss up between Di Grassi and Vergne who are the 4/1 joint-favourites* (betting odds taken from bet365 on December 13th, 2018 at 9:40 pm),
