'E' for exciting?

pared to about 130 for an F1 car.

Its innovative driving concepts come without F1's carbon emissions.

The series runs on fully electric cars and, right now, is hardly electrifying to watch and far slower than F1. That hasn't put off Porsche and Mercedes.

Porsche, which has won the last two editions of 24 Hours Le Mans, announced Friday it was backing out of the world endurance championship and turning its attention to Formula E as from 2019 .

Four days earlier, Mercedes said it was quitting the DTM touring car series to compete in Formula E, also in the 201920 campaign.

Porsche and Mercedes will get the chance to race against each other, and against Jaguar and Renault.

"If somebody told me when we started this project five years ago, that we'd be announcing a partnership with a brand like Porsche, I wouldn't have believed it," said Alejandro Agag, the founder and chief executive officer of Formula E.

The current Formula E leader is Swiss driver Sebastien Buemi, who never placed above seventh in a 55- race F1 career. Second-placed Lucas di Grassi's F1 career lasted one season with a best result of 14th .

German veteran Nick Heidfeld, sixth in the standings, enjoyed a decent F1 career — with 13 podium finishes — but at 40 years old is no longer in his prime. Behind him, Frenchman Jean- Eric Vergne's F1 career lasted 58 races for Toro Rosso with a best of sixth.

Then there's Nelson Piquet Jr. — the son of three-time F1 champion Nelson Piquet — who had an underwhelming twoyear spell with Renault in F1.

Great locations, great sights and some famous names, including actor Leonardo DiCaprio, an investor in FE and a member of its sustainability committee. Those are plus points. But can Formula E become exciting to watch?

"I don't have a strong opinion because I never saw the real car," twotime F1 champion Fernando Alonso said. "They race in the best cities in the world and they are promoting this Formula E in a very good way. It's clear it's attractive for some of the big manufact urers, as Mercedes showed."

Nico Hulkenberg, a German driver with the F1 Renault team, says "I've never been to a race or seen the car," but adds that it "will be interesting to see where it goes in the next couple of years."

Formula E reaches speeds of 140 mph ( 227 kph), compared to 230 mph (373 kph) in F1.