Formula E in pole position to pass F1
For most people, car racing is all about Formula One. And in the last season, F1 was all about the titanic clash between Lewis Hamilton of the Mercedes team and Max Verstappen of Red Bull
Racing.
But there is a new kid driving around the block, and by the end of the decade it is going to move into the parking space, the racing track and the public adulation that is currently reserved for F1.
It’s called Formula E, the motorsport championship for electric cars, with world championship status conferred by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), the governing body of F1.
Right now, Formula E is a sideshow and even a novelty, but the very reason for its existence is a signpost to its future. Vehicle manufacturers invest in it for the same reason they invest heavily in F1: it is the ultimate testing ground for engine technologies they will build into production cars of the future.
Since all manufacturers acknowledge that electric vehicles will dominate manufacture and sales at some point in the next decade, it follows that F1 must eventually go electric too as much as this is anathema to petrolheads.
It is not a huge coincidence, then, that the current Formula E world champion, Nyck de Vries, also drives for Mercedes. Both he and Hamilton are testing the company’s future.
That was a point made this week by Ian James, MD and team principal of MercedesEQ Formula E. He was speaking in Orlando, Florida, at the annual Sapphire conference, where enterprise resource planning (ERP) software market leader SAP unveiled its latest innovations.
The Mercedes-EQ team uses SAP’s cloud software to optimise business efficiencies and “boost performance on and off the track”. James said the partnership with SAP is integral to the team’s success and contributed to its Formula E World Championship win.
We asked him the single most obvious question in his world, but one that turns out to be the most difficult to answer: when will Formula E merge with Formula One?
“There’s no doubt that this shift to electrification is going to have an impact on both sports,” he said. “We’ve got new engine regulations coming out in 2026 that will take us through to 2030. In that time frame there’s not going to be too much change.
“I think both series will coexist: Formula One will race on purpose-built circuits and Formula E on temporary circuits in city centres in iconic places like New York, London, Berlin, and that’s a unique selling proposition for us.
“What we will see, though, is towards the end of this decade, as battery technology improves, as the range of electric vehicles really takes a step forward, that’s going to be the gamechanger. We see the power of the cars getting up towards the Formula One level and we see the range getting the race distance to Formula One.”
Only then, he believes, can the question be answered.
“Will the two series merge, which is a possibility, or is there some kind of collaboration? It’s something that’s being actively discussed with the FIA.”
James said his team has met with a number of equipment manufacturers in recent weeks some already involved in Formula E and Formula One and some that may get involved in the future.
“Again, we were looking at a time frame towards the end of the decade. And it’s interesting that nobody’s quite got the answer to that. My personal feeling is that we’re going to be about four or five years away from really knowing what the direction is going to be.”
Not that James is sitting on the fence. “I’ve backed a particular horse in this race. I think it is going to shift towards electrification. I think we need that relevance to what’s happening on the road and what the customers are buying, ultimately.”
Electric vehicles will dominate sales within a decade