The 2019/20 Formula E season is just around the corner, with 24 drivers and 12 teams from across the world battling it out for the championship title in the highest class competition for electric open-wheel racing.

Since its inaugural championship back in 2014, this young motorsport has paved the way for an era of pure electric racing, with its first-generation cars reaching top speeds of around 225km/h (140mph).

Manufacturers invested in the sport, however, are consistently developing new technologies to ensure these racing cars are more powerful, efficient and, most importantly, faster.

“We’ve come a long way and progressed at a rapid rate in such a short space of time,” says Formula E founder and chairman, Alejandro Agag. “We were essentially a start-up in the first few seasons and the idea itself was only written down on paper eight years ago. Now we’re entering our sixth season and continuing to charge forward.”

In its last season (2018/19), the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) introduced a new car to the competition. Known as the Gen2, the Batmobile-esque machine is capable of speeds of up to 280km/h (174mph), thus showing how rapidly the technology has progressed.

“The cars have got quicker – they look cooler, too!” Agag exclaims. “We’ve also gone from two cars to one car per driver [2018/2019] and doubled the range of the battery. That’s the biggest visual indication of the progress we’ve made with the performance and efficiency of the second-generation car.”

Besides its Gen2 car, which is intended to be raced for three more seasons, teams can tinker with their cars to ensure they can go faster – within regulations, of course.

“The regulations and room for manoeuvre are concentrated to areas of the car around the electric powertrain, with the freedom to develop components such as the motor, inverter, gearbox and rear suspension,” Agag explains. “Therefore, teams take the energy from the battery and can control how best to put that power down.

“This was a conscious decision to limit what teams can influence, especially in the early phase of the lifespan of the series,” he adds. “Having a certain number of ‘spec parts’ keeps competition close – which is what we and fans want – and it keeps costs down, which is what the teams want!”

Agag also highlights how there is an even-minded investment within the teams to ensure the competition is fair. “What we wanted to avoid is one team dominating, or one team winning by out-spending another,” says Agag.

Indeed, by regulation, teams who develop their own powertrains have to offer them to customer teams at a fixed price. This allows customer teams and independent teams to have a chance at competing. Agag cites TECHEETAH in season four and Envision Virgin Racing last season as examples.

“As you can see, the cars look the same,” he says, “but they’re all different beneath the surface and under the skin of the car. There’s room for ideas and innovation, but without impacting the sporting spectacle.”

Formula E, however, is not all about winning races: it is also about shaping developments in our road cars.

In Formula One (F1), its regulators introduced a down-sized V6 turbocharged engine to its cars in 2014 which mirror developments in road-car engine technologies; smaller, hybridised engines. Agag praises the current hybrid units used in the F1 cars. “They’re a work of art,” he says, “and improved the efficiency of the internal combustion engine.

“However, that’s not our game,” Agag insists – and much like its hybrid-powered sibling, Formula E hopes to bring electric racing tech to our roads, aspiring to forge the future of electric mobility. “The automotive industry is moving towards electric and we’re the platform to progress that changeover.”

In July 2017, Mercedes – which currently hold the top two positions on the F1 driver leader board with Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas, and have just won the 2019 constructors’ championship – announced its entry to this season of Formula E. The team’s reason for joining the series is described by managing director Ian James, who says “we’re first and foremost racers at heart”.

“We see this as something which provides a fantastic level of competition,” James adds, “and it also provides a unique platform to showcase electric vehicle technology.”

Mercedes intends to embed this tech into its electric road cars. In fact, the team has set up meetings between its Formula E engineers and engineers working on the company’s EQ range, with James saying how these workshops will “ensure that we’ve got that knowledge transfer taking place”.

In other words, Formula E is essentially a living laboratory for EV technology. Porsche, a newcomer to the 2019/20 season alongside Mercedes, dropped out of the Le Mans endurance races so that it could invest in Formula E for the same reason.

Agag agrees: “Motorsport has always been a laboratory for the automotive industry and it still is today. Seat belts, wing mirrors and carbon brakes were all conceived in F1 before later being transferred to road cars.”

He adds that Formula E is doing the same for components on electric cars, by testing new technologies and pushing them to the production line. “You could argue that Formula E is now the most road-relevant category in motorsport, in terms of the future direction of the motor industry,” he says.

Agag highlights examples of Formula E technology that is already on our roads. For example, the Panasonic Jaguar Racing team embeds the same technology from the Jaguar I-PACE into its racing cars. These include its all-aluminium architecture, motors in the front and rear axle, and a 90kWh battery pack, which sits on the floor of the car.

Furthermore, the NIO EP9 and Aston Martin Rapide E take inspiration from the motors made in Formula E. “The Audi e-Tron takes learnings from Formula E and so will future Nissan Leaf models,” Agag adds.

Indeed, Formula E could accelerate the switch to electric, Agag says. “When electric cars are more efficient, more accessible and affordable for consumers, then the crossover will come”.

When highlighting the fact that the technology used in Formula E cars mirrors that in our current, and future, electric road cars, Agag argues that it has become the motorsport for generations to come. However, he acknowledges that it will be hard to compare with the rich history of F1.

“You can’t compare the glamour of Grand Prix racing: they have a history of almost 70 years and names from the past, like Stewart, Fangio, Prost and Senna,” he says.

That being said, some drivers have already chosen Formula E ahead of Formula One. For example, Nyck de Vries – the current F2 champion – is joining Stoffel Vandoorne at Mercedes-Benz EQ this season. “This shows how far we’ve come, that even young drivers are now looking to Formula E,” Agag adds.  

Not only have drivers who have previously driven in the hybrid-powered class decided to switch to pure-electric racing, but some have also tested the road-car technology themselves, reciprocating positive feedback to those involved in the motorsport.

In fact, current F1 champion Lewis Hamilton recently drove an EQC Mercedes road car in Melbourne ahead of the 2019 Australian Grand Prix and spoke positively about the experience on his social media channels.

According to online magazine Autosport, team principal of the Mercedes F1 team, Toto Wolff, said that he would let Hamilton sample a Mercedes Formula E car if the world champion ever wanted an outing. However, he stressed Hamilton is not about to join the grid in the electric single-seater championship due to his commitment to the F1 series.

Nevertheless, Agag believes that Formula E coincides with the technologies of the future that are being tested today. “Again, it’s hard to compare with the history of Formula One,” Agag concludes. “But we’re making our own history.”