MIAMI GARDENS — Formula 1 racing has produced some of the most astounding cars on the planet: They can leap from 0 to 60 mph in 2.6 seconds.
But now they have a rival. Formula E, a racing series that began in 2014 and is essentially an all-electric version of Formula 1, just launched a new generation of cars, the GEN3 Evo, that can accelerate even faster than a Formula 1 car, vaulting from 0 to 60 mph in just 1.82 seconds, according to series officials.
What’s equally more impressive is the technology that’s being developed on the track, and how it will eventually trickle down to street-legal EVs.
Formula E will race in Homestead in April, but the cars were on display recently as the series put on a promotional event at the Miami International Autodrome at Hard Rock Stadium.
The cars look like smaller, narrower Formula 1 cars, and team names might sound familiar: Andretti, Jaguar, Maserati, Tag Heuer Porsche. There are others, such as the Envision team, which aims to “inspire generations to tackle climate change and transition to e-mobility and renewable energy.”
Either way, the racetrack has become an outlandishly fast lab for sustainability.
As the cars ripped by on the track, the speed is startling, and almost doesn’t make sense. But there’s no deafening scream of a Formula 1 race. The cars sound more like jets shooting by.
Races last between 45 minutes to an hour, and have more turns and tight corners than Formula 1, and fewer long straightaways.
Sebastien Buemi, who drives for Envision, is a Season 2 Formula E Champion, four-time 24-hours of Le Mans winner and ex-Formula 1 driver. He said it’s difficult to compare the Formula 1 cars with Formula E because the regulations are different.
“We (Formula E) have a lot less downforce on the car; we don’t have slick tires — we have road tires, so obviously it removes grip. But the car is generally compact and small, so on the street circuit with tight corners, the car is extremely efficient and quick because the change of directions are quick.”
He also loves the fact that unlike Formula 1, Formula E cars are now four-wheel drive. “When you have also the front wheels pulling you out of a corner, the acceleration is mega. Oh, it’s impressive,” he said.
Power play
The cars start the race with about 60% of the energy they need to finish it.
To survive, they have to produce energy as they race. The trick is regenerative braking, where instead of using brakes to slow the car, the engine slows the car and acts as a generator. That energy can then be stored and used later in the race.
The drivers don’t actually brake, but rather let the engine do the work, said Charlie Harbord, communications manager for Formula E.
The need to regeneratively brake changes how the race circuits are designed.
“When you think of really high speeds or flowing corners, you’re not really using the brakes that much,” Harbord said. “So we do need to sometimes modify the tracks, like put in a chicane so there are more high-to-low-speed corners. That then helps the regeneration. You really get the most amount of regeneration by going from a very high speed to a very small speed.”
Pit stops are another major difference.
Formula E doesn’t use them unless there are two races in a weekend.
On those doubleheaders, teams can come in for a quick “pit boost,” which is a battery charge that puts 600 kilowatts of power into the engines in just 30 seconds, Harbord said.
Changing tires in a frantic Formula 1 pitstop is dramatic and crucial. Not so in Formula E.
“Our tires are specifically designed for Formula E to be really sustainable, both in endurance and in materials. A car will have two sets for an entire weekend — that includes qualifying, practice and the race,” said Harbord.
Formula 1 cars are allowed 20 sets of tires for each race weekend, though they won’t use all of them, depending on weather conditions.
Formula E’s goal with tires is less waste and a lower carbon footprint — bringing fewer tires reduces their freight and emissions.
Thirty-five percent of Formula E’s tires, made by Hankook, are either recycled or natural materials, said Harbord, and they are then recycled into new tires.
Getting an electric leg up on the competition
The 11 Formula E teams share the same chassis, battery and tires, but they can tinker with powertrains, suspension and software. And tinker they do.
“There’s a huge amount,” said James Barclay, team principal of Jaguar TCS Racing, which both races and provides the Envision team with their car’s powertrain and suspension. “There are over 1,000 components.”
Barclay said the software in EV racing is as crucial as aerodynamics is to Formula 1. “It’s how the car drives, how we help the car put nearly 500 horsepower down on the ground, how we make the cars as drivable as possible and as efficient as possible. That’s what the software is there for.”
The iterative competition has made the cars faster, the batteries lighter and more powerful, and the software more precise. In 2014, drivers had to change cars mid-race to have enough power, and they needed gears because the engines couldn’t produce enough torque. Now a single car runs the race, a single gear propels the car and batteries charge in 30 seconds.
Barclay said that in a 45-minute race, Formula E cars use less than the equivalent of 5 liters (1.3 gallons) of fuel, even as they reach 180 mph on some tracks. If that was an internal combustion car, it would use close to 30 liters (8 gallons) of fuel, he said.
And though the drivers don’t shift gears, the design and size of the gear plays a major role in success. “That’s a big part of the calculation of how fast the car goes, how efficient the car is — do you have acceleration over top speed? That’s all open to us,” he said.
As for software translating to the street, Harbord said that technology that Jaguar developed on the track allowed them to send out software updates to customers who owned Jaguar I-Pace EVs.
They got 10% more battery range overnight, not because the battery was new, but because the software system became more efficient.
The Miami race will be held April 11 and 12 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. After Miami, Formula E goes on to race in Monaco, Shanghai and other glamourous cities, ending in London on July 27.
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