The sixth season of the Formula E all-electric race series kicks off this Friday and Saturday with a double-header in on the outskirts of Riyadh in Saudi Arabia.
This season will include 14 races, 5 continents and 12 teams. One race lasts 45 minutes plus one lap.
With each new season, more major auto manufacturers are coming on-board to Formula E.
This year sees the entry of Mercedes and Porsche, who are joining existing teams from Audi, Jaguar, Nissan, BMW, DS (Citroen), Nio (a Chinese auto manufacturer) and Indian manufacturer Mahindra.
Audi driver Lucas di Grassi puts it as
“Fans can look forward to a super-thrilling season. We have two new manufacturers – Mercedes and Porsche – that will immediately be in contention, plus 24 absolute top-class drivers. It’s great to see Formula E becoming increasingly professional and exciting. But this also makes it more difficult for all of us to win races or to even consistently clinch good results. We’ve prepared ourselves as best we can and are ready to race.”
Sponsor ABB says the Formula E Championship last season drew more than 400,000 spectators to the city-street races and its cumulative television audience increase by 24 percent to 411 million. More than 72% of Formula E social media fans were under 35.
“I see ABB Formula E as our test-bed for innovative technologies, which we can apply to daily life in order for all of us to contribute to lowering our carbon footprint and contribute to a better world in the future,” said Peter Voser, ABB’s CEO and Chairman.
The calendar for the 2019-20 series is:
November 22: Riyadh
November 23: Riyadh
January 18: Santiago, Chile
February 15: Mexico City, Mexico
February 29: Marrakesh, ……
March 21: Sanya, China
April 19: Rome, Italy
April 18: Paris, France
May 3: Seol, South Korea
June 6: Jakarta, Indonesia
June 21: Berlin, Germany
July 11: New York, USA
July 25: London, UK
July 26: London, UK
Further information and ways to view the series can be found at www.fiaformulae.com.
Bryce Gaton is an expert on electric vehicles and contributor for The Driven and Renew Economy. He has been working in the EV sector since 2008 and is currently working as EV electrical safety trainer/supervisor for the University of Melbourne. He also provides support for the EV Transition to business, government and the public through his EV Transition consultancy EVchoice.