Sophie Clare reviews a dramatic first race at Formula E’s end of season London double-header.

After a fun Friday refamiliarising myself with the London E-Prix paddock, Saturday brought with it the first day of racing action.  Most significantly, the day began with seven different drivers in contention for the Championship title and both the Team’s and Manufacturer’s standings still undecided.  After checking in to the site I made my way straight to the media centre, taking the time during Free Practice to prepare some notes for the day.

I was pleased to join a friendly group of journalists to take part in a media programme hosted by ABB.  Laura Simpson was an informative guide to their work in partnership with Formula E, allowing us to learn more about the electric chargers used by the team cars and safety car. It was particularly insightful to speak with Eric Ernst, Formula E’s VP of Technology.  He explained to us some of the technological developments behind Formula E’s operations, including the delivery of a sustainable but reliable broadcast.  One of these innovations is an uninterruptible power supply, UPS, which provides power to broadcast equipment in case of disruption to the grid and can be transported with the rest of the track and paddock infrastructure to each race location.  The interview also gave us the opportunity to see inside the broadcast centre, a crucial component of the race weekend.  This facilitates both the live material watched by fans attending in-person and the television broadcast at home.

Another highlight of the day was a visit to the Porsche garage, who were kind enough to show us around and explain some of the statistics and innovations behind Formula E’s racing setup.  Everything is thought of, even down to spaces in the garage wall for the drivers’ helmets to be dried in between sessions!  A walk through the pitlane was an enjoyable opportunity to watch fans getting to interact with the drivers – the autograph sessions are always a hugely popular element of the Formula E weekend and it is clear that both teams and fans appreciate the opportunity to share their passion for racing directly. 

One of our other stops was to the Girls on Track and ABB area in the Fan Village.  We were able to try out working with a collaborative robot, one of the coding and technology challenges presented to visitors who have attended the weekend with the FIA Girls on Track initiative.  There are also many other activities to discover in the Fan Village, including an escape room, sim racing and plenty of competitions.

We reached the afternoon and it was time for the lights to go out after a performance from Ella Henderson.  I watched the race from the media centre, which was hugely tense and exciting!  You can see when it is an eventful race because even the busiest of journalists turn away from their writing and are glued to the broadcast screen! 

The top three drivers then shared their thoughts in the press conference and media pen.  Pascal Wehrlein, Nick Cassidy and Mitch Evans all stand a chance at the title today so will be hoping to replicate their performance again in round 16.  I had an insightful chat with Nyck de Vries who was celebrating Mahindra’s best performance of the season, with the team securing 4th and 5th place despite a variety of tense battles and contact elsewhere on track.  

I finished off the day in the media centre, writing up some of the material from the day and preparing for the final race of the season on Sunday afternoon.  The championship is all still to play for, so it will be great to watch the action first-hand.  Make sure to watch on Quest free-to-view TV broadcast in the UK.