After an exciting first day at the ExCeL centre in London, Sophie Clare highlights the competitive action due to unfold over the weekend.

This weekend brings an exciting double-header in London’s ExCeL Centre, as season 10 of Formula E comes to a close.  The electric racing series enters the final two races of the season with seven drivers in contention to win the Championship, as well as small margins separating the top of the Teams’ Championship and the inaugural Manufacturers’ Trophy.

So far, Nick Cassidy and Mitch Evans of Jaguar TCS Racing lead the standings, followed by Pascal Wehrlein and António Félix da Costa of TAG Heuer Porsche.  Rounding out the drivers with a chance at Championship victory are Oliver Rowland of Nissan Formula E, Jean-Éric Vergne of DS PENSKE and Andretti’s Jake Dennis, who will hope to catch up the leading drivers in a bid to secure his second consecutive World Championship after victory in 2023.

The Friday schedule provides teams with valuable time on track, both in shakedown and Free Practice 1.  After arriving at the media centre, I first joined a panel session to hear from team members at Hankook Motorsport.  It was fascinating to hear their insights, particularly with preparations for the new Gen3 Evo and its accompanying tyres well underway.  Maximilian Guenther of Maserati MSG Racing was also there to discuss the interaction between driver and tyre development, discussing the unique challenges posed by the London E-Prix track.  Stay tuned for a full write-up of their reflections.

After the Hankook panel I enjoyed the chance to catch up with Dom Wilde, who I met at my first race weekend, the Extreme E Dorset X Prix in 2021!  It’s great to hear about the work which goes into media scheduling and output, not least because every team, publication and journalist has a different approach and different objectives. Next stop was the paddock, where I was pleased to join Oriane Ganivet and Nathalie Dumas from DS PENSKE for shakedown and FP1.  Having joined the team previously during last year’s Berlin E-Prix, it was informative to hear about their work, and to learn more about the processes behind their communications strategy over a race weekend.  The teams and drivers have a media day on the Thursday of each race week, so yesterday they were able to prepare a lot of the content they will be releasing over the weekend.  

Lizzie Brooks and Gille Vanthoor from Maserati MSG Racing were kind enough to answer some of my questions about this process, explaining how the media day is an ideal opportunity for everyone involved to get creative and jump on current social media trends.  As the weekend progresses this also means that the teams can give the drivers space to get in the zone and focus on racing, while still fulfilling requests from various stakeholders whether Formula E themselves or team sponsors.

In between shakedown and FP1, I spent some time people watching in the pit lane, which was busy with guests from the Change. Accelerated. sustainability conference and FIA Girls on Track events taking place on Friday.  This season Formula E has expanded its initiative to deliver FIA Girls on Track experiences at each race location, with the series due to surpass 2000 participants over the season-long campaign.  Local girls attending the event had the opportunity to explore the full race weekend experience, from the Fan Village to the pitlane.  It was lovely to watch their excitement and passion for racing being supported by all the Formula E and team staff who were answering their questions.  During my time exploring the paddock I was also grateful to Damian Meaden from Mahindra Formula E, who took the time to answer my questions about working in the motorsport media and communications space.  Something which only seems to be re-emphasised each time I am in the paddock is what a supportive environment Formula E fosters.  Enthusiasm and curiosity are encouraged, and despite the global scale of the series itself, the paddock is still small enough to be close-knit.

As if to prove the unpredictability of this weekend, FP1 saw mixed results for the Championship contenders.  Jean-Éric Vergne topped the timesheets, although title contender Evans was just 0.065 seconds behind. Nick Cassidy and Pascal Wehrlein found themselves in 11th and 13th, with home hero Jake Dennis in 15th.  Nothing is guaranteed to stay the same for the rest of the weekend, so FP2 this morning will provide further clues as to the performance of each team in the crucial qualifying stages.  When it comes to the races, it is truly all to play for, with a level of competition which stands Formula E out from the crowd.  It is also worth a reminder that this weekend’s racing action will be available on free-to-view broadcast channel Quest in the UK, so make sure to tune in.

I ended my Friday with some time in the media centre, collecting my thoughts from a busy schedule and preparing for the first race day.  It is sure to be an exhilarating weekend of racing, with the Championship win up for grabs and the potential for upheaval in the standings.  Stay tuned on our Instagram, @cammotorsportfanssoc for more updates during the weekend.