Cars

Racing goes electric: At the track with Formula E, the first e-racing series

Ars checks out the new all-electric racing car series on its first visit to the US.

Jonathan M. Gitlin – Mar 29, 2015 10:00 am | 91

Credit: Elle Cayabyab Gitlin

MIAMI—The pit lane we’re standing in is unusual, and not only because it’s a temporary setup placed in the shadow of American Airlines Arena (home of the NBA’s Miami Heat). Garages are set up on both sides rather than being limited to one. A few things also appear to be missing. To start, a familiar smell from the usual mix of burning hydrocarbons is absent. And it’s remarkably quiet. The occasional impact wrench bursts out in a mechanical staccato, generators drone here and there, but there are no V8s burbling, no V6s screaming.

Video: Ars visits the track.

But the biggest omission? Well, it’s what powers the entire event—or, perhaps more notably, what doesn’t.

Welcome to Formula E, the world’s first fully electric racing series. Miami is playing host to the first of two US rounds—the next being held in Long Beach, CA, on April 4—and it’s the fifth race in this ePrix’s inaugural season. Given we’ve got a bit of a thing about racing at Cars Technica, as well as an obvious interest in electric vehicles, we had to be on the ground in Miami to experience this for ourselves.

The series kicked off in Beijing in September 2014, and this inaugural 11-round season ends in London this June. Each race takes place in a city center on a temporary street circuit, and the events are condensed into a single day. This both maximizes the spectacle for the fans in attendance and minimizes the disruption to everyone else in the city (with the road closures and so on). It’s one of many things we discovered Formula E does in contrast to the more traditional two- or three-day race meeting.

The Miami track has been built on the streets surrounding the city’s NBA arena (and the small park that lies next to it). But our day begins in the media center, a gigantic room that usually plays host to the Miami Heat (the court side bathrooms are really nice). After signing the requisite waivers and grabbing a cup of coffee, we head out to the pit lane with an open mind and a sense of curiosity about a series that was—and continues to be—viewed by some with a healthy skepticism.

The cars

Largely, that skepticism is aimed at the cars Formula E is racing. For this first season, each of the ten teams is using identical Spark-Renault SRT_01Es, open wheel race cars that look somewhat similar to a Formula 1 or IndyCar. Unlike those series, the SRT_01Es are actually a mix of carbon fiber and aluminum (rather than just carbon fiber), but that may be the least significant difference. Behind the driver where you’d normally expect to find a fuel tank and internal combustion engine, there’s a 28 kWh lithium-ion battery supplied by the Williams F1 team. This sends up to 200 kW to the powertrain, an electric motor, and five-speed gearbox (supplied by McLaren, another F1 team).

Both companies are rather proud of their contributions to the SRT_01E. Williams was constrained by a rulebook that insisted the battery couldn’t weigh more than 441 lbs (200 kg), and the design of the chassis also dictated its dimensions. Despite this, the company built a battery that actually exceeds the allowed energy storage and meets all the crash safety requirements. What’s more, it did it in six months, drawing on its experience in F1 and with the stillborn Jaguar CX-75 hybrid hypercar. McLaren actually adapted the electric motor and gearbox from its P1 hypercar for the SRT_01E. The company claims that, at 8 kW/kg, the motor has three or four times the power density of typical series hybrid motors.

During practice and qualifying, the SRT_01E is set to maximum power—200 kW, which is equivalent to 270 horsepower. In the races, this is reduced to 150 kW, although in practice drivers will turn this down even further to maximize battery life.

Ah yes, battery life. This is Formula E’s elephant in the room. At 28 kWh, the SRT_01E’s batteries don’t store enough electricity to last a full race, and recharging takes almost an hour—far too long to be practical in a pit stop. What’s more, a decision was made to use the battery’s safety cell as part of the car’s structure, so they can’t just be swapped during a race (even though Williams had just such a system in development).

The solution? Each Formula E driver needs two cars for the race, jumping from one to the other during a pit stop. In the lead up to the season, this idea drew much derision, and we must confess it still doesn’t sit right. However, the alternative would be a battery that weighed twice as much. The current Formula E battery has roughly the same energy density as Tesla’s 85 kWh unit, which weighs more than twice as much. And at almost 2,000 lbs, the SRT_01E could ill afford to gain more weight.

The final big difference between a Formula E car and every other single-seater—or just about every other circuit racing car for that matter—is the fact that these cars don’t use slick tires. Instead, Michelin has created bespoke 18″ treaded tires that look quite similar to the Pilot Sport Cup 2s that the French company makes for track-focused super and hypercars like the Ferrari 458 Speciale or Porsche 918 Spyder. Michelin told us that despite appearances, the Pilot Sport EVs are still purpose-built racing tires. The fact that they have treads means no need for pit stops in the event of rain (slick tires with no grooves or sipes to displace water mean instant aquaplaning when encountering puddles), and this versatility allows it to bring many fewer tires to each race (further cutting costs and the environmental impact). It might be subjective, but to us the SRT_01E’s 18″ wheels look a lot better than the tiny 13″ wheels that F1 continues to use.

The result of all of this is a car that has a lot of low down acceleration, but which tops out at around 140 mph. On a purpose-built racetrack, the SRT_01E’s limitations would be quite apparent, but the layouts of the street circuits that Formula E runs are designed to reward the car’s performance envelope; the straights are short enough that the cars don’t seem slow. This is probably the main reason why both the Long Beach and Monaco rounds of the series will use shorter versions than the IndyCar and Formula 1 events those cities hold. (We have a sneaking suspicion that preventing direct lap time comparisons may also factor in to things.)

The event

Back in the pit lane pre-race, things get a little heated. The Formula E officials had to keep delaying the schedule. The problem appears to be the track—it’s still not quite ready. Neither the first practice session (8:15am to 9am), nor the first Formula E Schools session (9:30am to 9:50am) have taken place yet, and no one has a clear idea when the track will finally go green. Finally around 10:30am, it appears that everything is now ready. Drivers begin to leave their garages and take to the tracks.

The sound of an SRT_01E in motion really is quite unlike anything we’ve experienced at a racetrack in the past. As you’ll hear from the video, the best approximation we can think of might be the Millennium Falcon. A combination of the electric motor and the straight-cut gears gives them a not-unpleasant whine as they rush down the pit lane. Formula E claims the noise is around 80 dB (and a standard road car is 70 dB). They’re loud enough that it’s not like a silent parade, but quiet enough that track marshals (the corner workers who wave the warning flags) are stationed at the exit and entry to the pits with whistles. They can use whistles to warn everyone when a car is coming (i.e. don’t be standing on a hot track).

During the race, more than a few people seem oblivious to those warnings. There are many more people in the pit lane than ought to be there, and it’s not improving the officials’ mood. But since we’re no strangers to a pit lane, your intrepid Ars correspondents make sure to keep well out of the way, watching (and filming) the proceedings from the garage reserved for the safety car—in this case a BMW i8. This hybrid sportscar has been equipped with Qualcomm Halo’s wireless charging system (which we’ll have plenty more about in a forthcoming article).

We hang around in the pit lane for the next hour or so, watching the teams work on the cars, before meeting with Qualcomm and Formula E safety car driver Bruno Correia. With the practice session over, the SRT_01s are back in their garages. Power cables and cooling hoses snake over carbon fiber bodywork, cooling and recharging the complex electronics within. Now that the track is cold, the pit lane is opened up for VIPs, replicating some of the media circus more commonly associated with Formula 1. We’re about to leave the rarefied air of the pit lane to join the paying public (so we can watch the Schools race) when an opportunity to see the track up close suddenly presents itself thanks to a very kind invitation from Qualcomm to ride alongside Bruno for a lap of the track.

A quick dash up to the i8 follows. We get buckled in to the harness and attach the GoPro to the screen, sadly failing to notice that it’s set to photo burst and not movie. (Let this be a lesson to everyone else out there!) The 1.3 mile track is quite technical, and almost every corner is a 90? blind turn, the exit hidden behind the concrete or TecPro barriers that line the streets. There are also a number of different surfaces, from grippy asphalt to more slippery concrete, not to mention a set of railway tracks at one point.

Bruno’s driving is both rapid and confident, attacking the apices and almost brushing the walls with the car’s wing mirrors at times. The i8 starts out in electric mode, but its engine kicks in pretty quickly, evident by a pleasant growl that may be the only engine noise heard all day. The i8 is no slouch on this track, either. A minute and a half later we’re back where we started (by contrast, the fastest qualifying time for the SRT_01E was 1:05.953). Even the discovery that our planned video would now at best have to be a Ken Burns-style montage couldn’t wipe away the smiles of the experience, and we left with a new-found respect for the skill level it takes to race on concrete-lined street circuits.

In the stands

Out of the media center, we find things slightly more shambolic for the general public. As a spectator, it’s evident this a new event. There’s a long queue to cross the pedestrian bridge to where our seats are, thanks to apathetic crowd control that’s allowing people to stop and gawp from the top of a bridge rather than keeping things flowing. The ramps onto the grandstands are similarly unpoliced, and strong elbows are required to navigate our way to our seats.

Despite this, the place is packed (post race estimates put the crowd at 20,000), and everyone has a smile on their face. A very slow but extremely thrilling Schools race entertains the crowd until finally it’s time for the main event. The hour-long race that follows is actually very good, without any of the safety car periods that interrupted previous rounds (and which so often occur on tight street courses where accidents block the track and require slowing everyone down to clear up). Even though the SRT_01Es aren’t loud, when a pack of 20 rush past at more than 100 mph, it activates all the right neural reward circuits. The crowd is treated to a magnificent drive by US racer Scott Speed as he fights his way up the running order.

The verdict?

Actually, we didn’t really know quite how good a race Speed had until later that evening, nor did we know why Sam Bird (a young British hotshot) seemed to drop out of contention halfway through. The PA, like the crowd control, left quite a lot to be desired. It was almost impossible to follow the race trackside, even though we sat near a jumbo screen. One of Formula E’s gimmicks is to accompany the commentary with electronic music that adds absolutely nothing. In this case, the relentless squelching noises of 909s and 303s made it even harder to work out what was actually happening when the cars were out of sight.

But given that this was the first race at Miami in quite a few years, and the first year of Formula E, we’re prepared make allowances (particularly since everyone we spoke to in the crowd told us how good a time they were having). The carnival atmosphere of a street race worked as a fun day out, even if aspects left the hardcore racing fan somewhat nonplussed.

As entertainment, the series has met its goal in the first season. The racing is exciting, and the single-day event format in city centers is a good recipe for a fun day out. As far as pushing the boundaries of what electric vehicles are capable of, that will have to wait until next year at the earliest. Once the technical restrictions ease up, we’d expect to see each team start developing and innovating. In year two, Formula E teams are going to have some freedom to work with, first with the powertrain (motors and gearboxes). And in year three, the batteries are also open to development.

Here’s hoping for great things from Formula E in the years to come. But even as it stands now, it is quite the electric event.

(Sorry.)

Extended Race Highlights of the Miami ePrix.

Jonathan M. Gitlin Automotive Editor

Jonathan is the Automotive Editor at Ars Technica. He has a BSc and PhD in Pharmacology. In 2014 he decided to indulge his lifelong passion for the car by leaving the National Human Genome Research Institute and launching Ars Technica's automotive coverage. He lives in Washington, DC.

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