When Formula E announced its return to London as an ePrix venue, it did so with style: the series was going to run a race through the ExCeL Center, an exhibition and convention center. That meant we’d see an event take place both indoors and out, one that utilized a wacky layout no one had dreamt up before. And this is how it happened.
If you didn’t watch the race, you missed out. The 1.399-mile circuit with 22 turns was one of the stars of the show, usurped only by wins from British drivers Jake Dennis and Alex Lynn. It also featured some of the typical Formula E chaos, with Lucas di Grassi nabbing a win by failing to respect a drive-through penalty and subsequently being disqualified. But the track was the perfect setting for the drama.
This investigative work comes thanks to Chain Bear on YouTube, who both attended the event and tracked down the people responsible for the London ePrix layout so that he could tell us exactly how this delightful circuit came to be. The full video is below:
One of the first things Stuart at Chain Bear points out is the fact that this is a fairly narrow space in which to host a race. There’s water to one side of the ExCeL Center and rail tracks to the other, so there wasn’t much space for FE to spread its wings. It had to make do with what it had — including figuring out if there was space for things like a pit lane or a fan zone.
But as he notes, the pandemic caused further headaches for the planning of this venue. The ExCeL Center served as both a hospital and a vaccination site, so its fate was consistently up in the air.
It was a dream venue for Formula E, though; the series had been sketching out possible tracks here as far back as its second season, when it knew that its other London ePrix venue in Battersea Park was likely to be short-lived. But the wild nature of the track made it subject to a lot of hemming and hawing from the FIA, which had never sanctioned a race run through a building before.
I'll let Stuart tell you the rest of the story on the development of the circuit, but it's a fascinating one — likely one of the wilder stories we'll see in our era.
DISCUSSION
I watched these races, and if I’m being honest, the track was terrible. Especially that double switchback that could only be negotiated at full steering lock.
I’m in my third season following Formula E. I jumped on because the series was gaining momentum, they had finally dropped car swaps, and it was a good way to stoke my motorsports habit during the typical off season. There’s a lot of potential there. But if you’ll indulge me a moment, I’ll outline what I think the series’ big problem is.
The cars are too damn slow. There, I’ve said it. They’re not dancing on the edge of control, and as a result there’s not enough variability in lap times, thus making passing difficult and race outcomes (to be completely honest) nearly a random event. Witness the number of race winners there’s been this year and how something like the top 12 are still in the title fight with two laps to go. “Ultimate Parity!” one might say, and I can consider that argument. But the cars are not exciting in and of themselves. I can get around how quiet they are.
The reason the cars are slow is they are trying to make the races last 45 minutes. This is because they are trying to run Formula E as a standalone event. Look at MotoGP’s MotoE series as the best example of how to run and electric race series. The MotoE bikes will run a race of about 6 or 7 laps, where the headlining MotoGP race will be 24-26 laps or whatever. The reason is, the power on the E-bikes is cranked way up, because they’re not trying to achieve the range for a long race. As a result, the MotoE bikes are about as fast as the entry level Moto3 bikes, by lap time.
However, MotoE is part of a full slate of the days’ races, MotoE, Moto3, Moto2 and MotoGP. So the fans won’t mind a short electric race, because of all the other stuff going on. It’s a full race day.
Formula E has no support series, and seems determined NOT to support any other series. If Formula E wanted to, they could (today) crank up the power on the cars to make them much faster. However they would lose a lot of range, and thus have to run a much shorter race. This would be fine for competition, but terrible for the show, if Formula E keeps insisting on running as a standalone event. No one is going to come out to the track for a 10 lap race, if that’s all they’re going to get.
To invoke the MotoE analogy again, current Formula E cars are (to my eyes) significantly slower than F3 cars. Having watched several races of each this year, I would even say they are slower than F4 cars. No one is going to be able to prove that for sure though, because Formula E is very clever to not run on tracks that any other race series uses, thus a lack of comparable lap times.
Which is my final point, Formula E needs to run on actual race tracks. Street courses are fine, but many of the Formula E tracks are obtusely tight. I call them kind of hokey.
So in conclusion, what I think they should do is pair up with another race series, crank up the power, and let’s see what these things can do on a proper race course.
Oh, and stop with the attack mode activation zones. Do it like IndyCar does. And dear God get rid of Fan Boost.