Formula E Reckons That Most Other Motorsports Could Be Gone By 2040
The all-electric Formula E championship is into its fourth season and though it has its problems, it continues to grow. Fan opinion is divided - for some, the tight street circuits aren’t really conducive to good racing, there’s too much in the way of post-race penalties, and the lack of engine sound is an insurmountable obstacle.
Manufacturers, on the other hand, are tripping over each other to be a part of it. Jaguar, Renault, Audi, and Citroen are already involved, with BMW, Mercedes, and Porsche all scheduled to enter in over the next couple of years. Given that road car technology is heading for an electric future, it’s hardly surprising that manufacturers want a platform to showcase that technology.
Formula E also has an appealing multi-year plan to steadily improve the technology whilst also keeping costs down. Contrast this to the current state of Formula 1, where disagreements over the future running of the sport - of which the engine rules are a big part - threaten to fracture the status quo.
It’s for reasons like these that Sir Richard Branson (who owns Formula E team DS Virgin Racing) thinks that Formula E will be bigger than F1 within a decade.
“It’s growing very rapidly, every season they’re bringing in new initiatives. I’m willing to forecast that 10 years from now, if Formula 1 continue in their current way, I think Formula E will overtake it.
“And so it should, because the world should be powered by clean cars. We’ve all got to wean ourselves off dirty cars, and Formula E can lead the way in that.”
Optimistic? Perhaps. After all, Formula 1 is one of those things that we all love to complain about but can’t bring ourselves to stop watching.
Founder and CEO of Formula E, Alejandro Agag, also thinks that Branson is stretching it a bit, but told ESPN that he does believe it could become the only realistic motorsport option at some point in the future.
“We never like to put ourselves in competition with F1. We love F1, we think F1 is great. But I never disagree with Richard Branson, he’s a very clever man and he gets it right most of the time.”
“I think Formula E is going to get really, really big. I believe that in 20, 30, 40 years, we will be the only motorsport out there. There may be others but we will be probably the main motorsport because the world will be electric. If the world is not electric in 20 or 30 years, we are in trouble. So, even if that happens, then Formula E will be the championship of the cars.”
It’s a bold assumption. Given the way some other championships are going at the moment it might seem plausible, but it also assumes that those same championships won’t adapt and overcome their issues at some point in the next 20 or so years.
Electric power may well be the future of motoring, but it doesn’t mean that the internal combustion engine is just going to go away. Demand for ‘traditional’ motorsport is likely to stick around for longer than some might expect - until all those people old enough to have experienced the joy of smelling racing fuel and been deafened by a wailing V12 are gone, perhaps!
Comments
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I will be a grown up by 2040 so I don’t think I will get to drive a F1 car. And in the exchange offer, I will get to drive these FE cars..
I’m all for electric motorsport, but it’s a little presumptuous to assume that all others will fade away,leaving one series… they just won’t be the same as they are now… WEC, Touring Car racing, Rally/RallyX, it will all still be around, the cars will just have evolved, as they always have.
Yes.
But we will have WRC-E, WEC-E, WRX-E, WTCC-E, Dakar-E…
So I agree with your point
Let’s just hope that Formula E logo won’t change into a childish drawing like F1
Sounds a lot like self centred egoism. It’s like saying there will be only one type of food in the world by then and that is vegetarian. Other fields will evolve regardless of the powertrain dominance. What a numpty headed claim. 😂
Honestly, if Bernie Ecclestone continues like this, I wouldn’t be surprised if Formula E passes the Formula 1 eventually.
There is some truth in what you’re saying, but they may actually be somewhat true. If all the manufacturers hop on to the electric motorsport bandwagon, only smaller teams will be left in ICE motorsport, which could effectively kill them
‘You stupid shit. Let me educate you’ 😂🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
LeMans will be gone? No god no meme intensifies Maybe LeMans will be electric, imagine that!
What about nascar? Swapping from V8’s to electric. That will not be good for americans.
Electric Le Mans would fail as half the time would be spent recharging. But maybe they could introduce a LMPE class to encourage development of higher-capacity and faster-charging batteries.
As soon as the cars are as fast and F1’s and move onto proper circuits then F1 will crumble
Well speed isnt everything, around street and road courses IndyCars are slower than F1 but IndyCars have 4 times the amount of passing as F1 cars, speed dosnt equal good racing. F1 racing was at its best in the 80s and they weren’t faster than today but it was better racing.
Why do they think no motorsport will adapt? Ya know what, because of this statement, I hope other motorsports adapt, doing away with the need for formula e. Why would you watch those crappy tight street circuits if F1, endurance and touring cars were electric? (We would have to watch historics for noise and fumes, but, goodwood and the like are some of my fave things to watch now anyway!)
Honestly, even if we loose sound, the speed of EVs is incredible. I’d love to see them too
But what about hydrogen
Yeah, I wonder why there is no racing league to test out hydrogen as a fuel source :/
Just because people don’t use horses as transportation anymore it doesn’t mean that there aren’t horse races still. This is all a bunch of ‘oh look how good we are’ plugging by formula e.
This is a popular but very dumb comparison because it can be guaranteed that it’ll apply here.
Horse races still exist because horses, while previously being a transportation means, are fundamentally different from cars.
Electric cars however are the exact same thing as ICE cars, save for the difference in driving train (and yes, no matter what you say, they are the same except for the propulsion). You couldn’t replace horse races with cars, but you can very much replace ICE cars races with EV cars races because other than propulsion they are the same thing, as is already being done nowadays.
So stop regurgitating that comparison every time because it’s stupid and completely taken out of context
oh god its good to see someone that not 12 year old and can use their brain in carthrottle…