2025 ABB FIA Formula E World ChampionshipOpen Wheel

[Fezzik]

Season 11 of the electric single-seater championship kicks off this weekend in Sao Paulo, the first of 16 rounds in 10 cities.

11 teams on the grid:

Jaguar - Mitch Evans, Nick Cassidy
Porsche - Pascal Wehrlein, Antonio Felix da Costa
DS Penske - Jean-Eric Vergne, Maximillian Gunther
Nissan - Oliver Rowland, Norman Nato
Andretti - Jake Dennis, Nico Muller
Envision - Sebastian Buemi, Robin Frijns
McLaren - Sam Bird, Taylor Barnard
Maserati - Stoffel Vandoorne, Jake Hughes
Lola Yamaha ABT - Lucas di Grassi, Zane Maloney
Mahindra - Nyck de Vries, Edoardo Mortara,
Kiro Race Co - Dan Ticktum, David Beckmann


They will using the Gen3 Evo, an upgrade of the previous car with changes to the aerodynamics, tyres and now AWD for qualifying, race starts and attack mode.

Thankfully the coverage has returned to free-to-air in the UK on ITV - the other broadcasters can be found here - https://www.fiaformulae.com/en/ways-to-watch

Wehrlein will be defending his title, look for another big challenge again from the Jaguar duo. Round 1 starts at 5pm UK time this evening. Start your electric motors!

 

[Fezzik]

First pole of the season goes to Wehrlein

 

[Jimlaad43]

This race has been bonkers! Plenty of action, passing everywhere a couple of messy collisions and two red flags, defending champions Wehrlein has flipped the car after bouncing off a wall in the battle for the podium.

 

[Fezzik]

Last to 1st for Evans in the Jag. No idea who was leading over the line before the chaos.

This attack mode is great fun but looks a wee bit overpowered with the extra watts and AWD being used together.

 

[Fezzik]

That was a nasty shunt, flipped side-on into the fence. Halo doing a great job once again to protect the driver.

 

[PorscheFan91]

Hope Wehrlein doesn't have any injuries after the crash - was very nasty indeed.

Shame Lola's return to motorsport was hampered by issues. Was hoping for a top ten finish and it didn't seem unlikely at one point.

It's amazing to see how far the series has come. Wasn't following it closely last season and the new cars are amazing, a big step up from the season before last for sure. Some phenomenal racing as well.

If I have one criticism it's the new attack mode stuff, it's way too overpowered and they get too much IMO, given the races aren't too long. I mean, it's beyond DRS in F1 and given how it changed the running order up so dramatically it does make you wonder what the point of quali is if it all just boils down to when attack mode is used. Hope they play with it. Part of the fun is seeing the series play with things and evolve though.

Of course, the race isn't even over yet - looking forward to the restart!

 

[Fezzik]

Those Jags and Porsches are just so quick, even running on fumes (or whatever the electrical version is ).

 

[MIE1992]

I'm still kicking myself for not making time to attend the Brooklyn ePrix since I haven't seen it on the calendar for a while now, and it would've been the closet ePrix to me, too.

 

[sillybilly]

If I have one criticism it's the new attack mode stuff, it's way too overpowered and they get too much IMO, given the races aren't too long. I mean, it's beyond DRS in F1 and given how it changed the running order up so dramatically it does make you wonder what the point of quali is if it all just boils down to when attack mode is used. Hope they play with it. Part of the fun is seeing the series play with things and evolve though.

Of course, the race isn't even over yet - looking forward to the restart!

One counter point is that the DRS is only advantaging a car that is already faster and is behind, it doesn't add any strategic opportunity for a car that is almost as fast as the one in front but might have slightly better tyre management etc.

The Attack mode is the same for all the cars, and how quickly a driver can get around drivers makes a difference to how much advantage of pace they can use to build a gap.

Evans was making a few places in the breaking zones as other drivers lifted and coasted, he made overtakes super quick and clean and an he was able to use the attack to get a bit of a buffer... that might have been lost due to safety car... then there is energy management to consider if using attack to make a gap that might disappear..

Yes the attack might seem overpowered, but I hope they let it play a few races to see how it goes with energy management on a race with less stoppage before adjusting it too much... however I do think it's likely they probable will adjust it and that might also be a good thing (but depends on a little more race data)

Those Jags and Porsches are just so quick, even running on fumes (or whatever the electrical version is ).

Yeh, Interesting to see that the McLaren drivers were a bit tail happy on the power in the last few laps so they might have had less good tyres or the drivers were just a bit too eager early on corner exit....

It's just such fascinating racing, and fun with close racing, lots of passing, cool looking cars.