Formula E Drivers Stoffel Vandoorne and Jean-Eric Vergne
Courtesy of DS Performance
On Jan. 13, the 10th season of Formula E (a race car competition consisting only of teams using electric and sustainable engines) kicks off with the Hankook E-Prix in Mexico City.
On Jan. 2, the new season of Formula E Unplugged, the docuseries on the fast-growing motorsport, drops on YouTube, chronicling last year’s exciting and tense season. THR Roma got a sneak preview of the show via one of the season’s leading protagonists: The DS Penske team. (Jay Penske is founder and owner of DS Penske. The Hollywood Reporter is a subsidiary of Penske-owned Penske Business Media, LLC).
Now in its third season, the series aims to do for Formula E what Netflix’s Formula 1: Drive to Survive did for the better-known motorsport: Provide a behind-the-curtain look at the crazy circus that is the electric car racing circuit and spark interest in a new generation of E-racing fans.
“Unplugged is the perfect way for new fans to get up to speed on Formula E right at the start of a new season and for the most devoted fans to get a completely different and new perspective on last season,” says Tim Glass, Formula E’s director of programming and content. “The Unplugged cameras have captured literally every angle of what has been our biggest and most dramatic season ever. There are clashes and crashes, high-speed action and intense rivalries, all in the most iconic locations of the world’s most beautiful and important cities, from Cape Town to Sao Paulo to London.”
As well as Rome, which hosted two Formula E races in May of 2023, events that helped change the perception of the sport in the land of Ferrari and Formula 1.
“Formula E is a championship within motorsport that is very young, now entering its 10th season — where F1 has 70,” notes Eugenio Franzetti, director of DS Performance, the competition arm of the DS Automobiles luxury car brand, which last year joined forces with Jay Penske’s Dragon Racing team in a long-term partnership for Formula E. “The truth is that we don’t have to think about being an alter ego, but an excellent alternative; they can be two parallel worlds,” says Franzetti. At the moment, he notes, the F1 audience is older and more male-skewed in terms of demographics, Formula E is younger and with a larger proportion of female fans.
“Who knows, maybe someday [the two circuits] will converge, because we know what direction the world is taking in terms of sustainability.”
There is a link between Ferrari and Formula E. Jean Todt, former technical director and CEO of Ferrari, came up with the idea for the electric car racing circuit when he was president of FIA, the International Automobile Federation, back in 2013.
“We are the ones who will make sure that this [electronic car] revolution is fast, quick, safe, and a bit ahead of schedule,” says Fanzetti. “As always, you take motorsport technologies to the extreme, then it shows up in supercars, then in premium cars, and finally to the mainstream. We are a conscious accelerator of this process.”
Fanzetti says he takes inspiration from Ferrari “from their ability to be ahead of the times on technique and technology, on how to organize and grow a motorsport, also [via] the media,” an approach that has helped Formula E grow to become the “third largest motor racing championship in the world in terms of following and fans,” in only 10 years. But, he notes, there are several differences between the F1 and Formula E circuits. In particular the “huge respect for the environment” and environmental sustainability in Formula E.
“I’ll give you an example. We have only one type of tire, whether it’s raining or the track is dry, and in each race, we use only two sets of tires, so eight tires in all [per car],” he says. “Just in this area alone [we greatly] limit CO2 emissions related to transportation and storage [compared to other motorsport compeititions]. We do this to send a signal regarding economic and environmental sustainability: To signal respect for the planet.”
When it comes to ambitions on the track, Fanzetti notes that his team is aiming to finish well above the fifth-place spot of last season. “The sporting goals are clear, almost obvious: to do better than last season, because of the tradition we have as well as our ambitions. We are the manufacturer that has won the most in Formula E, we have outstanding drivers [with a total of three world championships]. Finishing fifth in 2023 cannot be enough.”
It’s clear: Fanzetti and Formula E are only getting started.
“This is where the future is,” says Fanzetti. “We believe in it so much that DS, from 2024, will launch only new 100 percent electric models. This is where we want and need to be.”