Formula E, The Championship of the Future

FIA Formula E, The Championship of the Future

-Jerry Perez

The future is upon us, Formula One has changed, Indycar has changed, even MotoGP is drastically different than it was once was. Environmental and financial sustainability are a priority for every board of directors at every company, and honestly, who can blame them?

It’s easy to make fun of the the way the Formula E cars sound, and sure we can all joke about the fact that the batteries don’t last a full race distance, or even that pit stops look more like circus acts. But before we make too much fun, I invite you read up and find out why FIA President Jean Todt calls Formula E “a championship with a vision for the future”.

The FIA Formula E Championship will visit 8 different countries around the world in its first season. Unlike Formula One and other series, Formula E logistics partner DHL will travel in one direction only in order to reduce the carbon footprint of the championship. Formula E has organized their events regionally, therefore holding multiple races per continent and never having to “backtrack” or visit the same part of the world twice. This makes an enormous impact on logistics resources, fuel and energy conservation, and overall transportation costs.

As a founding partner of the Formula E championship, DHL has pledged to develop a strategy that I’m sure one day will be duplicated by many more championships around the world, mainly because it just makes financial sense! DHL has pledged to reduce their entire company carbon print by 30% by 2020. Each Formula E team ships five to six tons of equipment on average, all of which are loaded into DHL cargo airplanes via electric fork lifts, then unloaded and transported to the race venues via electric trucks. If only they had electric cargo airplanes, or maybe drones…

One would think that doing things this way must be a mammoth of a task, but I actually think otherwise. To me it seems like intelligent people with common sense and a strict budget, sat down and designed a business plan for a sustainable racing series; and the outcome was Formula E. Sure it hasn’t all been figured out, but I’m confident to say that the FIA, Formula E, DHL and Qualcomm are on a good path. It’ll be interesting to see Formula E come to the United States as I feel that fans will most likely attend due to curiosity. I sincerely feel that Formula E deserves a chance to show us what they are all about, and once we learn, we will like them very very much.