On the 13th September this year the streets of Beijing will reverberate to the sound of 11 teams racing around in almost total silence at speeds of up to 225 km/hour (limited). This will be the inaugural event in the Formula E calendar, the world’s first all electric single seater formula car racing season.
Before you go dismissing this as just another crackpot stunt by some eco-heads, you should know that the new sport has the backing of some very serious people, including manufacturers like Audi, Renault and McLaren, as well as companies such as Virgin, Qualcomm and Michelin.
The idea is to create a sport where excitement goes hand in hand with future tech, so more can be learned about the issues involved in electric power for vehicles. Interestingly each race will be run with two cars, with a mid-point changeover instead of having to re-charge them during the race, which should make for some interesting challenges. Keeping one car in tip top shape is bad enough in Formula One.
Here’s the cool turbine like sound the cars make.
All in all it’s going to be an interesting experiment, and who knows, if it catches on we may see other forms of motorsport also adopting the new electric alternatives over the coming years. One to watch out for.