What it’s like being a Formula E fan who grew up during the V10 era of F1
It's totally okay to like both
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Growing up in the V10 era of Formula 1 was insanely cool. Schumacher, Montoya and Coulthard continually kicking the crap out of each other, reaching speeds well over 200mph with engines spinning north of 18,000rpm. So it might not be immediately obvious that I'm also currently the biggest Formula E fan in the DriveTribe office, without a spark plug in sight.
I chose the best corner to watch the Season 5 finale in New York
When you think about it, anyone born in the mid 1990s will have been able to string together thoughts and feelings well enough to have remembered and become fans of F1 during those ten-cylinder glory days, but will now be in their mid twenties and tuning into the all-electric race series that is shaking up the motorsport establishment.
So why is that? Why – having grown up when engines were screaming our heroes to victory back in the day – are millennials like myself more than happy to embrace the whir and hum of Formula E?
I think the first and most crucial factor is that good racing is good racing. The lack of reliance on downforce and the tight street circuits of Formula E mean that driver skill shines through strongly when someone is making a charge up the field.
Di Grassi is one of the standout racers in the Formula E paddock
Guys like Lucas Di Grassi, Mitch Evans and Jean-Eric Vergne are the current pick of the bunch for me in terms of tuning in to some of the greatest car control and pure racing talent in motorsport right now. Overtaking on a Formula E circuit is an incredibly tricky business compared to the wide open expanses of other series, and yet these guys make it look effortless.
Absolute carnage, and I love it
With close racing and fine margins comes drama, something that this series is definitely not short of. Last-to-firsts, huge carbon fibre-shattering pileups, oversteery brushes with the walls; if you want to get your money’s worth in 45 minutes of racing, Season 6 of Formula E should be your next port of call.
That kind of action used to be the norm in F1 back in the early 2000s – the cars were slippery, the tyres weren’t slicks velcroed to the track and flat-out driving was a given. Now we’re faced with a clusterfumble of tyre degradation, incredibly fragile aero and fuel saving, with DRS being one of the only things that makes F1 anything other than uninspiring.
Some of the trusty circuits like Silverstone and the Red Bull Ring have managed to inject some adrenaline back into the season, but it’s safe to say that the FIA has a battle on their hands to keep fans as engaged in F1 as when the rulebook opted for the 10-cylinder formula over 20 years ago.
Iconic, but sadly so far detached from today's Formula 1
In general, there are three different strains of Formula E watchers. There’s the fully converted, who have only ever known electric racing and have grown up without the attraction to F1. At the other end, there’s the ‘they need V12s’ bunch who no matter what will never get on board with the space age whir of electric motors and jet engine scream of regenerative braking.
And then there’s the V10 children like myself, who have seen both sides of the motorsport spectrum and – with the current rule set – are caught between embracing the spectacle and excitement of Formula E while not wanting to fully let go of the other single-seater series that first made us fall in love with racing.
Who doesn't love a good crunch? Formula E is full of them.
Something personal that tilts that balance and has me putting my feet in Formula E’s camp is actually taken directly from the V1O era of F1. I am a Jaguar Racing fan and have been since I first set eyes on the leaping cat on Eddie Irvine’s engine cover.
So when the team entered Formula E in Season 3 with James Barclay at the helm, there’s no way I couldn’t tune in to see how they fared. And from Mitch Evan’s first points in 2016 to his pivotal race win in Rome earlier this year, I’ve been hooked.
With Season 6 comes Porsche and Mercedes, two manufacturers that couldn’t bring more motorsport prestige to the FE paddock. And with them may come a whole new stream of LMP1, GTE and DTM fans that simply want to follow the German giants wherever they set rubber to track, much like myself with Jaguar.
I know it may put a chill down many people’s spines to hear it, but I believe there are a surprising amount of similarities between 2000 F1 and 2019 FE, especially in terms of the emotions encountered during a race. Through two very different approaches, they achieve similar results that get the adrenaline going.
Who could complain about a racing venue with a backdrop like that?
If you are in the same camp or not, I’ll be waiting in the comments for you. Especially if you’re in the millenial age bracket, I absolutely want to hear from you guys on this topic.
So please, don’t be shy.
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Comments (21)
I couldn't agree more fantastic article. As you say racing is racing and formula E is great for watching the highlights while the family is in bed without having to turn the sound off so can hear the commentary
Nice piece Mike. I completely agree – one of the best things about being a Motorsport fan right now is you have the best of both worlds, you can pick and choose.
I'm the first to admit I get shivers when I hear the screaming flat-6 Porsche's screaming down the Mulsanne straight at night, but if the Formula E is on on a weekend I'll definitely give it a watch.
I've been dipping my toe in and out of it for a few seasons but Season Five has really stepped up the game for me - even attack mode works nicely and somehow feels less 'fake' than DRS in F1.
Anyway, I'll shut up now...
Well wait a couple of months and you'll be able to watch Porsche in this series too!
Not sure it'll quite sound the same – but my fanboy levels will remain off the charts
I am millenial but I've never been interested in Formula 1 (born in 2000). And 24 Hours of Le Mans is my favorite because it needs the drivers, cars and teams to work smoothly overnight, which I consider demanding.
Anyway, I totally agree with your article. Formula E has its unique aspect that makes it a "motorsport", and nobody should judge it in old ways. And those old men in FIA did an amazing job in making the race interesting and gradually accepted by petrolhead community, especially in terms of social media interaction.
I like Formula E and I think it has a delightful future.
If you were born in 2000, I'm afraid that makes you Generation Z.
Great to hear that Peter, I think you are right that the general petrolhead community is definitely coming around to it. Do you have a specific team you support?
It's really interested me watching you get properly into Formula E and especially seeing you in the paddock last race - sometimes it feels like every argument anyone can make about it is technological and that's fair, that is what it's driving but what's *driving Formula E* is totally different and runs on pure emotion.
I've been to trillions of FE races now (well over half the ones that have ever happened) and if it was only show, if it was only a green festival, I sure as hell wouldn't have sat in a media centre full of people by turns murmuring, groaning or outright shouting 'NO!' at the screens when Alex Lynn retired on Saturday. He's not a big star - the JEV/LOT collision certainly got more of an excited shriek - but the whole media centre felt for him, exhausted and at the end of a season we still cared that a strong finish or maybe even victory had been taken away.
Because Formula E is like that. It makes you hope and breaks your heart. Like, as you say, the best eras of Formula 1 (I'd actually be tempted to say this season is bringing that back a little but I think it's making people angrier than it is excited) it'll grab you and leave you fastened to the telly, heart in mouth.
I love technology but I wouldn't have binned off my previous jobs to become an international vagrant with more deadlines than clean pairs of socks to write about Tesla. Sport though, that'll wreck you as fast as the cars - the stories and the narratives and the proximity you feel to it all in Formula E (yes ok, no big engine noise but you're close enough to hear the drivers swear when the floor smashes a kerb, which is almost frighteningly intimate) lets you be part of something terrifying and awesome.
I think you're totally right that it's like the V10 era - or any other era that properly sings to fans (we're the same age so inevitably roughly similar parallels) - because you can dare to hope for an extraordinary result. Going into that final with three drivers on an outsider's outsidemost chance to take it, I was borderline-convinced one would. Because that's Formula E and it doesn't need a billion cylinders to bring that too-close, hairs-standing-up excitement that anything could happen.
Honestly I know there's advancements & improvements but having grown on the V10 era eventually going to the V10 which made me shiver in fright (they scared me as a kid) I watched with high tension the overtakes,hard downshifts... The racing was extremely thrilling, I have tried myself to watch FE not to judge on the first look but I just couldn't bear to watch more than 5 laps, the whirring of the cars without hard brake slams or extreme speeds, I couldn't help but think I was watching electric gokarts racing, as much futuristic or politically correct with the environment a FE is I prefer to keep my V10 formula 1 with tobacco advertisements, I'm not 60 years old but rather 21, and even young ones should be able to appreciate the past, older is better
Remember this isn't V10 vs FE, this is saying FE potentially has more similarities to 2000s F1 than current F1 does.
I prefer the new shitty f1 if I'm honest, at least they're still fast.