Formula E returns this weekend with the first race of Season 10 in Mexico City, reigniting the rivalries and intense racing action that made last season the most competitive ever in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship as the title race was decided on the final weekend.
Ultimately it was Britain’s Jake Dennis (Andretti Formula E) who triumphed in London in July to win his first world title. But changes in the off-season mean his two closest rivals of the last campaign – Nick Cassidy and Mitch Evans – are now a formidable Jaguar TCS Racing team partnership following Cassidy’s move from Envision Racing.
With former Formula E world champion Nyck de Vries returning to the series from Formula 1 with Mahindra Racing, and eight of 11 teams making driver changes, this Saturday’s 2024 Hankook Mexico City E-Prix promises another impossible-to-predict and fiercely competitive race.
Some 40,000 spectators will pack the grandstands at the famed Foro Sol in what is Formula E's eighth visit to the historic Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, with the circuit a favourite of fans and drivers alike and one of the highlights of the season.
The updated Season 10 calendar of 16 races in 10 iconic world cities features a debut race on the streets of Tokyo and a long-awaited return to China with a first race in Shanghai plus a new Italian venue in Misano. The season concludes once again in London on the weekend of Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 July.
Last year saw the introduction of the GEN3 - the fastest, lightest, most powerful and efficient electric race car ever built - which broke record after record during its inaugural season.
Across the 11-team, 22-car grid in Season 9 there were seven different winners and 11 drivers on the podium across 16 rounds, while 19 different drivers led a race for at least one lap.
Team engineers have spent the off-season working to extract vital tenths of-a-second from their GEN3 race cars and are sure to use the experience of last year to enhance performance. The result is more than half the drivers on the grid go into the Hankook Mexico City E-Prix confident they have a shot at the world title. Watch out Jake Dennis.
In both the Teams’ and Drivers’ World Championships, the title fight went to the finale in Season 9, with eventual wins for Jake Dennis (Andretti) and Envision Racing coming in London. What makes their wins unique is that both titles were won not only by different powertrains but by customer outfits of Porsche and Jaguar, respectively.
Andretti were, and still are, powered by Porsche for GEN3. Their 99X Electric led Dennis to two wins and a string of 11 podiums in Season 9, which was enough to see him crowned champion in front of his home support as he became the first Brit to win the title.
The factory TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team finished fourth in both the Drivers’ and Teams’ standings after a strong start from Pascal Wehrlein. The German giants have title-winning machinery and will be laser-focussed on securing the top prize for themselves this season.
Similarly, Envision are customers of Jaguar. Although both Jaguar-powered teams achieved four wins apiece in Season 9, it was Envision that came out on top. Nick Cassidy ran it close in the Drivers' race and key in the team's title win, having raced in every season of the series.
Cassidy has made the jump to the factory Jaguar TCS Racing team for Season 10, racing alongside Mitch Evans - a friend, long-time competitor, and Kiwi compatriot. It is rightly one of the most hyped driver line-ups ever seen in Formula E, and the British team will be desperate to end the year on top. Evans and Cassidy wound up first and second quickest in Valencia, too.
It's all-change ahead of the first race in Mexico City. Only three of 11 teams keep the same pairings from Season 9: TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team with Pascal Wehrlein and Season 6 champion António Félix da Costa; DS PENSKE with Stoffel Vandoorne and Jean-Éric Vergne (three Formula E titles between them); and ERT Formula E Team, formally NIO 333 Racing, with Dan Ticktum and Sergio Setté Câmara returning.
Nick Cassidy looks to have settled in well at Jaguar TCS Racing, setting the second-quickest time at the Valencia test behind new teammate Mitch Evans.
Robin Frijns, Cassidy's replacement at Envision Racing, and a double race-winner in Formula E, wound up seventh and will line up alongside Sébastien Buemi.
One of the biggest talking points heading into Mexico City is the return of Nyck de Vries. The Season 8 champ departed the all-electric championship for a spell in Formula 1 but is now making a return to the series he called home for so long.
Since his time in Formula E, a lot has changed, including a whole new generation of car. He will have it all to do alongside Edoardo Mortara, who moves from Maserati MSG Racing to the Anglo-Indian team which struggled to adapt to GEN3 in Season 9. Mortara did steer to a promising sixth in testing, though.
Maserati will once again field Maximilian Günther with optimism abound after the team turned their form around in the second half of Season 9 at the hands of Günther who won in Jakarta and took to the podium in Rome. Indian rookie Jehan Daruvala steps into the fold as Günther's teammate.
Norman Nato managed to set a quicker time than Season 9 champion Jake Dennis at the Valencia test in his first outing with Andretti Formula E, with Oliver Rowland also looking rapid for his return to Nissan Formula E Team, alongside Sacha Fenestraz.
Sam Bird’s time at NEOM McLaren Formula E Team is another story which will be followed closely, with the Brit ending pre-season testing 14th. He joins fellow Brit Jake Hughes, who impressed with two poles in his debut campaign.
Lucas di Grassi made an emotional return to the team with which he won the Season 3 title; the Brazilian joining up with Nico Müller at ABT CUPRA Formula E Team. Di Grassi is Formula E's most successful driver on Mexican soil.
Andretti’s Jake Dennis heads to Round 1 of a new campaign as the reigning champ for the first time in his Formula E career. After an incredible season of consistency, achieving 11 podiums across the 16 rounds of the calendar to set a new record, he’s now keen to get racing again after the summer break comes to a close.
Jake Dennis, Andretti Formula E, said:
“We've still got an incredibly strong powertrain. I don't think there's too much development that can happen coming into this season. There's always tweaks here and there, but it's more probably fine tuning.
“I would expect the likes of DS will definitely close the gap to us. It's also still going to be difficult to beat Jaguar TCS Racing and the other Porsche team. Just trying to do what we did last year is going to be extremely difficult with that many podiums and wins. It's never easy when the competition closes up."
This weekend Formula E makes its eighth visit to a circuit that’s been on the calendar since Season 2, save for a trip to Puebla in Season 7. The 19-turn, 2.630km circuit is a perfect mix of long, fast straights and a technical infield section that passes right through the legendary Foro Sol stadium, housing tens of thousands of fans.
There's a new chicane this year on the back straight, while the ATTACK MODE activation zone is now on the outside of Turn 15 at the exit of the stadium section - more of a challenge this time around.
Off the track, there is world-class entertainment with a live music from Latin superstar Sofia Reyes who headlines the Podium Stage, and is joined by Kurt, Salero Balas, and Sully, for performances in the Allianz Fan Village.
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Nissan Formula E Team is excited to announce a four-year global partnership with Petromin Corporation, a leading mobility solutions provider in the Middle East. The partnership will be primarily focused on the company’s EV charging subsidiary, Electromin, as the business looks ahead to a wider adoption of electric mobility in the region.
The Mercedes-AMG ONE has been the fastest production car on the Nürburgring-Nordschleife since October 2022 and has been unrivalled ever since. The only rival is the ONE itself. Now Mercedes AMG brand ambassador and DTM driver Maro Engel has once again significantly improved the lap time he set. With an officially measured and notarised time of 6:29.090 minutes for the 20.832-kilometre track, the hypercar with Formula 1™ technology beat its own record for production vehicles by over five seconds. This makes the Mercedes AMG ONE the first road car to beat the magic mark of 6:30 minutes. It is also the only series hybrid hypercar to date to have taken on the world's most demanding racetrack and is the undisputed leader in the super-sports-car class. In order to achieve the lofty goals they had set for themselves, meticulous preparation was necessary. In addition, the track conditions had to be ideal in order to beat the 6:30 minute target. On September 23, 2024, at 6:56 p.m., on his third timed lap, Maro Engel achieved the new record. With temperatures of 15 degrees Celsius (air) and 20 degrees Celsius (asphalt), the legendary Nordschleife was dry throughout and offered perfect grip.
Like Lewis Hamilton and George Russell on their Formula 1™ race weekends, Maro Engel also had to make the best possible use of the hybrid drive's electrical energy. This is particularly challenging, especially with a track length of more than 20 kilometres. Therefore, it is immensely important to use the right sections of the track to recuperate during braking phases and thus store energy in the batteries again.
To do this, Maro Engel utilised the AMG ONE's four-stage Energy Flow Control (EFC) system and in some cases deliberately took his foot off the accelerator a little earlier than he normally would. In technical jargon, this is known as “lift and coast”. Preliminary tests in the driving simulator in Affalterbach and on the Nordschleife itself provided the necessary insights, which the team and driver were able to optimally implement for the record lap. In accordance with the specifications of Nürburgring 1927 GmbH & Co KG, the vehicle was tested and documented by TÜV Rheinland to ensure that it was in standard condition. A notary confirmed that the record drive had been carried out correctly.
The new Aston Martin Vantage GT3 heads into this weekend’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship (IMSA) finale – the Petit Le Mans 10-hour race at Road Atlanta – deep in the hunt for its first major title.
The new Aston Martin Vantage GT3 has enjoyed a stellar debut season of international competition. The car recorded a historic victory in the centenary edition of the Crowdstrike 24 Hours of Spa in June, a first for the British ultraluxury sportscar brand in the modern GT era. It also achieved Aston Martin’s first ever Autobacs Super GT class victory in Japan in the same month. As well as this, Vantage has clinched class wins in the FIA World Endurance Championship, IMSA, the Nürburgring Langstrecken Series and ADAC GT Masters through the summer.
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