Formula E from NYC to Montreal

Formula E wraps up its 2017 race season this weekend in Montreal, Canada with the Renault e.dams team holding a dominating 65-point lead in the competition. Ten teams, twenty drivers have been battling it out across the globe in the sport’s 12-race third season that commenced last October in Hong Kong.RPM News Weekly was on hand, last week, for all the excitement and energy these all-electric super cars brought to the streets of Red Hook in Brooklyn, New York with the city’s first-ever Formula-e races.

Having transformed several blocks of a gritty, industrial neighborhood on Brooklyn’s waterfront that faces the Statue of Liberty into a 1.2-mile race course, Formula-e is destined to leave its mark, not only in New York but around the world.

The idea of all-electric racing is still new and building an audience. There’s something to be said, too, about who’s been attracted to participate. With teams from Audi Sport, Panasonic-Jaguar Racing, Virgin Racing, Venturi and others, that are sponsored by some of the most invested names in electric vehicle development, it’s clear that there’s a message about sustainability to be found in the not so typical, high-pitched whirring of the powerful electric motors motivating these vehicles.

Described by Formula-e CEO Alejandro Agag as the “noise of the future”, the sound of the motors as the cars whiz down the track at speeds up to 140 miles per hour speaks to a new era of racing.

A Formula-e race is as much spectacle as it is entertainment. Out on the grid before the race, there’s a rarefied mix of anticipation and awe, tension and intensity where color and charisma collide. But once the race is underway, the energy is pure adrenaline.

Much of the excitement gets focused in the tight turns where a driver’s skill and determination create opportunities for advancing in the pack. It’s also where contact often happens.

In New York, Virgin Racing driver Sam Bird put on a supercharged performance winning 1st place trophies in both Saturday and Sunday races.

The season finale in Montreal this weekend features races Saturday and Sunday on one of the ePrix’s longest tracks. To take a simulated ride around the track, go to fiaformulae.com. Meanwhile, here are more highlights from Formula-e New York City.