Formula E Season 10 Finale Round Up

Two Years ago, I wrote my very first piece for Is It Fast? where I looked ahead to the 2022 Formula E Season. Now, thanks to them, I’m writing about the epic double header season 10 finale that took place at the end of July in London.

Seven drivers came into the weekend in contention for the title but by Sunday, it had been whittled down to three. In the end though, as ever, there could only be one – and it proved to be by one of the slimmest of margins, with twists and turns around every corner of the unique, East London racetrack.

But there was much more to this season finale than just the racing. The entire weekend was about the collective experience and also a reminder about how motorsport can bring people from all over the world together to embrace and enjoy something that they love.

Upon arriving on Saturday morning, having collected my media pass, I headed into the ExCel Centre and was immediately plunged into the world of Formula E – thanks in large part to the entrance tunnel everyone has to walk through which can only be described as very Formula E. From there, you were spat out into one of the main halls where there were stands of all kinds spaced around left, right and centre. Having to go through most of it in order to locate the media centre, I came across an exhibit showcasing the Extreme E car, as well as a tease for next year’s Extreme H series, the E1 Series boat and of course, a spec model Formula E car.

Hopefully in the future, more technology for vehicles like this can be exhibited, perhaps in partnership with Formula E, like the fascinating work being done by Curtiss Motorcycles for example. Once in the media centre, it didn’t take long to find a few familiar faces, including an unexpected crossover with a colleague from Nitrocross, and to get settled into my base of operations for the weekend.

Free Practice Two began and helped to focus the mind back onto the main reason for being at the event and whet everyone’s appetites for the rest of the day. Afterwards, Formula E and ABB had organized a tour throughout the facility for those that were interested and before I knew it, we were being led down into the pitlane for a tour of the Porsche team and a chat with some of their personnel.

This was followed by a meet and greet with ABB and a closer look at the battery technology that makes Formula E possible, how it began, how much it has evolved since then and where they aim to take it in the future. The insights from both were quite interesting and added neat little touches to the day.

Before too long, it was somehow already time for qualifying to commence. Naturally, it was going to be an even more tense affair than normal across this weekend – as whomever secured it on each day would add a valuable three Championship points to their tally. This is why it was such a blow to Nick Cassidy when he got knocked out of qualifying during its early stages, handing a then potential advantage to both of his main rivals of teammate Mitch Evans and Pascal Wehrlein

In case you’re unfamiliar or need a reminder, during the sessions, the grid is split into two groups with the fastest four from each group progressing through to the battle brackets that consist of the Semi-Finals and the Final. Evans was able to overcome each driver in his path to get to the final while Buemi upset the apple cart a little as he managed to put in a quicker lap than Wehrlein to also get into the Final. But in the end, it was Evans who grabbed Pole Position and those vital points, setting up the race rather nicely.

With the starting grid decided, it was time to get back to the tour and this next included a pit walk and a visit to the Girls on Track stand. It was great to see them there and see what they’re building in terms of opportunities at all levels, something we’re seeing more and more of these days, such as the Accelerate Her program in the U.S.

As I was running around all over the place, making sure I was taking in as much as I could, the inevitable thing happened of seeing a number of famous faces just casually hanging around and once again, the speed at which that became normalized amused me. A few of the non-surprising characters to cameo included Abbi Pulling (who got to test out the Formula E car the following day), Jamie Chadwick, Andre Lotterer, Catie Munnings and Formula E founder Alejandro Agag. It all just enrichens the experience.

Everything felt pretty lethargic and calm atmosphere wise in the media pen up to the start of the race – and once the race got going, I could see why. It was all about to kick off.

There was drama from right from lights out in Race 1 with Jake Dennis getting onto the kerbs and subsequently coming together with Robin Frijns, squeezing him into the wall and putting him out of the race. Frijns would later have to go to hospital for some checks but was deemed fit to race for the second race on Sunday. In this opening melee, Sam Bird was unfortunately caught up in the drama as collateral damage but thankfully was able to keep going.

Da Costa and Rowland then came together on Lap 7, taking the former out of the race and out of championship contention – and then there were six. At the same time this was happening, Dennis got caught up in another incident, this time with Vergne as the pair came together into the attack mode section of the track. Fortunately, both came out unscathed.Following this, Dennis seemed like a man possessed as he went on a charge through the field, aggressively getting past Cassidy, making a little bit of contact again (naturally at this point) in the process.

Wehrlein and the Porsche outfit had a great strategy to get him into the lead of the race with Evans dropping back to P3 with a handful of laps to go.

Meanwhile Nato went into the barriers but was also able to keep going. However, the Safety Car did then come out because of debris (not surprisingly that there was a lot of this lying around at this point) and this inevitably closed the entire pack back up, setting us up for a sprint to the finish.

“Yeah, it was a chaotic race! The key was staying out of trouble, executing things well and making the right calls at the right time.” – Nyck de Vries

A very unfortunately timed gearbox failure for Guenther promoted Evans back up to P2, maximising the damage limitation of his race and fortuitously keeping his Championship hopes alive.

But in the end, it was Wehrlein who came out on top and secured the win, with Evans still hot on his heels in P2 and Buemi in P3, his first podium in Formula E since the season opener in Mexico!

Nyck De Vries ended up being the best of the rest, as he secured P4 for Mahindra. This was a little surprising as until the chequered flag was waved, it would have been – and indeed was – quite easy to have not noticed him there. He managed to keep out of all the chaos happening around him and just kept his head down, maximising the opportunities presented to him as they came. Bird managed a superb recovery drive after his first lap mishap, making it all the way back up to P8.

“The car just wasn’t there today” – Mitch Evans, Jaguar TCS Racing

With the first race of the weekend now over, four drivers had now been eliminated from the list of possible Championship winners – meaning that on Sunday, it would come down to a three-way fight between Wehrlein, Evans and Cassidy. At that moment, you can’t help but wonder what each of them might be thinking and how best to approach the next day. The mindset of a driver in that moment and how it changes is always fascinating to explore.

We even got a slight glimpse into this during the post-race press conference and the free for all that was the subsequent driver media pen following that. There was anticipation and quiet optimism from some drivers with the rest just focused on maximising their result for the last race of the season, with some hoping that it would be enough to secure their future on the gird for 2025.

Before I knew it, Sunday had rolled around, and things immediately went up a notch in terms of stakes. There was more trouble from the word go sadly for Cassidy on Sunday as in FP3 with lots of work being done on his car following a brake failure at the start of the session.

Despite the quick work by the team, he wasn’t able to get back out for remainder of the session and his chances of clinching the Championship looked all but lost.

Out on track though, it was Rowland, Wehrlein and Vergne in the top three by the end of the practice session – an interesting piece of foresight for what would come later in the day.

Between practice and qualifying, there was a smidgen of time for some end of season musing, including about the track itself in London, how the Championship should evolve in the future and how to better the fan experience. While it celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2024, Formula E is still a young sport. There is interest in it out in the wider world from new and exciting potential locations that would be interested in hosting a round. We’ve seen before plans to go to certain locations, all for them to fall through at the last moment.

It made me wonder if it would be worth introducing Non-Championship races into Formula E – an idea I thought about for Formula 1 a while back. It would allow new countries/venues to explore the viability of hosting the sport, gain an insight into how much more interest there would be and potentially make the Formula E calendar a bit more exciting, instead of taking the chance on making the calendar ridiculous.

Maybe this would allow Formula E to go back to its roots a little more and experiment with bolder ideas for street circuits. Would Las Vegas be worth a gamble for Formula E?

It wasn’t too long though before I was retrieved from my reveries and ponderings and the matter of the final qualifying session of the season was brought firmly back to my attention. On Saturday, it had been Evans Vs Wehrlein for pole. On Sunday, it was Wehrlein Vs a resurgent Cassidy – with the Cassidy not letting anything get in his way this time to snatch it from the German driver and give himself the best possible chance of being the underdog Championship contender of the day. It was well and truly game on now.

During the small pauses between qualifying sessions, I was able to fit in some more meets and greets, including with the one and only Izy Rekiel who was tending to her duties as Formula E DJ at the time – this is just one of a plethora of roles that she has and I honestly don’t know how she manages to do everything that she does. If you’ve not read my Rally Jameel series yet, she’s also the person responsible for a lot of the help with that so you can see what I mean when I say she’s everywhere.

In what once again felt like no time at all, it was almost time for the final race of the Formula E season to begin. Seeing and hearing the live orchestra play the Formula E theme as the lights dimmed and the Formula E cars got ready to pounce upon one another one last time, it made me think of how cool it would be for Formula E to be shown in the cinema and what an experience that could be for fans who can’t attend races in person.

The red lights built up and then, it was time to race. Not until the very end did anyone really know which way the cards were going to fall for the championship. We got a partial answer about ¾ of the way through when Cassidy was sadly punted out of the race, immediately ending his championship dream and threatening that of Jaguar’s who were looking to secure their first team title in decades in motorsport. The crowd too were much more animated and theatrical on Sunday and then was genuine disappointment from them when Cassidy retired.

Up ahead, it turned into a straight fight between Wehrlein and Evans with good old Oliver Rowland getting stuck into things too as he saw that there was a chance for him to win his home race. It would all rely on who could simply finish ahead of who and after some extra nail biting added laps, Rowland did indeed make his wish come true and clinched victory on home soil – much to the approval of the crowd. Wehrlein finished in P2 and thus, became the new Formula E World Champion. Mitch Evans finished in P3. He lost by just six points.

Somehow from there, I found myself down in the pitlane watching the podium ceremonies (race and championship) from an excellent vantage point with the fans piling into the start/finish straight separated by the barriers behind me. If witnessing the podium ceremony for a home race winner was quite something, the celebrations that Wehrlein and Jaguar Team Boss James Barclay had (Jaguar did manage to take the team’s championship, their first title since 1991 in the World Sports Car Championship with the XJR-14) was something else.

Understandably, it took a while before anyone felt like leaving and getting back to going through the motions of a mandatory press conference and one last media pen before being able to go and celebrate the end of the season in style. Despite naturally being disappointed with missing out on the top spot, Evans was able to keep himself calm and measured throughout, demonstrating a solid display of professionalism that we all know not every driver has when placed in such a position.

“I know I can drive cars quite good.” Pascal

With some final interviews conducted and everyone suitably knackered from a non-stop weekend – not just the drivers – it was somehow all over. Formula E was done and dusted for another season. That was that. Weirdly Formula E returns this year for the first race of season 11, which will be held in Brazil in December. Until then, I think Formula E should invest in some sort of Road to Le Mans style show following the teams and drivers around next season (not like DTS) so that we have something interesting to watch in the off season next year. It would be good for the lesser-known drivers too who need more of a spotlight. Getting some more dedicated media out there always helps and can also be a good way of finding new drivers with fresh talent to come in to a team either as a test or reserve driver, nevermind a full blown full time racer.

When I wrote about Formula E ahead of the 2022 Season, I said that I’d had a bit of a yo-yo relationship with the sport. Now, here I am, two seasons later, looking back at what’s happened since then and I’m happy to say that once again, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the sport. It’s not perfect – not by a country mile – but you’d be hard pressed to find one that is. Yet, this year, we’ve had eight different winners, some brilliant locations, multiple championship contenders and three drivers all still with a chance coming into the final race. The last time we had that sort of competition in Formula 1 was back in 2010!

I said at the end of my 2022 preview that I had a good feeling about the season ahead and that I hoped I wouldn’t regret saying that come the end of the season. Each year, we’ve had a new World Champion and some really enjoyable races – look at Brazil this year for a perfectly barmy but entertaining example – and at the end of the day, that’s all you want. Great racing, high stakes, a blend of new and old locations and drivers pushing one another to the limit.

So, do I regret coming back to Formula E? Absolutely not. I’m back and I’m here to stay.

Author: Thiemo Albers-Daly