The Electric Formula 1, Explained

"The green flag is waved. . .

" "All five lights are off. . .

" "And we've got green in Mexico City. . .

" "Green in London! " "Green in Seoul! " "In New York City!

" "Hong Kong! " "Berlin! " "I don't believe it!

Oh my goodness me. . .

" [YAAARRRHHHH! ! ] So you know all about Formula 1.

. . .

. . the crazy car racing sport that everybody's obsessed with.

I love F1. The tech is just such a glimpse of the future and it's part team and part individual and I'm always on the edge of my seat. .

. it's the perfect sport. Except one thing: More and more, the cars that we drive are going fully electric and the cars that they drive.

. . aren't. 

And that's a problem, because the reason why F1 gets all of this money and attention is that big  companies are investing in and advertising their cutting edge car tech. Basically, "look how good we  are building cars, buy from us. " Which means that if that tech ever gets outdated, it loses the point - and the extra investment.

It becomes horse racing. and now we've reached a tipping point: For years, governments around the world have been talking about banning new gas car sales. But now look at  this: California actually did it.

And it's not just in the US. The entire European Union is planning  to ban new gas car sales too. By 2040, it's possible that owning a car with a tailpipe is going to  be like owning one with a car phone.

Technology is just moving on. Which means we just entered a  huge existential moment for one of the world's most popular and expensive sports - the one that's  supposed to advertise the future of cars for the rest of us. So what does that future look like?

If  it's electric, does Formula 1 go that direction? Or is somebody else going to get there first? I got to go to Spain to answer that question.

Here I am behind the scenes at Formula  E, the fully electric car racing series. It's like Formula 1's cool younger sibling and  it's growing up fast. So here we go: This is "Formula E, explained.

" What you need to know to keep  up with the fight for the future of car racing. But this story isn't really about a few fancy  race cars. This is about the future of your car.

I don't know how to express how [WHOOPS] amazing this is! ! Alright.

. . all this drama started at a dinner at  a little restaurant in Paris 11 years ago.

And the dinner at this restaurant was stacked. First you've  got Alejandro Agag, who's a Spanish businessman and a former member of the European Parliament. And then you've got Antonio Tajani, who's the former European Commissioner for Transport which means  transportation regulation for the entire European Union.

And then you have Jean Todt, the president of  the FIA, the governing body that oversees Formula 1. Casual. The dinner has become kind of a little  bit famous, now part of the history of motor racing or electric motor racing.

. . Yeah, I got to interview Alejandro.

And he told me that during this dinner they talked about how this moment of change  that we're now in was coming. . .

Antonio really was explaining how the European commission was really going to push electrification and that electric was the future. You might be thinking , "Okay President of the FIA, you're hearing all of this, just make the super popular sport that you  already own electric. .

. " For one thing, they couldn't just swap in electric cars. F1 races have to cover  at least 305 kilometers or 190 miles in less than two hours.

The batteries for an electric car 11  years ago couldn't handle that. They'd have to change the sport itself. But they couldn't really  do that not only because millions of rabid F1 fans might get mad but because in 2011 most of F1's  marquee car companies didn't even make electric cars.

They didn't want the sport to change. It's a  pretty classic innovator's dilemma: big incumbent that can't risk threatening what they already have.  So.

. . Jean Todt and I looked at each other and I remembered Jean saying, "FIA should create a formula, an electric  championship.

. . " They created a brand new championship separate from Formula One.

. . Formula E.

This was going  to be a space program for electric cars. They were going to push forward the technology as fast as  they possibly could (literally) and they were going to create the future not just of car racing but  of cars. And this is key, they also made a deal: Only this new championship could be fully electric, an exclusive license for 25 years.

Why is that important? Because for example Formula 1 cannot become electric, they will be in conflict with my license. Yeah.

The license began when Formula E officially launched in 2014, so it expires in 2039, which is four years after the EU and  California's bans on new gas car sales take hold in 2035. Formula One and Formula E have been on a  collision course ever since that very first dinner. I was writing on this napkin all these ideas of the  conversation.

Today it is there on the wall by that table where we had dinner. So you walk out of this dinner in Paris, you've got this napkin. .

. What do you do next with that? How does a napkin become a sport?

Okay so imagine you're creating a new sport. . .

you  need people to watch it. The goal was simple: build an electric car space program by making the most entertaining sport possible. I'm imagining during that two-year period where you're setting up Formula E you're in a room and you have a whiteboard and you're like, "What would be fun?

? ". .

. That's exactly how it is. So we're going to ski trip for example and then we're somewhere and  then we go for dinner and we have some drinks and we start brainstorming.

. . I'll give you one guess what they use for inspiration.

. . We look at the race almost like a video game.

. . Super Mario Kart!

Only for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System! Formula E kept the basics of Formula 1: Every  team has two drivers and those drivers get points depending on where they finish. Teams win with  the most points total and drivers win with the most points individually.

If you want more details  on this you can watch my video on Formula 1 but now: If you were Formula E, how would you make a race more exciting? First they changed where the races happen. .

. We wanted to race in city centers, to  do street racing, to bring the show closer to the people, and also to kind of convey the message that electric cars are a solution for mobility inside the cities. I actually got into Formula E because I went to a race in New York.

This was right after I finished my video on Formula  1 and it was cheap and in my city. And that's the point. These are really easily accessible fan- friendly races, and they're designed to be.

Cool, now what else would you do to make these races even  more entertaining? You ever played Mario Kart? You know how you can get a boost by driving over  these things?

They put those in Formula E! ! Like.

. . Genius.

"Attack Mode" which is a bit like the  Mario Kart. . .

Here you go off the racing line and you get more energy for four minutes. . .

"Di Grassi now is in attack mode. . .

and through goes Di Grassi into second place! ! " That's not even my favorite rule.

Just watch this. . .

Do you see that right there? That's a "fan boost. " The  audience has voted to give this driver more speed.

"He's got fan boost as well. . .

Lucas Di Grassi of course and he's using it now. . .

here comes Lucas Di Grassi! The audience voting to give drivers  more speed? ?

Like what in the Hunger Games. . .

Formula E is actually walking this rule back in 2023, it's gonna be retired, but can you just imagine them sitting on a ski vacation like thinking  up these rules? I love this. If you would do them in Formula 1, people would say they're kind of gimmicks or they're not serious racing.

Formula E is a lot more flexible on that, we can take those kind of fun ideas to the racing. I just love how these guys took the  urgent need to improve electric cars and made a real life video game out of it. I mean obviously  we've got to go see it in person.

For journalism. I got invited to go see the final test of  the new Formula E car before racing begins I cannot believe this job is real. The cars  that I'm about to go see are a huge improvement over the cars that they used in the very first  Formula E race.

And it's interesting, by tracing the improvement of the electric cars that they  use you can actually see how the electric cars that you use have improved as well. This is  the Gen 1, the first Formula E car. No one had ever built a car like this before.

But these cars had a little problem. . The problem with Gen 1 is that the batteries didn't last long enough.

. . It was the same problem facing all electric cars.

. . Range.

Back in 2014, electric cars could only get  about 250 miles per battery charge absolute max and the median was actually way lower. What's  worse is that the faster you go, the more you deplete the battery, so Formula E cars weren't  getting anywhere close to these ranges. So here's the solution they came up with.

. . We basically gave two cars to every driver.

Just watch this: Here comes driver Lucas Di Grassi for a pit stop, and he hops out of one car and into the other. . .

So people thought were completely crazy but  you know at least we started somewhere. After four years we raced those cars, we managed to  build the Generation 2. The big thing of Generation 2 was it could do twice the distance.

They could do the whole race with only one car. Now the one that I'm gonna go see is the Gen 3, the fastest and most powerful electric race car ever built. At the same time Formula E was launching, Formula One announced a massive change: It was the biggest set of rule changes in a  generation, maybe ever.

F1 was going green. "A new era. .

. " "A technical revolution! " F1 is going hybrid!

" Every car would now be powered by a hybrid powertrain with a turbo engine and  two electric motors. . .

yeah I caught that too. . .

Don't Alejandro and Formula E have the exclusive  license to electric racing? I asked him about that. They can do hybrid.

So my license is all that is purely electric. Formula 1 in an extreme world could go 99% electric and one percent fuel but already  on the next generation of engines they're going 50/50 almost. I guess if they could they would  go full electric but they can't.

Well, it's 5 a. m, I made it to Madrid. I did not sleep at all on that flight.

I was too excited. That was a mistake. I am in Valencia!

Now I just have to get to the  track, because they are testing those cars right now. Okay I'm like 50% sure I'm in the right place. .

. Hello I'm looking for the media center? I was wrong.

That's not the right spot. Sometimes I just have to pinch myself like they're just letting me run around between garages and  look at what they're working on. This stuff is fascinating.

. . Here it is: Gen 3.

The biggest step  up in technology ever for Formula E. Unlike in Formula 1, all Formula E teams have to use the  same frame or chassis, the same battery, and most of the same ancillary parts. The team focuses  on powertrain components that turn the energy from the battery into speed, namely the rear motor, inverter, gearbox, and the software behind it.

That's deliberate. By design, the teams spend their money  experimenting on the parts and the technology that the championship deems most important. It's  a direct response to the runaway costs in Formula 1.

This is the team principle for Jaguar, James  Barclay. He's one of the most important people here. And he explained why Gen 3 is such a big deal.

So this is a really important time for us. It's a brand new car, new Generation 3 era so we go from 250 kilowatts to 350 kilowatts a big step up in power. We go from a car which  weighs just over 900 kilograms to a car which is about 850 kilograms.

So it's lighter. So, more powerful, lighter, means faster basically. Going faster is great but only if you can stop.

This Gen 3 car is testing a specific piece of powertrain technology that could end up in our electric cars in  the future but only if they get it right. . .

One of the biggest things a lot of people here  are talking about are the braking systems because they actually don't have any rear mechanical  brakes on this generation of the car. The reason for that is that they're using a new braking  system which stops the cars with the electric motors themselves, converting kinetic energy into  electrical energy used to repower the batteries. Not having rear mechanical brakes is a really big  deal.

There were at least three crashes before they got here to Valencia and pre-season testing. There  are real stakes here: This is an example of a new technology that could be a huge step forward not  just for electric race cars but also in the future for electric cars that you or I might drive. I  got a few minutes with legendary driver Lucas di Grassi who's been with Formula E since the very  beginning.

He's on the front lines testing this new braking system and he broke it down for me. How does braking actually work on this car, and how is it different from the generations that came before? That's a very good question.

So if you look at the front, here you have a break. So there is  no rear break, there is not a physical break. All the braking capacity from the car comes from the  electric motors.

So all the energy that the car has by going at 300 kilometers per hour, when you  touch the pedal, the motor starts to produce energy like a power plant, like a windmill, that you have the producing energy, it's the same concept. So you can recuperate up to 80% of  the energy back into the battery when you brake. And so by doing that you don't need brakes.

This is the first car in history that does not have mechanical rear brakes. Does that make you nervous  when you're driving it? No.

. . .

. . Maybe.

No it doesn't. It would make me nervous, I'm glad it doesn't make you. No it doesn't.

I think if you - I fully trust the team and the technology. We had some scare moments before. A few times it didn't work and then you have only front brakes but  we are pushing the technology forward.

In the future this technology will be in your road  vehicle and then you'll go more miles, you drive faster, you drive cleaner, and you charge the car much faster. I love car racing because it's an experiment, the world's most popular group science project And as much as I love Formula 1 today that science project must bring us into the future, it can't keep us in the past. So if you live in a world in which you  cannot race the technology that is now being sold to the main public, there is a great distance between your championship and public.

Of course there's still horse racing and it's still popular, but in this case horses are not illegal. Combustion cars gonna become illegal. So who will win this fight for the future of cars?

Everyone's got an opinion. I think maybe a merger's there in the future, maybe they have to buy Formula E, maybe we buy them who knows. .

. But in the meantime, thousands of people both in Formula 1 and in Formula E are hard at work making  better tech for everyone. So there's just one thing left to do: I would just say everyone, if you  haven't watched a race, watch race.

Because I think honestly the quality of the racing and the action  you see is quite phenomenal. You hear that? Watch a race!

So now you know more about the future of cars and I really gotta get out of pit lane  because they're gonna start racing!