Formula 1 has been urged to accept the growing reality that it can no longer distance itself from Formula E, and instead embrace the fact that it is a “sibling” in the motorsport world.
Formula E has grown considerably in all areas since its debut in 2014, and notably since it gained FIA world championship status six years later.
From the days of needing two cars to complete a race, FE’s Gen4 has already turned heads following its recent launch ahead of its initial campaign next season.
The buzz around FE has also captured the imagination of F1’s current crop of drivers. At the last round in Monaco at the weekend, F1 champion Lando Norris, along with Oliver Bearman, Nico Hulkenberg, Carlos Sainz and Gabriel Bortoleto were all in attendance.
It had been hoped that Norris would test the Gen4, only to be thwarted by scheduling commitments.
Former F1 driver David Coulthard was at least given the opportunity to get behind the wheel of the Gen4 around the streets of the Principality, and he was left highly impressed.
Naturally, given the major change to the F1 power units this season, and the 50-50 split between combustion and electrical energy, leading to a considerable level of management for all the drivers on the grid, the comparisons to FE have been widespread.
Four-time F1 champion Max Verstappen even went so far as to describe this season’s F1 as “FE on steroids” after sampling the car for the first time in pre-season testing.
Thirteen-time grand prix winner Coulthard feels F1 can no longer distance itself from FE.
“Now that Formula 1 is becoming more hybrid, then there’s more of an acceptance,” he said, speaking in an exclusive interview with ApexF1News.
“Even though Formula E is kind of part of the same family through ownership as Formula 1, there was always, I think, this kind of ‘That’s Formula E, and we’re were Formula 1’. The reality is they’re siblings.
“Formula E has been on this journey for a decade, and they’ve had to do the hard yards in developing this.
“Formula 1 has entered this world of pass and repass, and when I was talking to a couple of the F1 drivers, I was asking these guys, ‘Are you dealing with the management?’, and they were, ‘Of course we are’.
“I know the answer to the question, because why would you not? This is where you are dealing with energy management. The world’s moving, the world’s going to collide, isn’t it?”
