Eight things to watch in Formula E's 2022 season

Formula E commences its eighth season in Riyadh this weekend with its first of 19 races, the longest calendar seen to date.

Three rookies will grace the grid for the final year of the trusty Gen-2 machinery, which will bow out at seasons' end after four years of use, while a new knock-out qualifying format is set to provide much-needed authenticity after the randomness that dominated 2021.

Before the action kicks off on Friday, Autosport picks out eight things to watch in 2022. 

1. Ticktum and Giovinazzi headline rookie crop

Alfa Romeo F1 refugee Giovinazzi starts afresh in FE with Dragon Penske Autosport

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

Of the three rookie drivers gracing the 2022 Formula E grid, the two with arguably the biggest draw have found seats with the historically unfancied teams in the championship.

Dragon Penske Autosport has snared the services of Antonio Giovinazzi following his departure from Alfa Romeo’s F1 team, while Dan Ticktum has called time on FIA Formula 2 to join NIO 333 alongside the enduring Oliver Turvey. There’s two ways of cutting it: either they’ve both got low-pressure environments in which to learn Formula E’s intricacies and nuances, or they’re set for a season of struggle with equipment that will seldom offer opportunities for decently sized points hauls. The two drivers are also up against it in terms of mileage, having had to call their pre-season testing programmes short and hot-foot it to Saudi Arabia for their F1 and F2 duties.

“The car is really different from F1, or the cars I’ve been in over the past few years,” Giovinazzi explains.

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“[On the first day] I was really sort of confused and had a lot of things to learn. But the main issue for me is the braking, because [in F1] you can really attack so much on the braking because you have so much downforce as well. But here you cannot. I’m struggling with this. But I remember when I drove in 2018 the first car, the Gen1, it was the same.

“I’ll focus more on the sim to set up myself more on this car. But before race one I’ll not have many miles for that, so it’s like this, but I’m sure during the season I can improve. And this is my target.”

For Ticktum, the NIO seat represents something of a lifeline after being dumped from the Williams F1 junior programme and with no other obvious opportunities to move up in the world of single-seaters. Turvey will provide stern competition, and a well-known benchmark for Ticktum to measure himself against.

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2. Will knockout qualifying be a knockout?

Unpopular group qualifying format has been ditched in favour of knockouts that will see the fastest drivers at the front

Photo by: Andreas Beil

Formula E’s group qualifying format had been a largely unpopular system of deciding the grid among the drivers. Track evolution meant that the frontrunners populating the opening group had minimal chance of making the cut for superpole, while the last group were given the best chance of progressing into the final stage.

Hopefully the knockout format will be more meritocratic. Qualifying now starts with two groups, with the initial Diriyah E-Prix session featuring one car per team in both divisions of the grid. These opening stages will be 10 minutes long with pitstops permitted, and drivers will be afforded the standard 220kW power limit in the group stages.

The top four from each will progress into the quarter-finals, where drivers will duel against each other at 250kW in a pre-determined draw: first in group A will face a time trial against fourth in group B, A2 going up against B3, A3 facing B2, and A4 tackling B1. The fastest from each will progress to the semi-finals, with the winners of those bouts going through to the pole-awarding final.

The two finalists make up the front row, with the drivers knocked out in the semi-finals occupying the second row based on their times. Those who didn’t progress from the quarter-finals will occupy fifth to eighth, while those knocked out in the group stages will be allocated a grid slot based on their positions, biased towards the group hosting the eventual polesitter. If the polesitter came from group A, for example, then the fifth-placed driver from that group lines up ninth on the grid, and group B’s fifth-placed driver occupies 10th. That continues down the rest of the grid, with group B’s slowest occupying the final spot on the grid.

Diriyah will provide the true test of the new format, but the drivers have already been receptive to the changes ahead of the first round.

“I was quite vocal about [the old system] last year,” says reigning champion Nyck de Vries. “I think generally, the changes will lead to a kind of more consistent and stable qualifying result, and I expect we will see a bit more of a common group of people – teams and drivers – who are fighting in the top 10.”

3. Farewell to a gamechanger

The outgoing Gen-2 Formula E car helped to solidify the championship's credibility by ridding it of in-race car swaps

Photo by: Andreas Beil

Entering its final act, the Gen2 Formula E car has served its time and has one more season before being put out to pasture as the faster, lighter Gen3 machinery awaits its turn. For its swansong year, the Gen2 cars will be given an extra 20kW to shift the base maximum power to 220kW, with the higher 250kW mode employed for fanboost and attack mode.

Compared to the original Gen1 Formula E car, where the aesthetics led to it drawing unfavourable comparisons to Formula 1, the second-generation model was a unique design that helped cement the all-electric championship’s identity amid the world of motorsport. It was also a formula that proved very successful for the DS Techeetah package in the first two years, helping Jean-Eric Vergne secure his second title and Antonio Felix da Costa winning out in 2019-20 before Mercedes’ de Vries proved triumphant in its third year.

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In addition, Gen2 has moved Formula E on from a technological standpoint. With almost double the battery capacity of the old car, the in-race car swaps were made redundant and the higher power levels gave the championship enough confidence to run the full Monaco circuit last season, in lieu of the neutered version previously employed.

In short, the technology within each car and the overall design has done a lot to shape the perception of Formula E. The third-generation car will have a lot to live up to when it enters the fray for Formula E’s ninth season.

4. Can di Grassi take Venturi to the next level?

Di Grassi has been a mainstay of Abt since Formula E began, but now switches to Mercedes power with Venturi following Audi's exit

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images

Given that Venturi hasn’t exactly been the most high-profile of teams alongside the manufacturer entities in Formula E, Edoardo Mortara’s second-place finish in the drivers’ championship was certainly unexpected last year. Since ditching its own powertrains to become a Mercedes customer, Venturi has made a step forward in terms of pace but hasn’t necessarily enjoyed the consistency required to replicate that in the teams’ standings.

But that perception can change, with Venturi having now recruited Lucas di Grassi from the departing Audi team. In the Brazilian, it has a Formula E champion with the nous to fight at the front of the pack, although di Grassi may have to contend with fewer resources than he’s used to with a manufacturer squad.

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He and Mortara looked competitive in testing, even if clues from the week at Valencia were scarce. The team also has Jerome d’Ambrosio as team principal as Susie Wolff moves into a directorial role, ensuring that Venturi has veteran drivers in and out of the cockpit.

Can either Venturi driver realistically challenge for the title, and potentially beat the works Mercedes team in its last year? On the basis of Mortara’s 2021 heroics, di Grassi’s ability and on testing form, it truly could.

5. A Stellantis sticking plaster

DS is stepping up its involvement in the Techeetah team this year

Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Images

Just getting to Saudi Arabia is a victory for DS Techeetah, the two-time teams’ title winner. This year, Stellantis member DS Automobiles will bankroll the operation after SECA, the owner of race team Techeetah, turned off the money taps. That left champion drivers Antonio Felix da Costa and Jean-Eric Vergne unwilling to hop in the simulator unless they imminently received a cheque that wouldn’t bounce. It’s quite miraculous both have stayed.

Thanks to DS, however, there is now short-term financial security. Founding team principal Mark Preston has switched to CEO to find backing for Gen3 after a buyout collapsed last season, while powertrain boss Thomas Chevaucher takes on the management of the squad.

On track, there are still questions over the car. It chews rear tyres in a way its benchmark-setting predecessor didn’t. And as the potency of Mercedes remains, another year without so many trophies may lie in wait, even if financial distractions are fewer and farther between.

6. Porsche under pressure to break its duck

Porsche is still waiting for its first Formula E win and has a new boss eager for results at the helm

Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images

Porsche has a new motorsport boss in Thomas Laudenbach. We’re told he didn’t arrive at the expense of Pascal Zurlinden, someone who was hands on with a Formula E programme failing to meet targets.
Despite the new face, for a third season the vernacular is the same. This racing powerhouse has “absolutely no doubt that we have what it takes to win… We are firmly convinced that the [car] will be capable of leading the pack.”

Laudenbach has confirmed a mild team restructure, poaching ex-Audi engineer and Abt technical director Florian Modlinger as Porsche still chases its first electric victory. That said, Pascal Wehrlein was arguably robbed by the rules after crossing the line first in Puebla last season. Porsche also has two poles under its belt. But eighth in the teams’ table last year was nowhere good enough as a decision over its future in the series looms.

It retains the sound Wehrlein alongside Andre Lotterer, who endured a torrid 2021 when he was too often at fault during a spate of crashes. He’s been fortunate to keep his seat, after Mitch Evans signed a new deal at Jaguar Racing to leave Porsche short of alternatives. For Lotterer and Porsche, this must be a prosperous campaign.

7. New cities add global appeal

Vancouver hosted Indycar races regularly until 2004, and now will welcome Formula E back to Canada

Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images

The start of the 2022 season has an incredible sense of Formula E familiarity, as time-tested circuits flood the first half of the season. Diriyah, Mexico City, Rome, Monaco and Berlin are well-known locales, of which all are capable of delivering unpredictable races. The season’s second half, however, brings the series into new ground. Jakarta hosts Indonesia’s first E-Prix in June in the northern Ancol area of the city, while Vancouver and Seoul also get races in July and August respectively.

Vancouver brings Canada back to the calendar for the first time since 2017’s Montreal double-header and will use parts of the circuit previously employed by Champ Car prior to its departure from the schedule at the end of 2004.

After two cancellations owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, Seoul is pencilled in as the season finale – South Korea’s first international motorsport event since the 2013 Korean Grand Prix. Unlike the F1 race at the much-maligned Yeongam circuit, hosting a race in the middle of Seoul should remove the logistical issues that made the grands prix so sparsely attended. The circuit is expected to make use of Seoul’s Olympic Stadium in the Songpa district.

Following the world’s tentative steps out of the pandemic’s stranglehold, it’s refreshing to have new venues back on the agenda rather than the collection of stopgaps. New York and London also punctuate the end-of-season run of events prior to the Seoul climax, as Formula E continues to host races in the world’s biggest cities.

8. Can Askew become America’s great Formula E hope?

Askew becomes the first American to race in Formula E since Scott Speed's cameos in 2015

Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images

As a replacement for the Nissan e.dams-bound Maximilian Guenther, Oliver Askew has been sprung from IndyCar limbo by the newly independent Andretti Autosport to partner Jake Dennis. Askew tore up the Road To Indy categories, but found chances in the US top flight hard to come by beyond bit-part duties as a substitute driver.

He’ll be Formula E’s first full-time American driver, and the first US-born competitor to race in the series since Scott Speed’s cameo appearances (also for Andretti) during the maiden 2014-15 season. It’ll give the fans at the New York E-Prix a national hero to root for.

Ahead of his first Formula E season, Askew has targeted beating fellow rookies Ticktum and Giovinazzi, with regular points finishes underpinning his aims.

“Consistent point scoring is very important in this series,” Askew says. “That’s a very difficult achievement with how stacked this grid is. I have many goals this season. First and foremost, we need to finish as the best rookie. I think that’d be pretty cool.”

Askew is hoping to replicate Dennis's standout rookie season last year as he switches from IndyCar

Photo by: Andreas Beil