Autosport Plus

The survivor championship no one saw coming

Back at the start of the 2010s, an all-electric racing series was unlikely at best and a non-starter at worst. But, as we explain in our latest feature looking back at motorsport in last decade, Formula E came to be and continues to survive and thrive

A trip down Formula E's memory lane must, obviously, start with the 2009 GP2 season.

Back then, Alejandro Agag was running the Addax squad that had taken over Campos Racing's entry in the Formula 1 feeder series. Romain Grosjean would leave the team mid-year to join Renault for an unsuccessful first stint in grand prix racing, and Vitaly Petrov would finish as runner-up to Nico Hulkenberg. So far, nothing out of the ordinary.

Indeed, when Autosport asks Agag if establishing an all-electric category had crossed his mind at that stage, he replies: "Absolutely not. Definitely not - it was not in my mind at all - zero."

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Author Alex Kalinauckas

Alex Kalinauckas is Autosport's Grand Prix Editor, covering every Formula 1 race since the start of 2020. After completing a master's degree in journalism at Goldsmiths College University of London in 2014, he worked for a range of motorsport and technology publications while covering national racing as an Autosport freelancer.

A lifelong motorsport fan - no one in his family can explain quite how or why such a development first occurred - Alex joined the Autosport staff in April 2017 as the magazine’s Assistant Editor covering Formula 2 and GP3, before being made Formula E correspondent and Autosport.com’s Plus Editor in March 2018. He lives in north-east London and is constantly frustrated by the Central Line.