Formula E: the future is electric

Over lunch immediately after the launch of his brainchild on Tuesday at the Frankfurt Motorshow, Formula E CEO Alejandro Agag is in jaunty mood, taking jibes from our three table companions in good spirits.

As we await tempura prawns and sushi, racing is momentarily on hold as we discuss Spain's latest disappointment - Madrid's failure to clinch the 2020 Olympics - then talk again turns to the world's latest international racing series.

"Don't worry about them," says the Spaniard with a smile, "my mother-in-law is Madrid's mayor, so of course it's my fault we lost the Olympics..."

The former high-ranking MEP - as our car passes the European Central Bank en route to lunch he relates tales about his tenure as member of the EU's economic select committee - knows too well that blame will fall on his shoulders should Formula E fail, but he is equally clear failure is not an option.

The car had been launched to much fanfare a few hours earlier - FIA president Jean Todt deeming the occasion to be sufficiently important to interrupt a major Mobility conference - and now talk turns to the next step: championship structure.

"Having the car, showing the car, makes the project much more real," he says. "This project has gone through phases: first was 'it will never happen'; then 'maybe it will happen'; now we're in the phase of 'looks like it's going to happen'.

"Then we will get to the phase of 'it's happening'. But we're not there yet. Each step gets us closer to that.

Agag unveils the car to the world

"Also, the impression of the people, the partners, the industry, is very important... the perception. I think today brings a very important contribution to the perception of the championship as being reality."

Crucially, the series was able to launch with world-class partners such as DHL and Tag-Heuer, but the 42-year-old is too wise to rise to the bait that he 'nicked' them from F1. Nonetheless, their presence is a coup, for it gives Formula E commercial credibility - compare the bare look of A1GP's ill-fated car at launch...

But, if he is highly appreciative of these motorsport stalwarts' support, mention of Qualcomm - of which more later - persuades him to put his chopsticks aside.

"That's a really positive development for us," he says. "This was our plan from the beginning, but it was, let's say, a guess. We guessed the attraction of the world's first zero-emission championship would attract those kinds of companies. But we were not sure. Today we are much more certain those companies will come."

However, he accepts that announcements are cheap as chips. "You are absolutely right, we haven't started racing. Even more, we are a year away from our first race and we already have those kinds of partners on the car, which gives a very strong signal of the potential of the concept.

"Now we have to deliver, because these companies are here and they're like us, making a bet on a concept, an idea, a very strong idea. But now this idea needs to become a reality and we need 20 cars racing in 10 cities around the world next year."

Although Year 1 has 10 dates - to be confirmed, incidentally, at the FIA's September 27 World Motorsport Council meeting - the ultimate target is 12, with such as Adelaide and Cape Town or Morocco eventually joining to provide a footprint on every inhabited continent.

Most host cities are already confirmed; however, where the original schedule included Rome, Italy's iconic city is likely to be replaced by Hong Kong for (intra)political/economic reasons.

Not Madrid? "Not Madrid," Agag smiles, adding quick as a flash, "Fact is, we're avoiding any conflict of interest..."

Like A1GP, Formula E's season will start in September, running through to June, ultimately with a race every three weeks.

Todt attended the unveiling of the new car

"First year: one every month," Agag says. "One of the reasons [for the timing] is not to collide with Formula 1, or WEC, or other championships. Actually, WEC is more relevant to us than F1, because of the drivers' possibility to do both. No F1 driver will probably do both, but some WEC drivers probably will.

"Also, some IndyCar drivers will do both, or at least try to do a few races in each. So it made more sense for that. Also, for television it made sense to have races when there's no Formula 1 or any other car racing.

"Again, it goes with the philosophy of the championship. We want to be different. We're not trying to compete with F1 or anyone. We want to be different, have our own features. This is a differentiating factor."

Talk of the calendar makes Agag's eyes roll. "It's so difficult to put together a calendar," he says, "and we only have 10 races. I can't imagine how difficult it must be to put together 20 races..."

"We actually don't look at the other calendars, because we race on Saturdays - with that, we already avoid a clash with F1. In any case, it's very difficult, because you have weather conditions, you have national holidays, you have other sports interfering in every country, so it's difficult."

For logistical reasons the world has been divided into four 'blocks': Asia, North/South America and Europe, with races clustered within these blocks. Thus there will be two in North America, two in South America, three in Asia and three in Europe, with (street) circuit design mainly in the hands of local companies, simply as they have requisite levels of knowledge, expertise and local contacts.

"So we're working with local people on the ground. So basically the approach is to go to turnkey races - we arrive and the race is organised."

Asked whether any of the venues and layouts could be similar to A1GP's (street) circuits, Agag reacts with mock horror: "As A1? No. No." Then emphasises it with another, "As A1? No!" before adding: "We may use the same roads they used in Beijing [laughs]."

When the point is made that Beijing was arguably A1GP's lowest point after the cars proved unable to negotiate a hairpin, Lucas di Grassi, who drove for Agag's Addax GP2 team before switching to F1 with Marussia and then Pirelli as tyre tester, and is present at the lunch as Formula E's development driver, immediately chimes in.

Lucas di Grassi © LAT

"That's actually a very good feature of [our] car, because it was designed from scratch to race in cities, so the turn radius is 7.5 metres, whereas a GP car, which is already tight, is 11."

A1GP's car was, of course, based on an ancient Formula Nippon concept, so it is clear that, if Formula E has drawn lessons from A1GP, it is how not to do things.

There are, though, some surprises, such as Brazil not appearing on the schedule despite there being two South American races, although the Buenos Aires round has been confirmed.

The history of Formula E is convoluted: initially devised by an FIA committee working to Todt's vision, the original contract went to an Abu Dhabi consortium with close ties to Yas Marina Circuit, which in turn withdrew for unknown reasons.

There are suggestions that certain commercial powers felt F1 and this high-profile single-seater series were incompatible... thus Agag's proposal, which placed second in terms of sustainability, was dusted off and fast-tracked by invitation of the FIA.

"The FIA has been very supportive," stresses Agag. "We've had, of course, from president Jean Todt, a lot of support in terms of coming to events and backing our championship.

"We work closely with the FIA's technical people to define regulations, to work on the cities and circuit homologations and so forth, and all the teams in the FIA have been very supportive of the championship.

"We work very well with them, homologating the tracks. Everything is going very well. We have a joint committee, FIA/Formula E, that meets every month and we go in detail on every aspect of the championship. The co-operation is very good."

Every motorsport rights holder knows television ratings are the commercial lifeblood of their championship. Just as TV made F1, so the lack of it killed A1GP and many other nascent series that started life as sound concepts, then sank like lead balloons after global coverage failed to materialise.

Agag is now seeking television deals

Agag is adamant they are on the right track, and while we are talking he takes a call about movement on Japan's rights.

"Television-wise developments are extremely positive," he says. "We signed a very important agreement with Fox Sports that provides live broadcasting in the US, which is key for us, plus another 87 countries, including Asia, Africa and South America.

"Europe is out of that agreement, except Italy. We will approach one by one the European broadcasters, but all the rest is covered. We plan to keep some rights in certain regions, like free-to-air rights in Asia, but most of them already are going to Fox. Fox has a very strong commitment.

"They bought different assets. In Asia they bought the ESPN part of Star, in Europe they have Sky, and in Latin America they are Fox Sports, very strong, the strongest channel. So they want to bring everything together under one brand. They have the UFC, the fighting championship, they have different properties, and they want one motorsport championship globally. That's us."

Formula E is initially targeting a live viewer base of 20-25 million per race, with a 50/50 male:female split, and predominantly under 30 - which is precisely the age group F1 is in dire danger of losing as Future Kid increasingly turns off traditional motorsport in his quest for emerging technologies.

Thus Qualcomm, one of the world's premier communications suppliers, is a vital component in Formula E's commercial and technological mix, and it's clear that Agag is extremely proud of his team's snaring of a company at the forefront of mobile charging solutions - for, if Formula E had a perceived weakness, it was that two cars are currently required to deliver 60 minutes of high-speed action.

Qualcomm's Wireless Electric Vehicle Charging (WEVC, say it "wev-see") uses inductive wireless energy transfer to eliminate plug-in charging, and is obviously a technology of the future. In addition, the partnership enables Formula E to ride on the back of Qualcomm's wireless communications expertise. So how will this benefit Formula E?

"Well," Agag says, "it doesn't affect races in the beginning. Everybody has two cars. So races will last close to an hour, between pitstops and formation lap and all that."

"But we want to change the experience for fans watching our races. That is very important, and Qualcomm is going to help us, making the races connected. So the people at the races are able to watch, on their smartphones, their tablets. Data, images... and we want to have team principals and teams having the same data as fans, so they will be able to see exactly what team principals are seeing.

"We aim to make our events interactive, so fans will be able to vote to give an extra push-to-pass to their favourite driver, for example. They will be able to play online. We're working on online video gaming with GPS positioning to enable racing with 'shadow cars' against our race cars.

"[We have] many different ideas and initiatives to make our racing a completely different experience for fans at the track and at home."

But many believe the future of Formula E hinges not on Agag and his able team, not on the series' technology or TV footprint or even its sporting promise, but on one of man's simplest senses: hearing. So, will the sound be 21st century or Hoover?

With that Agag pulls out his mobile phone and hits a button. A shriek not unlike a jet engine at full blast fills the Japanese restaurant, startling folk at adjoining tables. Formula E sure has a future. Actually, it is the future. And it's electric.