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Auto Racing
Quiet zoom: Electrified car race comes to Brooklyn waterfront
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Member of Team Abt Schaeffler Audi Sport shove their car ahead of the Formula E auto race Friday, July 14, 2017, in the Brooklyn borough of Fresh York. This weekend, a Brooklyn waterfront with a view of the Statue of Liberty will be transformed into a racetrack for the Formula E Championship series. The 10-team circuit featuring battery-powered cars stops in nine cities and wraps up in Montreal on July 30. (AP Photo/Michael Noble Jr.)
Formula E driver Jean-Eric Vergne is interviewed, in Fresh York, Thursday, June 1, 2017. This weekend, a Brooklyn waterfront with a view of the Statue of Liberty will be transformed into a racetrack for the Formula E Championship series.(AP Photo/Richard Drew)
FIA President Jean Todt speaks during a news conference, Friday, July 14, 2017, in the Brooklyn borough of Fresh York. This weekend, a Brooklyn waterfront with a view of the Statue of Liberty will be transformed into a racetrack for the Formula E Championship series. The 10-team circuit featuring battery-powered cars stops in nine cities and wraps up in Montreal on July 30. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
The Team Panasonic Jaguar Racing Formula E team shove a car in the Brooklyn borough of Fresh York, Friday, July 14, 2017. This weekend, a Brooklyn waterfront with a view of the Statue of Liberty will be transformed into a racetrack for the Formula E Championship series. The 10-team circuit featuring battery-powered cars stops in nine cities and wraps up in Montreal on July 30. (AP Photo/Michael Noble Jr.)
FIA President Jean Todt, right, is joined by Pete Selleck, Chairman and President of Michelin North America, as he speaks during a news conference, Friday, July 14, 2017, in the Brooklyn borough of Fresh York. This weekend, a Brooklyn waterfront with a view of the Statue of Liberty will be transformed into a racetrack for the Formula E Championship series. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
Member of Team Renault e.dams begin to run their car through the FIA technical inspection ahead of the Formula E auto race, Friday, July 14, 2017, in the Brooklyn borough of Fresh York. (AP Photo/Michael Noble Jr.)
Members of Formula E team Techeetah run drills Friday, July 14, 2017, in the Brooklyn borough of Fresh York. This weekend, a Brooklyn waterfront with a view of the Statue of Liberty will be transformed into a racetrack for the Formula E Championship series. The 10-team circuit featuring battery-powered cars stops in nine cities and wraps up in Montreal on July 30. (AP Photo/Michael Noble Jr.)
Formula E driver Jean-Eric Vergne is interviewed, in Fresh York, Thursday, June 1, 2017. This weekend, a Brooklyn waterfront with a view of the Statue of Liberty will be transformed into a racetrack for the Formula E Championship series.(AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Fresh YORK (AP) — What race car hardly makes a sound while zipping through the streets of Fresh York and major cities around the world?
It’s a Formula One car with an electrified engine. This weekend, a Brooklyn waterfront with a view of the Statue of Liberty will host the Formula E Championship series, where “E” stands for electrical.
“We race in city centers where F1 could never be racing — central London, central Paris, central Brooklyn,” FE driver Jean-Eric Vergne said. “Fans love it because you don’t have to travel. Just take the tube, taxi or bikes and arrive at a improvised track in their hometown.”
The fully electrified racing series is quieter and more climate friendly than the roaring F1 engines that run on gasoline. An FE car is eighty decibels compared to about one hundred thirty for an F1 car.
“Yes, people can sleep in the morning without being awakened by the cars,” he said of the early practice sessions in what’s billed as the very first motorsport race in the five boroughs.
Jean Todt, the president of motor sports’ governing figure, and Formula E chief executive Alejandro Agag began the Formula E Championship in 2014, commencing with a race around the grounds of Olympic Park in Beijing. Actor Leonardo DiCaprio is an investor in FE and a member of its sustainability committee.
The F1 series that’s been around since one thousand nine hundred fifty isn’t generally considered an environmentally friendly sport, but it’s evolving with more fuel-efficient engines. The ten teams in Formula E are highlighting the clean technology of electrical cars. There are no carbon emissions from an e-car.
The FE series began its third season in Hong Kong in October and raced in Marrakesh, Morocco; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Mexico City; Monaco; Paris and Berlin before coming to Fresh York. The series finishes in Montreal on July 29-30.
“I think electrified mobility or at least zero-emission mobility is a key point in keeping our planet clean,” Vergne said.
Andretti Formula E and Faraday Future Dragon Racing are the two American teams in the series. Marco Andretti and Scott Speed previously raced for Formula E, but there are no Americans among the twenty drivers this season.
The FE technology has improved, with electrified engines lasting twenty five minutes while reaching speeds of one hundred forty mph. During the event, there’s a mid-race car exchange, where the drivers switch to another charged car.
In the next two years, Vergne expects drivers will use one car because “batteries will be twice as efficient.” The batteries now need sixty minutes to recharge.
In races Saturday and Sunday at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal in Crimson Hook, drivers will likely reach one hundred twenty five mph on the straightaways of the 1.2-mile track with ten turns. The Qualcomm Fresh York City ePrix includes practices, qualifying and a village where kids can race on simulators and get autographs. The race each day will cover about forty five laps in forty minutes.
The city and FE signed a one-year contract with options to renew every year for up to ten years, said Anthony Hogrebe, a spokesman for the Fresh York City Economic Development Corporation.
The office of Mayor Bill de Blasio announced in April that Fresh York City is almost halfway toward its purpose of adding Two,000 municipal electrified vehicles by two thousand twenty five in an effort to lower greenhouse gases.
So far, Vergne’s best finish has been 2nd during three seasons of FE racing. His car malfunctioned in Paris last month, when he was in 2nd place.
“My steering rack broke and I went straight into the wall,” said Vergne, who grew up on a go-kart track his parents possessed outside Paris and competed in F1 for three years with Crimson Bull. “A bit of a shame in front of the home crowd.”
Vergne says the FE series aims to showcase the latest innovations in electrified cars, which may eventually filter down to everyday use by the public. Just ass-plug it in at night to charge like a cellphone.
“It’s a global picture,” Vergne said. “Look at our planet, we are getting overpopulated. People sometimes have difficulties moving into electrified mobility, which is understandable.
“It’s going to be more and more true through the years because it’s the junior generation growing up with this type of racing and fresh technologies.”
