Formula E founder Alejandro Agag believes Formula E has the potential to overtake Formula One as the world’s leading motorsport series once the automotive industry becomes all-electric.
Formula E is currently the only all-electric racing series and will enter its fifth season when it debuts its new Gen2 car in December. While the performance of the cars are still vastly down on modern day F1 machinery, the series has enjoyed steady progress since its debut season in 2014 and has since attracted some of motorsport’s biggest manufacturers, such as Audi and BMW, with Mercedes and Porsche set to enter the fray in season six.
Earlier in the year, Formula One’s motorsport director Ross Brawn admitted the sport could become all-electric within the next ten years and Agag thinks F1 could get left behind if it doesn’t make this switch.
“I think in five years they are going to start feeling a lot the heat,” Agag said in 2016 F1 champion Nico Rosberg’s podcast titled ‘Beyond Victory’. “I think in 10 years it’s going to be very difficult that they don’t switch to electric. But they can’t. But they will really feel the pressure to switch to electric.
“In 10 years electric cars will go as fast as combustion cars. So when you have these cars going as fast, what is the reason to stick to an old technology? you should move to a new technology.
“I think when the industry is electric, Formula E will happen to be the main motorsport in the world.”
Formula E currently has a 25-year license with the FIA to be the sole electric single-seater championship, meaning F1 would not be able to make the switch before that expires.