Jean-Éric Vergne won his second Drivers' Championship, becoming the first Formula E Driver in history to win multiple Driver ChampionshipsTecheetah won the Teams' Champions
The 2018–19 season saw the introduction of the all-newGen2, second generation Formula E car, which boasted significant technological advances over the previousSpark-Renault SRT 01E chassis – its power output rose from 200 kW to 250 kW and top speeds rose to around 280 km/h (174 mph). The arrival of the Gen2 car also saw an end to the series' mid-race car-swaps.[1]
The2019 Hong Kong ePrix was the 50th race of Formula E since its inception in 2014. Formula E has raced in 22 cities in 17 countries across five continents and has seen 13 global manufactures compete in the series. Four drivers have started every Formula E race; they areLucas di Grassi,Sam Bird,Daniel Abt andJérôme d'Ambrosio.[4]
The 2018–19 season was the first to have an official support category sinceGreenpower ran the Schools Series during Formula E's debut 2014–15 season.[5] TheJaguar I-Pace eTrophy featured at 10 of the 13 rounds of the calendar.[6]
After the first race in New York City,Jean-Éric Vergne secured enough points to become the Drivers' Champion, winning his second Formula E championship.[7] Techeetah won their first constructor's championship.[8]
Mercedes affiliateHWA entered the championship and establish a technical partnership withVenturi. The agreement sees HWA receive powertrains for the 2018–19 season, serving as a precursor to Mercedes' entry as a manufacturer team in the2019–20 season.[40]
Nissan entered the championship as a manufacturer replacing partner companyRenault in their partnership withDAMS.[41] Renault cited a desire to concentrate ontheir Formula One programme as their motivation for leaving Formula E.[28]
Halfway through the season,Nelson Piquet Jr. left the Jaguar team after the Sanya ePrix. He was replaced byAlex Lynn for the remainder of the season.[13]
Formula E made its debut inSaudi Arabia with the race to take place on a street circuit in theAd Diriyah district ofRiyadh.[52][59] The event replaced theHong Kong ePrix as the opening round of the championship.
The championship was due to race inSão Paulo for the first time. The race had originally been included on the2017–18 Formula E season calendar before being delayed for one year and replaced with thePunta del Este ePrix.[60] However, the São Paulo race was not included on the provisional calendar published in June 2018 and the Punta del Este race was removed from the schedule.
A new ePrix in China was added to the calendar with theHainan resort city ofSanya named as the venue.[61]
TheSantiago ePrix changed its location from Parque Forestal to a bespoke circuit inO'Higgins Park. The move was made following complaints by the residents of Barrio Lastarria, who argued against the original track layout.[53]
The Swiss ePrix was moved fromZürich toBern after the former's city officials expressed concerns about the ability of the city's infrastructure to handle a series of large-scale events in quick succession. Organisers have the option to return to Zürich in future seasons.[62]
AsJean-Éric Vergne had scored the most podiums during the European leg of the season, he was awarded a trophy by the title sponsorVoestalpine, thus becoming the first ever recipient of the trophy.
A separate competition within the overallFormula E Championship structure which includes allEuropean cities that are part of the calendar has been included.[63] The driver who achieves the best podium finishes of all five races will be awarded a trophy produced byVoestalpine.[64][N 2]
TheSpark-Renault SRT 01E, which was used by the championship sinceits inaugural season, was replaced by a brand-new chassis.[66] The new chassis, which was also developed bySpark Racing Technology, is known as theSRT05e and eschews the conventional design of having a rear wing in favour of incorporating aerodynamic elements into the chassis and floor.[67]
The category used a new standardised battery produced byMcLaren Applied Technologies andAtieva.[68][69] Each driver is only allowed to use one car per race, thus the battery life now lasts the whole race instead of half distance.[70]
The series introduced new brakes, asSpark Racing Technology choseBrembo as the sole supplier of the entire braking system for all the single-seaters: discs, calipers, pads, bells and tandem pump.[71][72]
The maximum power output of the cars increased to 250 kW.[73] Cars have a series of pre-set power modes which were introduced to encourage strategic racing without allowing a team to gain a competitive advantage through powertrain development.[74]
The series also introduced a system officially called "attack mode" or dubbed "Mario Kart mode" in which drivers receive an additional 25 kW of power by driving through a designated area of the circuit off the racing line. The duration of the boost mode and the number of boosts available was meant to only decided shortly ahead of each race by the FIA to stop teams from anticipating its use and incorporating it into race strategy.[75][76] However, this largely did not happen, with all events except the second race in New York having two attack mode activations of 4 minutes each, with the final race having 3 activations, also of 4 minutes each.
The "halo" cockpit protection device was introduced on the chassis to meet the FIA rules that the halo should be involved in all single seater series by 2020.[77][78]
Races were no longer run to a set number of laps. Rather, they ran for forty-five minutes and complete an additional lap once the time limit has expired.[76]
Points were awarded to the top ten classified finishers in every race, the pole position starter, and the driver who set the fastest lap, using the following structure:
^abBMW i Andretti Motorsport raced in Riyadh under a British license.[34]
^The original plan was to award the driver who has collected the most points in all the European races.[63][65]
^Lucas di Grassi set the fastest time but was excluded for driving infringement.
^Point for Fastest Lap awarded toSam Bird as Lotterer did not finish inside the top 10.
^Sam Bird and Envision Virgin Racing were initial winners but was given 5-second time penalty for causing a collision.
^Point for Fastest Lap awarded toSebastien Buemi as Vergne did not finish inside the top 10.
^Pascal Wehrlein set the fastest time but was excluded for a technical infringement.
^Point for Fastest Lap awarded toRobin Frijns as Dillmann did not finish inside the top 10.
^Oliver Rowland set the fastest time and received three points for pole position and the award but had a three-place grid penalty for colliding with Alexander Sims in the Paris E-Prix. Therefore, he started in fourth place while Jean-Éric Vergne started in pole position.
^Point for Fastest Lap awarded toSam Bird as da Costa did not finish inside the top 10.
^Point for Fastest Lap awarded toDaniel Abt as Vergne did not finish inside the top 10.
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Saudi Arabia
Morocco
Chile
Mexico
Hong Kong
China
Italy
France
Monaco
Germany
Switzerland
United States
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Mitch Evans
Robin Frijns
Lucas di Grassi
Oliver Rowland
Stoffel Vandoorne
Mahindra Racing
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