2017–18 Formula E Championship


The 2017–18 FIA Formula E Championship was the fourth season of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile Formula E motor racing. It featured the 2017–18 ABB FIA Formula E Championship, a motor racing championship for open-wheel electric racing cars, recognised by FIA, the sport's governing body, as the highest class of competition for electrically powered vehicles. Twenty drivers representing ten teams contested twelve ePrix, which started in Hong Kong ePrix|Hong Kong] on 2 December 2017 and ended on 15 July 2018 in New York City ePrix|New York City] as they competed for the Drivers' and Teams' Championships.
2017–18 was the final season that the Spark-Renault SRT 01E chassis—which debuted in the 2014–15 [Formula E season]—was used in competition; as a brand new chassis package was introduced for the 2018–19 season.
Lucas di Grassi entered as the defending Drivers' Champion after securing his first title at the 2017 Montreal ePrix. [DAMS|] began the season as the defending Teams' Champion, having clinched its third consecutive accolade at the same event.
Frenchman Jean-Éric Vergne took victory in Drivers' Championship with 198 points, besting Lucas di Grassi and Sam Bird. Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler took victory in the Team's Championship, beating Techeetah by a narrow two point margin.

Teams and drivers

All teams used Spark chassis.

Team changes

Name changes

The official entry list for the 2017–18 season contained a number of name changes for the teams. These were:

Joining Formula E

After just one weekend in Hong Kong, Dragon Racing driver Neel Jani left the team in order to focus on his upcoming World Endurance Championship campaign. He was replaced by former DS Virgin Racing driver José María López.
For the first weekend in Hong Kong, Kamui Kobayashi was brought by MS&AD Andretti to satisfy sponsors. Tom Blomqvist however, took over that car after and raced it until the Paris ePrix|Paris] round, where he left the team to focus on World Endurance Championship commitments with BMW, he was replaced by Stéphane Sarrazin.
Edoardo Mortara missed Berlin ePrix|Berlin] and the finale in New York City ePrix|New York] due to DTM commitments with Mercedes. Mortara was replaced by Tom Dillmann on both occasions.
Ma Qinghua subbed in for Luca Filippi at Nio Formula E Team for the Paris ePrix, to fulfill a contract obligation.

Rule changes

  • The maximum power usage during the race was increased from 170 kW to 180 kW.
  • A point for the fastest lap will be restricted to drivers finishing in the top 10, ending the incentive for drivers with damaged cars or placed outside points positions to switch cars to get fastest lap with no intent of finishing the race.

    Calendar

In May 2017, a provisional calendar for the 2017–18 season was circulated. In September, the full calendar was announced. This calendar included new races in Santiago, São Paulo, Rome and Zürich, the latter of which will mark the first time since 1955 a motorsports circuit race will be held in Switzerland. The Buenos Aires round was discontinued, whilst the Monaco round will not be held due to the Historic Grand Prix of Monaco taking place in 2018. Later that year, on 30 November, it was announced that the São Paulo race would be postponed until 2019, with a race elsewhere to replace it in the schedule. It was later announced that Punta del Este in Uruguay, which had been on the schedule for seasons 1 and 2, would be returning in place of São Paulo.
On 18 December 2017, the Montreal ePrix was cancelled due to the Mayor of Montreal citing rising costs to the taxpayer. On 18 January 2018, it was announced the ePrix would not be replaced, thus decreasing the calendar to twelve rounds.

ePrix locations

Results and standings

ePrix

Drivers' Championship standings

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:
Position 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th Pole
Points25181512108642131

† – Drivers did not finish the race, but were classified as they completed more than 90% of the race distance.

Teams' Championship standings