2018–19 Formula E Championship


The 2018–19 FIA Formula E Championship was the fifth season of the FIA Formula E championship, a motor racing championship for electrically-powered vehicles recognised by motorsport's governing body, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), as the highest class of competition for electric open-wheel racing cars.
The 2018–19 season saw the introduction of the all-new Gen2, second generation Formula E car, which boasted significant technological advances over the previous Spark-Renault SRT 01E chassis – its power output rose from 200 kW to 250 kW and top speeds rose to around 280 km/h. The arrival of the Gen2 car also saw an end to the series' mid-race car-swaps.
Frenchman Jean-Éric Vergne entered as the defending Drivers' Champion after securing his first title at the New [York City ePrix], while Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler returned as defending Teams' Champions – having beaten Vergne's Techeetah team by a narrow two point margin.
The 2019 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 are Lucas di Grassi, Sam Bird, Daniel Abt and Jérôme d'Ambrosio.
The 2018–19 season was the first to have an official support category since Greenpower ran the Schools Series during Formula E's debut 2014–15 season. The Jaguar I-Pace eTrophy featured at 10 of the 13 rounds of the calendar.
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. Techeetah won their first constructor's championship.

Teams and drivers

All teams used the Spark Gen2 chassis.
TeamPowertrainDriversRounds

Team changes

Driver changes

Mid-season changes

Calendar

The 2018–19 championship was contested over thirteen rounds in Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, North America and South America.

Calendar changes

European Races

A separate competition within the overall Formula E Championship structure which includes all European cities that are part of the calendar has been included. The driver who achieves the best podium finishes of all five races will be awarded a trophy produced by Voestalpine.

Changes

Technical regulations

  • The Spark-Renault SRT 01E, which was used by the championship since its inaugural season, was replaced by a brand-new chassis. The new chassis, which was also developed by Spark Racing Technology, is known as the SRT05e and eschews the conventional design of having a rear wing in favour of incorporating aerodynamic elements into the chassis and floor.
  • The category used a new standardised battery produced by McLaren Applied Technologies and Atieva. Each driver is only allowed to use one car per race, thus the battery life now lasts the whole race instead of half distance.
  • The series introduced new brakes, as Spark Racing Technology chose Brembo as the sole supplier of the entire braking system for all the single-seaters: discs, calipers, pads, bells and tandem pump.
  • The maximum power output of the cars increased to 250 kW. 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.
  • 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. 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.

Sporting regulations

  • 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.

Results and standings

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:
Position1st2nd3rd4th5th6th7th8th9th10thPole
Points25181512108642131

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