What is the significance of Formula E's return to China?
Formula E lead commentator Tom Brooks talked to CGTN Europe on the highlights of Formula E in Shanghai.
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00:00 Formula E, the world's first net-zero all-electric motorsport series, is back in China for the first time in five years.
00:08 It's made its debut in Shanghai with Jaguars' Mitch Evans winning the first of a double header of races this weekend.
00:15 The first ever Formula E race was at Beijing's Olympic Green Circuit.
00:20 It was run by Audi's Luca di Grassi, who went on to race in Formula One.
00:25 Formula E's fan base hit record highs last season with 344 million viewers around the world, meaning it's now the fourth most watched motorsport.
00:36 It's also becoming something of a lucrative business, with sponsorship revenue reaching more than $100 million for this season.
00:45 And plans have been verbally agreed to hold an all-female Formula E test event in November.
00:52 Formula E hopes that it'll pave the way for women to get a regular seat from 2026.
00:58 Well, Tom Brooks is Formula E's lead commentator. I asked him about the atmosphere at the first race in Shanghai.
01:06 It's amazing down here, genuinely. It's one of the best Formula E races we've been to all season.
01:12 Everybody loves Formula E, and especially here in Asia, it's where the championship began back in 2014.
01:18 And there's a lot of excitement around coming back to here for the first time since 2019.
01:23 And it's been wonderful. All the fans have been fantastic. The weather's been brilliant.
01:27 And we've had some great racing this weekend.
01:30 What is the significance of Formula E's return to China?
01:35 I don't think it can be overstated, really, how important it is for Formula E to come back to China.
01:40 EVs in general are a huge market now, and China has really been at the epicentre of that for the last few years in particular.
01:48 And there's a huge atmosphere and appetite in particular for EVs.
01:54 And that's represented by the audience that we've had here, which have turned out so positively to see Formula E returning and to a new city and a new circuit this weekend.
02:03 Formula E has a short history, doesn't it?
02:05 I mean, how much has Formula E grown over the past years, and how much has it changed?
02:12 Hugely. It began back in 2014 as an idea on a napkin.
02:18 And during that time, we've had three generations of cars. We're now on the third generation.
02:22 The cars are more powerful, they're lighter than ever. The racing is closer than ever.
02:26 We had 22 drivers separated by six tenths of a second in qualifying today, and in the race we had 10 drivers separated by just over two seconds.
02:35 It was incredibly, incredibly close. The racing has evolved and it continues to do so.
02:40 We're heading into what we call the Gen 3 Evo, so it's the same car but with four-wheel drive, 0-60 in under two seconds, which is a really exciting prospect.
02:48 The cars will be faster than ever, and the racing should be more exciting than ever.
02:52 This started off as being rather marginal stuff, it's now mainstream.
02:56 I wonder to what extent does Formula E promote going electric?
03:02 Massively. Again, it can't be overstated how important Formula E has been for that.
03:08 Not only in terms of just bringing international electric racing to the stage, also in terms of what manufacturers have done.
03:16 We've had manufacturers such as Audi, such as BMW, currently we've got Porsche in there, we've got Jaguar.
03:22 Jaguar in particular are going to an all-EV line-up from 2025.
03:27 In fact, the last internal combustion engine car rolled off the production line in the UK just the other day.
03:32 It's had a massive impact on that, and the technology that's developed within Formula E, it all trickles down to road cars.
03:39 It's been hugely important for that and for its incredible growth and development over the last 10 years.
03:45 Historically, going back well over a century of conventional motor racing, it's been dominated by men.
03:52 It's been boys' toys stuff. What more can you tell us about these plans for an all-female test event later this year?
04:02 Yeah, I've heard about that. Obviously, with female racing drivers, there's a lot of initiatives now.
04:06 We've got the F1 Academy, prior to that we had the W Series, and it's fantastic because
04:11 females generally haven't had the same opportunities as males within a very male-dominated sport.
04:16 So it's fantastic that Formula E are looking at that and seizing the initiative and looking to try and bring
04:22 female racing drivers within the single-seater international ladder and bring them up to Formula E.
04:29 And hopefully we'll have more female Formula E drivers in the future.
04:32 We've already had a few in the past. We've had a bit of a lull over the last few years.
04:36 Hopefully this will be the next step to try and kick-start it and get more female drivers on the international single-seater racing level.