Irish Examiner view: A sport on its way towards redundancy

The F1 juggernaut has roared on this season but interest is growing in its greener alternative, FE

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen of the Netherlands participating in the Hungarian Formula One Grand Prix on July 31. Whichever way you look at it, the 21st century will become the one where petrol combustion becomes redundant. Picture: Attila Kisbenedek/Pool via AP

During last year’s controversy about sponsorship in Formula One, many suggested it is a sport badly out of step with the modern world, consuming enormous levels of fossil fuel, and with a caravan of supporters adding to the world’s carbon footprint at every opportunity.

The F1 juggernaut has roared on this season with dramatic crashes and an ill-tempered face-off between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. But while there is clearly still massive support for the competition, there is rapidly growing interest in its greener and, for many young people, cooler, more responsible alternative: FE. 

FE was given world championship status by motorsport’s governing body in December 2019, just as the Covid pandemic was emerging in Asia.

Last weekend, 40,000 e-racing spectators attended two days of competition at London’s ExCel Centre. Novelty will always attract an audience, but this same weekend featured a Grand Prix battle in Hungary.

Fans couldn’t watch both; there is a disparity in levels of support. Data from YouGov suggests the Grand Prix has 11.5m fans, compared with 3.2m for FE. 

But this is a significant number for a sport which does not yet possess heavily promoted world superstars. 

It took decades of Fangio, Sterling Moss, Jack Brabham, Jim Clark, Niki Lauda, James Hunt, Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher, and Hamilton and Vertstappen for F1 to reach primacy.

Significantly, FE is garnering backing from younger people who are willing to sacrifice two hours of a roaring race for a quiet 45 minutes on streets. Some team directors believe that motorsports which cling to old technologies will go the way of the dodo.

Whichever way you look at it, the 21st century will become the one where petrol combustion becomes redundant.