LONDON, ENGLAND—Formula E’s 11th season came to a close in its now-traditional London home this past weekend. In its first two seasons, it tried to make a go of racing in Battersea Park, a race that local residents rejected as too disruptive. After a five-year gap, the sport found a more receptive home at Excel London in the city’s Docklands, racing around and then through the cavernous exhibition center—something that’s only really possible with electric racing cars (or very fume-tolerant authorities).
As a location for an ePrix, Excel London is nigh-perfect. It’s fed by a pair of light rail stations just minutes from the center of town and comes preinstalled with concessions and restrooms and much of the other infrastructure that normally has to be brought in for a temporary circuit, with hotels literally walking distance. But like with most Formula E races, the few thousand fans in attendance, while not exactly an afterthought, aren’t really why the series shows up—this is a sport for an audience watching behind a screen.
It’s going to be the speed of the cars, rather than the size of the crowds, that causes Formula E to outgrow the 20-turn, 1.3-mile (2.09 km) circuit. Next year will be the final visit, before a possible Silverstone ePrix in 2027, once Gen 4 gets going.
