The 2016–17 FIA Formula E Championship was the third season of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) Formula E (FE) motor racing. It featured the 2016–17 FIA FE 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. 25 drivers representing 10 teams contested 12 ePrix, starting in Hong Kong on 8 October 2016 and ending in Montreal on 30 July 2017 as they competed for the Drivers' and Teams' Championships.
The calendar featured eleven significant changes from the 2015–16 season. The first two were the introduction of the Hong Kong and Marrakesh races, with the latter taking the championship to its first African city. The third was the return of the Monaco ePrix, held for the first time since the 2014–15 season. The fourth was the Berlin ePrix returning to Tempelhof Airport after the event was held along the Karl-Marx-Allee in 2016. The fifth was the New York City ePrix double header, which brought motor racing back to the city for the first time since 1896. The sixth was FE's first visit to Canada for the season-closing Montreal ePrix. The final four changes saw the Long Beach and Punta del Este rounds discontinued due to financial issues, the London double header was cancelled because of opposition to it being held in a public park and the Beijing and Putrajaya were dropped for undisclosed reasons. There were two new teams: car manufacturer Jaguar returned to motor racing as a works team for the first time in 12 years, and Team Aguri was bought by public entity and venture capital firm China Media Capital and renamed Techeetah.
ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport driver Lucas di Grassi secured his first Drivers' Championship in the season-closing race in Montreal. The runner-up was defending champion Buemi, 24 points behind, after missing the New York City races because of a World Endurance Championship commitment at the Nürburgring. Rookie driver Felix Rosenqvist of Mahindra was third, another 30 points adrift. While neither of their drivers won the drivers' title, Renault secured their third consecutive Teams' Championship, ahead of ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport and Mahindra.
Teams and drivers The following 10 teams and 25 drivers competed in the 2016–17 FIA Formula E Championship (FE): All teams used Spark chassis.
+ Team Powertrain Drivers Rounds DS Virgin Racing DS Virgin DSV-02 2 Sam Bird All 37 José María López 1–8, 11–12 Alex Lynn 9–10 NEXTEV NIO 3 Nelson Piquet Jr. All 88 Oliver Turvey All Venturi Formula E Team Venturi VM200-FE-02 4 Stéphane Sarrazin 1–6 Tom Dillmann 7–12 5 Maro Engel 1–5, 7–12 Tom Dillmann 6 Faraday Future Dragon Racing Penske 701-EV 6 Loïc Duval 1–5, 7–12 Mike Conway 6 7 All Renault Renault Z.E 16 8 Nico Prost All 9 Sébastien Buemi 1–8, 11–12 Pierre Gasly 9–10 ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler FE02 11 Lucas di Grassi All 66 Daniel Abt All Mahindra M3Electro 19 Felix Rosenqvist All 23 Nick Heidfeld All Panasonic Jaguar Racing Jaguar I-Type 1 20 Mitch Evans All 47 Adam Carroll All Techeetah Renault Z.E 16 25 Jean-Éric Vergne All 33 Ma Qinghua 1–3 Esteban Gutiérrez 4–6 Stéphane Sarrazin 7–12 MS Amlin Andretti Formula E Andretti ATEC-02 27 Robin Frijns All 28 AllSource:
Team changes
Several team changes took place before the season began. Car manufacturer Jaguar announced their return to motor racing in December 2015 as a works team for the first time since its withdrawal from Formula One (F1) at the end of 2004. It entered the sport in collaboration with Williams Grand Prix Engineering, as a means of expanding their electric vehicle portfolio. Dragon Racing manufactured its own powertrain after using one supplied by Venturi in the previous season. It entered into a technical partnership with American start-up technology company Faraday Future in July 2016 for the next four seasons, with an option for a further four years after the current agreement expires.
Andretti announced a two-year technical partnership with BMW, enabling the German marque to familiarise itself with the series in view of a potential works team for the 2018–19 season. Team Aguri principal Aguri Suzuki announced he would leave the team in April 2016 as senior personnel entered "a period of consultation" over a future change in ownership. In the week before the 2016 London ePrix, the Chinese public equity and venture capital firm China Media Capital announced its purchase of Team Aguri and established a new entity named Techeetah in its place. Senior personnel from Team Aguri, including team principal Mark Preston, retained their jobs with Techeetah, and the cars ran a custom Renault powertrain.
Driver changes Joining Formula E and changing teams
2015 FIA Formula Three European Championship winner and two-time Macau Grand Prix victor Felix Rosenqvist joined the series with Mahindra to partner Nick Heidfeld, in lieu of Bruno Senna, who focused on the World Endurance Championship (WEC) in 2017. Defending FIA GT World Cup champion Maro Engel, who had not driven a single-seater car since the 2007 British Formula Three Championship, was hired by Venturi to replace WEC driver Mike Conway, who left FE to focus on endurance racing. Three-time World Touring Car champion José María López was employed by Virgin Racing to join its regular driver Sam Bird. López had previously driven in single-seater motor racing series such as the GP2 Series with Super Nova Racing, along with occasional testing for the Renault F1 team in 2006.
Jean-Éric Vergne's future at Virgin Racing was under review since February and it was later confirmed he had left the team on 4 July. He signed with the Techeetah team three days later, and was joined by Ma Qinghua, who drove in the 2015–16 season's final three rounds. António Félix da Costa, who spent the previous two seasons with Team Aguri, joined the Andretti team, replacing Simona de Silvestro who moved to Nissan Motorsport in the Australian Supercars Championship in 2017. Jaguar announced their drivers after the pre-season test session at Donington Park. Four drivers were evaluated: 2008–09 A1 Grand Prix champion Adam Carroll, GP2 Series drivers Mitch Evans and Alex Lynn, and European Le Mans Series competitor Harry Tincknell to determine who would suit their team. In September 2016, Jaguar nominated Carroll and Evans to drive for them with three-time FE starter Ho-Pin Tung their reserve driver.
Mid-season changes The season saw five driver changes. The first was the former Haas F1 driver Esteban Gutiérrez entering FE in January 2017 having explored options with three teams before joining Techeetah. Gutiérrez replaced Ma who could not match teammate Vergne's form in the season's first three rounds; he remained at Techeetah as its third driver. Duval and Engel did not participate in the Paris ePrix because of a Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) commitment at the Lausitzring and were replaced by Conway and Formula V8 3.5 Series champion Tom Dillmann respectively.
Heading into the Berlin race, Stephane Sarrazin—who had raced for Venturi since the championship started in 2014—was granted permission to leave the team and joined Techeetah to replace Gutiérrez, who deputised for the injured Dale Coyne Racing driver Sébastien Bourdais in the IndyCar Series. His position at Venturi was assumed by Dillmann for the rest of the season. Because the New York City ePrix clashed with the 6 Hours of Nürburgring, López and Sébastien Buemi were required to prioritise the WEC by Toyota and Lynn and 2016 GP2 Series champion and Super Formula driver Pierre Gasly replaced them.
Season calendar + Round ePrix Country Track Date 1 Hong Kong ePrix 9 October 2016 2 Marrakesh ePrix 3 Buenos Aires ePrix 18 February 2017 4 Mexico City ePrix 1 April 2017 5 Monaco ePrix Circuit de Monaco 13 May 2017 6 Paris ePrix France Paris Street Circuit 20 May 2017 7 Tempelhof Airport Street Circuit 10 June 2017 8 Berlin ePrix Race 2 11 June 2017 9 Brooklyn Street Circuit 15 July 2017 10 New York City ePrix Race 2 16 July 2017 11 Montreal Street Circuit 29 July 2017 12 Montreal ePrix Race 2 30 July 2017 Source:
Calendar changes New and returning races
The idea for a Hong Kong race first arose in 2013 when a design team visited the city. It was intended for inclusion in the 2014–15 season before schedule negotiations and approval from local authorities, and motorsport's international governing body, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), delayed its debut. In October 2015, the Hong Kong ePrix was announced by FE's CEO and founder Alejandro Agag at a press conference at the Central Harbour Front Event Space pending further review by the FIA. In February 2016, Stéphane Roux, the chief organiser of the World Touring Car Championship, announced to the local press that FE was "keen" to hold a race on the streets of Marrakesh in the "near future". Both races were confirmed in the final version of the calendar in a meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council in September 2016.
After being left out of the 2015–16 calendar because it takes the place of the Historic Grand Prix of Monaco every other year, the Monaco ePrix was reinstated for the 2016–17 season with a scheduled date of 13 May to start a three-round streak in Europe. It had been proposed that the principality hold a race following the cancellation of the Moscow ePrix the previous season; it did not proceed because of a lack of preparation time. In December 2016, Berlin city officials voted against the ePrix returning to the Karl-Marx-Allee, citing "unreasonable road closures and restrictions for residents and road users," prompting race organisers to find an alternative venue. Following consultation with city authorities, it was announced two months later that the Berlin ePrix would return to the venue that held the event's first edition in 2015, Templehof Airport, on a revised layout.
In March 2014, it was announced that FE was working with New York City authorities to bring a motor race to the area. Agag told CNN in May 2016 that he was "very optimistic" about the possibility of hosting an event in the city: "I've just come from New York looking at different venues, different possibilities. It's far from done yet but we are very optimistic. Our dream would be to have a race in New York." On 21 September 2016, officials announced that the New York City ePrix would be held on the 1.210-mile (1.947 km) long Brooklyn Street Circuit in the neighbourhood of Red Hook, Brooklyn. Montreal's Mayor Denis Coderre announced in September 2014 that he had entered into advanced discussions with FIA's President Jean Todt over holding a race in the city. After flying to Miami to meet with series officials six months later, Coderre said in May 2015 that "informal agreements" had been reached, and planning for the event commenced in January 2016.
Failed races A planned race in Brussels was removed from the calendar after local government officials could not agree on a suitable location to hold the ePrix. It was initially agreed that the race be held in the Heysel/Heizel Plateau area north of the city, until the idea was dropped because finances for it were withdrawn and the Couleur Café music festival was relocated to the area. The series located a replacement venue south in Koekelberg; officials opposed this because of the disruption to early summer transport links. A venue was not found and the race was officially cancelled on 9 March, prompting the series to upgrade the Berlin ePrix to a double header.