The 2023–24 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship was the tenth season of the FIA Formula E championship, a motor racing championship for electrically powered vehicles recognized by motorsport's governing body, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), as the highest class of competition for electric open-wheel racing cars. Although the championship season is designated as 2023–2024, all races were held in 2024.
Pascal Wehrlein, driving for the TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team, won his first World Drivers' Championship at the final race of the season, ahead of the Jaguar pair of Mitch Evans and Nick Cassidy. Jaguar TCS Racing took their first World Teams' Championship and also won the inaugural Manufacturer's Cup.
Teams and drivers All teams used the Formula E Gen3 car on Hankook tyres. TeamPowertrainNo.DriversRounds Andretti Formula EPorsche 99X Electric 1 Jake DennisAll 17 Norman NatoAll DS PenskeDS E-Tense FE23 2 Stoffel VandoorneAll 25 Jean-Éric VergneAll ERT Formula E Team ERT X24 3 Sérgio Sette CâmaraAll 33 Dan TicktumAll Envision Racing Jaguar I-Type 6 4 Robin Frijns 1–8, 11–16 Joel Eriksson 9–10 16 Sébastien Buemi 1–8, 11–16 Paul Aron 9–10 NEOM McLaren Formula E TeamNissan e-4ORCE 04 5 Jake HughesAll 8 Sam Bird1–8, 11–16 Taylor Barnard 8–10 Maserati MSG RacingMaserati Tipo Folgore 7 Maximilian GüntherAll 18 Jehan DaruvalaAll Jaguar TCS Racing Jaguar I-Type 6 9 Mitch EvansAll 37 Nick CassidyAll ABT CUPRA Formula E TeamMahindra M10Electro 11 Lucas di GrassiAll 51 Nico Müller1–8, 11–16 Kelvin van der Linde9–10 Porsche 99X Electric 13 António Félix da CostaAll 94 Pascal WehrleinAll Mahindra Racing Mahindra M10Electro 21 Nyck de Vries1–8, 11–16 Jordan King 9–10 48 Edoardo Mortara All Nissan Formula E Team Nissan e-4ORCE 04 22 Oliver RowlandAll Caio Collet13–14 23 Sacha FenestrazAllSource:
Team changes Nio left Formula E after the prior season's end and fully rebranded to ERT Formula E Team for 2024 after new investment.
Driver changes Robin Frijns' contract with ABT CUPRA for 2024 would be terminated, with the team opting to reunite with Lucas di Grassi, who won the 2016–17 championship with the team. Sam Bird left Jaguar Racing after three seasons with the team. Nick Cassidy switched to the team from Envision Racing to partner Mitch Evans. After Frijns' contract with ABT Cupra was terminated, he returned to Envision Racing in the place of Jaguar-bound Cassidy. McLaren announced that René Rast had departed the team after spending a season with them. Bird was announced as his replacement after he departed Jaguar. Oliver Rowland rejoined Nissan, with whom he had driven four seasons prior to a two-year spell at Mahindra Racing. This saw Norman Nato leave the team after one year with the manufacturer. André Lotterer left Andretti Autosport and Formula E after six seasons. Former Nissan driver Nato stepped in as his replacement. After six years together, Edoardo Mortara left Maserati MSG Racing and was replaced by previous Mahindra reserve driver Jehan Daruvala. Mortara joined Mahindra in place of the CUPRA-bound di Grassi. After a year away, 2020–21 series champion Nyck de Vries returned to the sport with Mahindra to replace Roberto Merhi.
Mid-season McLaren driver Sam Bird sustained a hand injury in a crash during the opening practice session of the Monaco ePrix. He withdrew from the event and was replaced by McLaren reserve and development driver Taylor Barnard, who already drove for the team in the rookie practice session ahead of the Misano ePrix and became the youngest driver to start a race in Formula E. Bird's injury meant that he was also forced to miss the Berlin E-Prix double-header, with Barnard continuing to deputize. Bird returned from the Shanghai E-Prix onwards.
Multiple drivers missed the Berlin ePrix double-header because of a calendar clash with the FIA World Endurance Championship's 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. Both Envision Racing drivers prioritized their WEC commitments and were replaced by GT driver Joel Eriksson, whose last Formula E race was for Dragon / Penske in the 2020–21 season, and Hitech Pulse-Eight Formula 2 driver Paul Aron. Mahindra Racing's Nyck de Vries also missed out on Berlin and had Mahindra reserve and development driver Jordan King take his place. ABT CUPRA once again had their reserve driver Kelvin van der Linde replace Nico Müller for the Berlin round.
Nissan driver Oliver Rowland fell ill ahead of the Portland ePrix. He was replaced by the team's reserve driver, Indy NXT competitor Caio Collet, who made his series debut.
Calendar The following ePrix formed a part of the 2023–24 Formula E World Championship:
RoundE-PrixCountryCircuitDate1 Mexico City ePrix Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez 13 January 20242 Diriyah ePrix Riyadh Street Circuit 26 January 20243 27 January 20244 São Paulo ePrix São Paulo Street Circuit 16 March 20245 Tokyo ePrix Tokyo Street Circuit 30 March 20246Misano ePrix Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli 13 April 20247 14 April 20248Monaco ePrixCircuit de Monaco 27 April 20249Berlin ePrixTempelhof Airport Street Circuit11 May 20241012 May 202411Shanghai ePrix ChinaShanghai International Circuit25 May 20241226 May 202413Portland ePrixPortland International Raceway29 June 202414 30 June 202415London ePrixExCeL London20 July 202416 21 July 2024Source:
Location changes The Cape Town E-Prix, the Jakarta E-Prix and the Rome E-Prix were not held in 2024. There originally was a plan to reschedule the Jakarta round in the wake of a general election period, but it was ultimately rejected. The Tokyo E-Prix joined the calendar and became the first time an FIA World Championship visited the city. The Shanghai E-Prix joined the calendar and became the first time the championship raced in China since the Sanya E-Prix in the 2018–19 season. The Misano E-Prix joined the calendar, replacing the Rome E-Prix. The Portland E-Prix hosted a double header after having hosted only one race in 2023. The Hyderabad E-Prix was originally set to be held on 10 February 2024, but was cancelled due to a change in governance for the region.
ePrix locations
Regulation changes The Manufacturers' Cup was introduced ahead of the São Paulo ePrix, with the championship standings backdated to the start of the season. The highest-placed two cars per powertrain manufacturer per race scored points towards that manufacturer's position in the standings, using the same points system as already implemented for the Drivers' and Teams' Championships.
Season report
Pre-season Pre-season testing took place at Valencia on 23–27 October 2023. Jaguar cars topped all three sessions, with Mitch Evans fastest in the first two and Nick Cassidy fastest in the final session. The traditional simulation race was topped by Envision's Robin Frijns. The test was heavily disrupted by a battery fire in the garage of battery supplier Williams Advanced Engineering, caused by a faulty battery. One and a half days of running were cancelled, and the Mahindra cars parked in the garage adjacent to the fire sustained heavy damage. Nyck de Vries' car was too damaged to participate in the rest of the test, with the team being compensated with an extra private test session ahead of the season opener in Mexico City.
Opening rounds Porsche's Pascal Wehrlein took pole position for the season-opening Mexico City E-Prix ahead of Envision's Sébastien Buemi. He kept his lead at the start of the race and quickly made an effort to take his two attack mode activations. After he had dropped behind Buemi for his second attack mode, the safety car was called for Frijns hitting the wall in turn 18. On the restart, Wehrlein regained the lead when Buemi took his second attack mode, while Jaguar's Nick Cassidy got into third when Maserati's Maximilian Günther did the same. Cassidy's teammate Mitch Evans, who ran fifth and lacked pace compared to the front group, acted as a roadblock, keeping a train of cars behind him. This meant the upper positions remained static for the rest of the race, with Wehrlein taking a controlled victory, albeit under investigation for a possible technical infringement. This concerned the throttle maps used at the start, with concerns of a use of traction control, but Wehrlein was later cleared to keep his win.
The Diriyah E-Prix double-header began with DS Penske's Jean-Éric Vergne on pole position. ERT's Sérgio Sette Câmara made a strong start from fourth, but had no space to go and fell back behind Evans in second and Andretti's Jake Dennis in third. Vergne fell to second as he took his first attack mode, and he and Evans made contact when the latter then also activated his a lap later. This allowed Dennis to gain a place into second after the first round of attack modes. He continued this trend through the second round and came out in the lead ahead of Vergne. Evans in third tried to use his attack mode to regain lost ground. He took second, but then ran off into turn 18 multiple times, first when attempting to take the lead from Dennis, then when defending from Vergne and a third time on the final lap, which allowed Cassidy through into third. By this time, Dennis' advantage stood at 13 seconds, and with Wehrlein coming eighth, Dennis' win now saw him only a single point behind the German in the standings.
One day later, it was Nissan's Oliver Rowland who took pole position. His lead was short-lived, however, as he got a bad start and was immediately passed by Frijns. Cassidy also overtook him when he took his first attack mode, with the Kiwi then closing up to Frijns and taking the lead when the later activated attack mode. Cassidy then built a gap to Frijns before coincidentally taking his first attack mode right when Frijns took his second. This then allowed him to take his second attack mode right after the first ended and stay in first place. From that point on, the second half of the race saw the order remain largely static, with Cassidy managing his gap to Frijns and Rowland and never coming under serious pressure before taking the win. Both championship leaders had difficult races, with Wehrlein starting in tenth and finishing seventh and Dennis starting 14th and finishing outside the points. Cassidy's win allowed him to take the championship lead, 18 points ahead of Wehrlein.
Next up was the São Paulo E-Prix, where Wehrlein was back on top in qualifying. DS Penske's Stoffel Vandoorne started in second, but did not attack Wehrlein at the start before the energy-preserving peloton-style racing set in. This phase of the race, where leading was a disadvantage as it took more energy, saw the leading group trade first place as they took turns diving off the racing line to activate their attack modes. This group included Wehrlein, Vandoorne, Porsche's António Félix da Costa, Vergne, Evans and McLaren's Sam Bird. This phase was interrupted by championship leader Cassidy crashing into the wall after his damaged front wing was lodged under his car. Evans led at the restart, and with energy saving now no longer a priority, began defending from Bird while simultaneously managing a battery issue. On the final lap of the race, Bird made his move on Evans to take the lead and McLaren's first Formula E win. With Rowland in third and Wehrlein fourth, Cassidy's points lead was reduced to only three points.