McLaren Racing announced Tuesday that Ella Lloyd has joined the McLaren Driver Development program and will represent the team in the 2025 F1 Academy season with Rodin Motorsport. Lloyd, 19, began racing competitively in 2022 in the Ginetta Junior …
McLaren Racing announced Tuesday that Ella Lloyd has joined the McLaren Driver Development program and will represent the team in the 2025 F1 Academy season with Rodin Motorsport.
Lloyd, 19, began racing competitively in 2022 in the Ginetta Junior Championship, finishing in the points at 15 of 25 races that season. The following year, she competed in the Ginetta GT Championship, and finished the year as runner-up.
At the start of this year, Lloyd competed in the Formula Winter Series, taking the Female Driver Trophy multiple times. She competed in British F4, completing the 2024 season with three P2 results, one P3 and multiple points finishes. The Welsh racer also took part in the Singapore F1 Academy weekend as the Wild Card driver, finishing in the points in both races.
In line with the F1 Academy regulations limiting drivers to a maximum of two years in the series, Lloyd will step up to represent McLaren in the 2025 F1 Academy season, racing with Rodin Motorsport.
Her involvement in the McLaren Driver Development program, led by Stephanie Carlin, will see her compete in Formula E’s first-ever Women’s Test for the NEOM McLaren Formula E Team on Nov. 7, 2024, in Valencia, Spain.
Carlin, director of F1 business operations at McLaren Racing, said: “Ella has great talent and potential and has already cemented herself in the series, performing brilliantly as the Wild Card entry in Singapore, so we’re excited to see what she can do with us. We look forward to supporting her development.”
Lloyd herself said: “It’s an honor to drive for a team that has such a great racing history and also a long track record for developing talent. With McLaren, I now have everything I need to keep developing and pushing the boundaries as a female in motorsport.
“Thank you to Zak Brown [McLaren CEO], Stephanie Carlin and the entire McLaren team for their faith in me. I can’t wait to get racing in papaya.”
Formula E’s calendar for the upcoming 2024-25 season, announced today, featured the standout revelation that the series would be returning to Miami for the first time in a decade. The championship visited the south Florida city in its inaugural …
Formula E’s calendar for the upcoming 2024-25 season, announced today, featured the standout revelation that the series would be returning to Miami for the first time in a decade.
The championship visited the south Florida city in its inaugural season, with a race on the streets being won by Nicolas Prost for the e.dams Renault team ahead of Scott Speed for Andretti and Abt Sportsline’s Daniel Abt.
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Formula E has made no secret of its desire to increase its footprint in North America, having also raced in Long Beach in that first year (as well as the year after), New York between 2017-22, and north of the border in Montreal in 2017. More recently it’s raced in Portland – where it will return in two-week’s time – but while the Pacific Northwest event was a huge success on its debut last year, the championship couldn’t resist the lure of Homestead Miami Speedway.
Formula E’s only previous visit to Miami came in its first season. Andrew Ferraro/Motorsport Images
“We think it’s a really good circuit, well suited to our style of racing, and the Miami name that comes with it, from a global audience, a global television audience, is a big draw,” Formula E CEO Jeff Dodds said of the move to Miami.
“I thought it was a very successful race in Portland last year, a very strong turnout and ticket sales have been pretty good this year as well for what is a doubleheader,” he said of Portland. “The race in Portland last year was a little bit of a surprise for us, I think. It delivered a much better race than we thought it might, and I think it being an IndyCar track, that opened our eyes up to the possibility of using other IndyCar tracks in the U.S. and the IndyCar crowd who largely came to watch it, because it is an IndyCar crowd there, were very very positive about our style of racing, the infrastructure we brought, the extent of the show.”
But while Miami’s return to the calendar has come at Portland’s expense, that’s not intended to be a trend that will continue, with Dodds describing the U.S as one of two “priority markets” for the series, along with China.
“We probably have around seven or eight different large U.S. cities currently talking to us about putting a race on in their city, so those conversations are live and always ongoing,” Dodds said. “One thing I’ve said previously is our calendar can sustain two races in North America and probably two races in China as the two locations in the world where we could put on two races, so I think what you might find in time is the North America market is an ‘and’, not an ‘or’, so we add an additional race location as opposed to continually changing out the U.S. locations.”
One potential additional U.S. location remains Los Angeles. Often talked about, it had been expected to be on next season’s schedule. But while Dodds confirmed “it’s not one for Season 11”, he did insist “I wouldn’t write off Los Angeles as a potential venue” for a future race.
Formula E has unveiled its schedule for the 2024-25 season, which will feature a record 17 races at 11 locations, including a return visit to Miami. Less than a quarter of the races will take place on permanent circuits, bucking what seemed to be a …
Formula E has unveiled its schedule for the 2024-25 season, which will feature a record 17 races at 11 locations, including a return visit to Miami.
Less than a quarter of the races will take place on permanent circuits, bucking what seemed to be a trend of Formula E moving over to established venues at the expense of its customary street circuits. Those permanent tracks will be Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, Homestead Miami Speedway, and Shanghai International Circuit.
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The season will straddle two calendar years for the first time since the 2019-20 season, with things kicking off in Brazil this December, before returning to Mexico in the new year. Then Diriyah in Saudi Arabia will follow, before an entirely new venue – which will be announced at a later date – in March.
Another new location, this time Homestead Miami Speedway, is the next stop in April, before the now annual visit to Monaco at the start of May. A three-event jaunt to Asia follows, with races in Tokyo, Japan, Shanghai, China, and Jakarta, Indonesia – returning after a one season break – before the staple event at Berlin’s Tempelhof Airport and the finale in London to see out the season.
Jakarta returns to Formula E after a year away. Alastair Staley/Motorsport Images
The upcoming season, the first of the GEN3 Evo era, will feature six doubleheader events, with Saudi Arabia, Monaco, Japan, China, Germany, and the United Kingdom each hosting two races over a single weekend. For the event in Tokyo, the expansion to a doubleheader comes after a successful debut in the Japanese capital back in March – the first time a professional motor race had taken place on Japanese streets (pictured top).
“We could’ve sold the tickets for the Tokyo race multiple times over, and it was the first time that they’d ever closed the roads in Tokyo for any sporting event outside of the Tokyo marathon,” said Formula E CEO Jeff Dodds. “So the fact that they’ve invited us to do two races there back-to-back is a massive sign of confidence from the Tokyo metropolitan government and I think brilliant for Japanese fans who were unable to secure a ticket last year, they’ll have two gos at doing that, on both the Saturday and the Sunday.”
Meanwhile Monaco’s two races will mark the first time a top-level series has raced there twice on the same weekend, and comes after another highly competitive event on the streets of the principality seven weeks ago.
“It’s interesting, (there was) lots of talk after the Formula 1 race in Monaco about whether after 95 years that circuit is still suitable as a motor racing circuit,” said Dodds. “We delivered over 200 overtakes on the Monaco circuit in the formula E race this year, so I think to be granted the opportunity to go there and do back-to-back races for the first time ever in motorsport history in Monaco, again it’s a lovely moment for us as a championship.”
One glaring omission is that of Italy, which is off the Formula E calendar for the first time since the 2016-17 season (aside from the COVID-affected 2019-20 campaign).
Dodds says that Formula E is still keen to race in Italy, but after outgrowing its previous home on the streets of Rome, then trialling Misano earlier this year, it is exploring other avenues which will enable it to have a long-term footprint in the country.
“We definitely want to establish a home in Italy, that’s never been in question in our business,” he said. “We raced in Rome for a long time, and I think everybody knows a combination of our cars getting faster and the circuit being properly maxed out in our ability to race faster cars on that circuit, and a little bit about the economics as well, meant that Rome didn’t look like it was a long-term home for us, particularly as we’ve gone to GEN3 Evo and we’ve got our eyes on GEN4.
“Misano came to us as an option as a possibility. We tried it … we were made to feel to feel so incredibly welcome at Misano, the facilities were great, the leadership team were brilliant, they made us feel incredibly welcome and it felt like a lovely event, but the reality is for the location, which is quite a way away from the nearest airport, and the style of racing, which not every one of the drivers and teams loved, it didn’t feel to us like that was going to be the permanent home, the long-term home. We think we need to be closer to a large city, and ideally we would be on a street circuit, not a permanent circuit there.
Misano drops away after a single year on the Formula E calendar. Andrew Ferraro/Motorsport Images
“So our view was that if that’s not going to be our permanent home for this calendar, let’s introduce a different venue and keep looking and make sure we get the right home for Italy in the future.
“Taking Italy out for a year (is) obviously a difficult step,” he added, “but obviously a long-term commitment to bring Italy back into the calendar at the right venue I think is important.”
The total of 17 races is one more than the current season, which was set to also have 17 until the late cancellation of the Hyderabad E-Prix, but while one spot on the calendar remains TBD – which has been confirmed to be another temporary circuit – Dodds is confident there won’t be a repeat of this season’s late culling of another event.
“The location we have is in a place where the sign-off procedure requires some time,” Dodds explained. “I wouldn’t put it in as a TBD with the date secured if I wasn’t highly confident that we’re over the line already, at least we’re technically over the line if not contractually over the line, so I have high confidence that it will go ahead.
“But having been through this now last year, until we have super high confidence that everything’s buttoned down, we wouldn’t want to put it down as a named location.”
Once again, the Berlin rounds will clash with the FIA World Endurance Championship, a particularly difficult thing for Formula E to navigate with a number of its drivers also WEC regulars. But despite all efforts being made, the clash once again proved unavoidable.
“Alberto Longo, our chief championship officer, and the CEO of WEC met pretty extensively to try and avoid as much as was humanly possible,” said Dodds. “The great challenge we have is that we’re two growing motorsport series and we both try and avoid Formula 1 where possible, and then there’s some special holidays that get put in the calendar and in the end you just simply run out of weekends.
“So we’ve tried desperately to avoid everything, both sides, we end up with Interlagos as a clash with the Berlin race. It’s unavoidable for us, so what we are doing is giving plenty of notice to both championships’ teams, both manufacturers and drivers, there will be drivers that obviously that creates conflict and they’ll have to make choices.”
Nevertheless, Dodds looked at a positive slant on it, saying that it opens the door for drivers to debut in the series.
“We have seen some pretty cool debuts from new drivers into the championship,” he said. “I know the fans quite enjoy seeing new drivers in the championship and we can’t avoid that clash in the Berlin weekend. Hopefully we’ll be giving the teams plenty of time to sort that out in advance and make sure they get the commitment from their drivers.”
2024-25 Formula E Calendar
Round 1 Sao Paulo, Brazil December 7 2024
Round 2 Mexico City, Mexico January 11 2025
Rounds 3 & 4 Diriyah, Saudi Arabia February 14-15 2025
Round 5 TBD, TBD March 8 2025
Round 6 Miami, USA April 12 2025
Rounds 7 & 8 Monte Carlo, Monaco May 3-4 2025
Rounds 9 & 10 Tokyo, Japan May 17-18
Rounds 11 & 12 Shanghai, China May 31-June 1 2025
Round 13 Jakarta, Indonesia June 21 2025
Rounds 14 & 15, Berlin, Germany July 12-13 2025
Rounds 16 & 17, London, United Kingdom 26-27 July.
A decade since its debut, Formula E has established itself as a forward-thinking series with highly-competitive races. But despite the positives, the all-electric championship still has a vocal collective of naysayers that deride it purely because …
A decade since its debut, Formula E has established itself as a forward-thinking series with highly-competitive races. But despite the positives, the all-electric championship still has a vocal collective of naysayers that deride it purely because its cars don’t go ‘vroom’.
As a self-proclaimed internal combustion fan with a collection of supercars at home and a trophy cabinet bursting with mementos from a career mostly spent in the loud IndyCar arena, Dario Franchitti ought to fit that mold. But he doesn’t. He’s not even close, having been a part of the Formula E fold since day one as a TV commentator.
“To me, racing’s racing, whatever the vehicle is, however it’s powered. There’s pluses and minuses to all forms,” he tells RACER. “Me, I’d watch two flies racing up the wall.
“There’s some people who just won’t be swayed because it’s not an internal combustion engine. I love internal combustion engines. I’m an old petrolhead and I love the sound of different cars, different engines, but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy FE. The level of competition and the types of races that it puts on are bloody good.”
Franchitti admits Formula E was regarded as “a bit of a joke” in its early days, but that it “pretty quickly earned the respect of a lot of people in the racing world.” The series is a far cry from what it was in those initial seasons, but the early-established opinions have lingered among many.
“People form an opinion because they’ve heard it somewhere else,” Franchitti points out. “That’s a dangerous thing to do, and I do it with other things – I do it with people – and I think we all do it. We all form opinions when we’re not fully informed.
“But watch the races. Not every race is going to be an absolute barn-burner, but over that season there’s a lot of bloody good races. And it’s when you actually get into it and understand the intricacies of it, you understand what a challenge it is, as well.”
For the first four seasons, Formula E races required the use of two cars to make it to the checkered flag. It was a necessary evil due to battery technology not where it needed to be at the time, but while the championship left that behind several years ago, it’s something that some of Formula E’s biggest critics continue to cling onto.
“How many years ago was that? Six that we went to the GEN2 car,” Franchitti says, with a hint of disdain about the two-car point still being clung onto.
Franchitti’s racing roots are as old-school as they come, but time in the FE paddock has given him a strong appreciation for what the all-electric series brings to the table. Simon Galloway/Motorsport Images
“I feel that in that first season, some of the races were mega. It was just, again, people had formed these very strong opinions before they’d even seen a race. I think things like the two cars because of the energy limitations, or the batteries in those days, kind of played into some people’s opinion, shall we say. But all that’s changed.”
One thing that hasn’t changed, though, is the lack of sound. But while the ‘engines’ are quieter, that has unlocked other positive elements, both off- and -on track.
“If you talk to younger fans, and you say, ‘do you guys miss the sound of a V8 or a V6 or a V12?’, they’ve never heard one. So there’s different audiences, and that’s good for attracting more and a wider range of audience to motor racing,” says Franchitti, his point about sound handily being interrupted by a loud bang as Sebastien Buemi makes contact with the wall.
“If you tune into it, certainly in the early days, I could hear – it sounds weird to say – I could hear how much grip a car had by the amount of tire noise they were making. It’s like ‘he’s in trouble, you can hear his tires are screeching and he needs to put some input in. You could hear stuff like that.”
The different sounds you can hear help highlight what Franchitti describes as “mental acrobatics” the drivers are doing behind the wheel. Far from being a simple, flat-out series, driving style and energy saving are key in Formula E, but it’s not unique to the category any more.
“It’s very difficult,” he says. “Energy’s fuel. I won a championship saving fuel, but here it’s in every lap. Anybody can save energy, it’s going quick and saving energy, and that’s another part of the difficulty we give the drivers.
“I think there’s still absolutely a place for flat-out racing. A lot of IndyCar races are just absolutely flat-out, but sometimes if you can save point whatever gallons a lap, you can do one less pitstop in the race and it’s a much more efficient way.
“All types of racing, probably highlighted by FE, have become more efficient. More efficient in tire use, more efficient in the internal combustion cars, fuel consumption. Some of the numbers that we got in the early CART days… I remember seeing 1.5 miles per gallon with a qualifying engine in the car; the number of engines used, qualifying engines, all that stuff. Now you’ve got engines that have to do X amount of miles. All sustainability has become so important.
“And we want the sponsors. A lot of these sponsors, the first question they ask potential teams now, whether that’s a team here, or a team in F1, or a team wherever it is, is what are you doing sustainability?”
While Formula E’s lead on efficiency has spilled into other series, Franchitti says that’s not where Formula E’s influence on ‘traditional racing’ stops. And there are also things that the relative newcomer can still learn from more established championships.
“I think if you’re smart, you’re learning from everyone,” he says. “I think Formula E can learn from all the other series, and I think IndyCar can learn from everybody, including FE. FE have brought some really strong new things into racing because there was no rulebook. The series did not have to conform to tradition, and traditional values of how we go racing – ‘we’re an electric series, we can make this up as we go along’. And I think a lot of the series that are smart will look here and say ‘yeah, they’ve done this, this is a good idea’, as opposed to just being ‘oh no, no’.”
El choque fue multitudinario y no se reportaron más que algunas contusiones y el susto de casi perder la vida
El automovilismo es un deporte de mucho riesgo, sin embargo la tecnología ha permitido salvarle la vida a pilotos con el halo de seguridad y esta vez fue Nyck De Vries de la Fórmula E quien vivió para contarla.
En la primera de dos carreras en Seúl, Korea, ocurrió un accidente en el que se vieron involucrados ocho autos, sin embargo De Vries fue el más afectado ya que su monoplaza se metió debajo del auto de Sebastien Buemi.
El accidente pudo ser fatal de no ser por el halo de seguridad integrado en los monoplaza de la categoría eléctrica ya que el vehículo pudo resbalar por el de De Vries y salir intacto del incidente.
El choque fue multitudinario y no se reportaron más que algunas contusiones y el susto de casi perder la vida pues debe ser muy duro ver el auto de tu compañero pasarte por encima.
Daniel Abt tabbed a professional eSports driver to take part in a charity virtual race.
Daniel Abt, a pro Formula E racer with the Audi team, was suspended this week after it was revealed he hired a ringer to compete for him in a charity virtual race.
Abt was kicked out of the race, and ordered to pay 10,000 Euros to charity, for the infraction.
After the discovery, Abt apologized, saying: “I did not take it as seriously as I should have.”
The man Abt is accused of hiring is Lorenz Hoerzing, a pro gamer who has also been banned.
In a statement about his suspension, Audi wrote:
“Daniel Abt did not drive his car in qualifying and the race at the fifth event of the Race at Home Challenge on May 23 himself, but let a professional sim-racer do so.
“…Integrity, transparency and consistent compliance with applicable rules are top priorities for Audi — this applies to all activities the brand is involved in without exception. For this reason, Audi Sport has decided to suspend Daniel Abt with immediate effect.”
Making all this more delicious: The Audi Formula E team is run by Abt Sportsline, a company that is owned by Abt’s father.
