Drayson Racing is first official team in FIA’s Formula E electric racing championship

Drayson Racing Technologies is, unsurprisingly, the first team to be officially approved by the FIA for entry in the Formula E global electric championship. It was announced at the Low Carbon Racing Conference, in the UK. What is surprising is that Drayson will not be driving their own car, but instead racing with the new Formula E customer racing car, that will be supplied by Formula E Holdings.

Drayson Racing Technologies has built the Lola-Drayson B12/69EV electric race car and taken it to events around the world. I got to see it at EVS26 in May 2012, and it is a way-cool looking electric race car. This is their rendering, and it looks cooler in person.

The team is looking to have two drivers, and Formula E Holdings allocates four cars to each team. During 2013 DRT will be working with Spark and Formula E Holdings on both testing the Formula E “customer car” as well as the exhibition events that are going to be held around the world.

The 2014 Formula E season will consist of 10 races, racing on city street circuits in cities around the world. They recently signed Rome Italy as one of those cities.

Drayson Racing Technologies has been pioneering green racing initiatives since 2007 and has been acting as Scientific Adviser in terms of sustainability to the FIA Formula E Championship during its establishment over the past few months.

Lord Drayson, Team Principal of Drayson Racing commented: “We are hugely excited about the prospect of competing in the opening season of FIA Formula E. We aim to be one of the front runners from the start, leveraging the knowhow we’ve built up over the past two years working on electric drivetrains and developing our 200 mph electric Le Mans prototype. We believe that FIA Formula E has very significant commercial potential, it will attract new fans and new sponsors to motorsport and is on track to become the world’s leading environmentally sustainable global sporting event.”

Alejandro Agag, Chief Executive Officer of FEH, said: “Today is a very special day for the FIA Formula E Championship. Announcing Drayson Formula E team as the first of the 10 teams proposed to take part in the competition is a very important step in the creation of the first sustainable global motor sport Championship.

“Having a team like Drayson join our ranks, gives the FIA Formula E a true electric racing DNA, as the British company represents, like no other, the passion for research and technology in the field of green motor sport.

“Lord Drayson is a true pioneer in electric racing, and our championship identifies completely with his goals and his ambitions. We look forward to see the Drayson Formula E Team racing in the heart of great cities around the world, first with the Spark customer car, and then with his own technology, that will contribute to the advance of electric cars in our cities.”

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About David Herron

David Herron is a writer and software engineer living in Silicon Valley. He primarily writes about electric vehicles, clean energy systems, climate change, peak oil and related issues. When not writing he indulges in software projects and is sometimes employed as a software engineer. David has written for sites like PlugInCars and TorqueNews, and worked for companies like Sun Microsystems and Yahoo.