Formula E: Heads to Red Hook in Brooklyn this weekend
The ABB FIA Formula E World Championship makes a return to The Big Apple for the New York City E-Prix Rounds 11 & 12 of Season 8 around the streets of Brooklyn, in the shadow of the unmistakable Manhattan skyline.
Formula E is gearing up for a fifth visit to Brooklyn’s dumpy industrial Red Hook neighborhood and the Brooklyn Street Circuit for a fifth double-header in the city. The fight for World Championship honors is now looking to be a four-horse race between three marques, four teams and as many drivers Edoardo Mortara (ROKiT Venturi Racing), Jean-Eric Vergne (DS TECHEETAH), Stoffel Vandoorne (Mercedes-EQ), and Mitch Evans (Jaguar TCS Racing).
Mortara fired himself to the top of the Drivers’ World Championship last time out in Marrakesh, taking advantage of the qualifying misfortune which saw prior Drivers’ leader Vandoorne slip to 20th on the grid before a 12-spot recovery to eighth position come the checkered flag.
With Evans coming home third and Vergne fourth in Morocco, that reshuffle of the championship table means there are just 15 points splitting the top four drivers with six rounds of the season – each worth a maximum of 29 points – to come.
Return to Red Hook
It’s a favorite of the drivers, teams and fans alike, and the 2.320km, 14-turn Red Hook racetrack remains unchanged from its familiar layout.
The circuit winds its way around the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal site in the heart of the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn. It’s a real test; lined with miles of unforgiving concrete, with views across the Buttermilk Channel and over towards Lower Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty.
Drivers had a revised ATTACK MODE activation zone to negotiate last year, and will once again this time out, with the loop moved from the exit of Turn 5 to the outside of Turn 10.
Britain’s Sam Bird (Jaguar TCS Racing) is the most successful racer around the Brooklyn Street Circuit with three wins to his name – including a spectacular win-double on Formula E’s first visit to the city.
More than 20,000 people descended for New York’s first racing action since CART’s PPG Cup back in the 1980s and the city’s first all-electric street races.
New York City’s sustainability drive
The city has set a net-zero carbon emissions target for 2050, with an 85 percent reduction on greenhouse gas emissions by the same date on 1990 levels enshrined into law.
To get there, New York is building upon $3.9 billion in investments across 67 large-scale renewable projects across the state which are set to create more than 150,000 jobs. The aim is 70 percent reliance on renewable sources for the state’s energy by 2030, with 1,800 megawatts of wind by 2024 and 1,700 percent growth in solar since 2012.
Governor Andrew Cuomo also announced the ‘EV Make Ready’ program in 2020 to drive New York to its goal. This will see 850,000 zero emissions vehicles and 50,000 charging stations in the state by 2025.
New Yorkers consume less total energy per person than the residents of any other state in the US, except for Rhode Island, but only because most New Yorkers do not own cars.