The morning after Lola Yamaha ABT’s first Formula E victory, I sat down with Telescope in Shanghai to talk about a bigger question: has Formula E kept pace with the electric-vehicle revolution it helped to make credible?
It was a particularly personal conversation. The interviewer and I had worked together during the TECHEETAH years, so he had seen both the highs and the difficult periods at close range. We began with the win, but quickly moved into China’s EV industry, battery competition, software-defined vehicles, Gen4 technology and where Lola might contribute next.
Watch the interview
Did Formula E really lose China?
I challenged the premise. When Formula E held its first race in Beijing in 2014, electric racing still attracted plenty of scepticism. There were predictions that the cars would not complete a credible race. Drivers changed cars halfway through, and the idea of an electric single-seater championship felt experimental.
That first race succeeded, Lucas di Grassi won it, and the championship grew from there. The original car swaps now feel like prehistory. Formula E helped demonstrate that electric cars could be serious performance machines. What was once surprising is now taken for granted.
China’s market has moved extraordinarily quickly, however, and that changes the standard by which relevance is judged. Chinese customers discuss battery chemistry, charging rates, cold-weather performance and thermal preparation with a level of familiarity that is less common in many European markets. So the question is fair: what should electric racing contribute now that electric road cars are already mainstream?
Where Formula E chooses to compete
Every racing category must decide where to permit technical competition and where to standardise. Formula E does not ask teams to develop the chassis. Modern composite monocoques remain sophisticated, but they are no longer the area that best connects the championship to the road-car market.
Instead, competition focuses on the powertrain and, increasingly, software. That matters because the future of the automotive industry is the software-defined vehicle. A Formula E car is already one: energy management, braking, torque delivery, efficiency and race strategy all depend on software interacting with the physical machine in real time.
Formula E’s relevance is not only that it is electric. It is that the car is a live demonstration of powertrain efficiency, control systems and software-defined performance.
Should Formula E open battery development?
This was the sharpest point of disagreement in the conversation. Formula E currently uses a common battery. The case for opening battery competition is compelling: batteries are central to electric-vehicle performance, and competition could accelerate development in chemistry, charging, thermal management and packaging.
The case against it is equally practical. Developing a competitive racing battery is expensive and complex. We have examined what it would mean, and it could require something close to doubling manufacturer budgets. It could also turn the championship into a contest between a handful of battery suppliers, just as periods of Formula One became dominated by the tyre war rather than the cars themselves.
There may be a middle route. A future battery tender could run as a faster development programme alongside the main vehicle cycle, allowing the whole field to benefit from improved technology without making battery spending the primary competitive differentiator. Gen5 planning will make this an important discussion sooner than it might appear.
The next performance frontier
When asked to imagine the ultimate performance EV, I came back to control. More grip and downforce can always make a racing car faster, but the more interesting electric developments are those that create new ways to manage the vehicle.
- Multiple rear motors could provide finer torque control while packaging may continue to favour a single front motor.
- In-wheel motors could remove gearboxes, differentials and driveshafts, although engineers must balance that benefit against unsprung mass.
- Brake-system changes may offset some of that weight and alter the overall trade-off.
- AI and learning systems could extend control beyond the powertrain into a broader understanding of the car and its operating environment.
Gen4 is already moving closer to the kind of high-performance electric machine we imagined a decade ago. The next advances may be less visible than another motor or a larger headline power figure, but far more significant.
Lola, China and manufacturer collaboration
Lola has a long history of helping manufacturers turn ambition into competitive machinery. One of the best-known examples is the Lola Mk6, whose architecture contributed to the development of the Ford GT40. Our archives also contain correspondence between Soichiro Honda and Lola founder Eric Broadley about working together.
That collaborative model remains relevant. Chinese manufacturers are setting the pace in batteries, charging, software integration and performance EVs. Lola brings deep experience in rapid engineering, motorsport execution and building vehicles around a partner’s objectives.
I would genuinely like to explore what those capabilities could achieve together—whether in Formula E, a record programme, a high-performance demonstrator or another form of competition.
Why this conversation mattered
Near the end of the interview, my former colleague observed that whatever happens, I keep racing: teams change, partnerships evolve, and another challenge appears. That persistence is not an individual story. It comes from groups of people choosing to rebuild, learn and compete again.
The Shanghai victory made the timing of this discussion special. It demonstrated what a new partnership can achieve, but it also opened the next question. Winning is a moment. The more useful task is deciding what to build from it.
Watch the complete conversation above or open the interview on YouTube.