Formula E’s Gen4 car is going to transform the sport

The Gen4 Formula E car starts racing this year — Formula E starts in the winter, remember? — so the series and the teams are starting to roll it out in earnest ahead of getting actual pre-season testing going. It is a good-looking race car in ways no prior Formula E car could even pretend to approach, not just technically but also aesthetically. Now that we can actually see some team liveries on it, it seems pretty fully baked.

It’s going to change the racing, for sure, but I don’t think there are very many Formula E purists out there who are going to mind. Honestly, the races on real race tracks that the current car has put on recently have been far more entertaining than the usual 75 MPH street fare, in my opinion. Some of the tightest street circuits in the current rotation, like the London ExCeL finale, might not even be able to handle the Gen4, and you know what? I’m gonna say it: Good. I hate that race. I refer to that start/finish straight as “the crash tunnel.”