I would start with some grandiose phrase – “this weekend we witnessed history in the making” – but the reality is that there have been several attempts already to achieve what the MotoE World Cup sets to undertake.
Electric motorcycle racing has been in the nexus for almost a decade now, and if we are frank, the progress has been tough.
TTXGP, FIM ePower, TT Zero – there are achievements to each of these efforts, but none have been able to create a product that is on par with their petrol-powered counterparts.
So while we have been here before, with a new series dedicated to racing electric motorcycles, there is a chance that we have seen history in the making, because the MotoE World Cup shows signs of life…and it shows how a new racing series can be launched in the 21st century.
History Re-Repeating
The hard part about starting at zero is…well, starting at zero. Whatever type is for a new endeavor, successful undertakings don’t begin from a standing start. This was the lesson learned from the TTXGP and ePower series, which attempted to create an electric motorcycle series without leveraging what already existed.
Conversely, this where the TT Zero class at the Isle of Man TT got things right – by building off the audience and prestige that the TT already had from nearly 100 years of road racing, and then grew a space for the electric bikes from that providence.
The next pre-requisite though is buy-in, and that is where the TT has failed. TheTT Zero class started with partners that had no lasting power, and now we see only one real factory effort on the track, with Mugen essentially racing themselves with a two-bike effort.
Without another racing partner (or several racing partners) that can match the effort of Mugen, we will watch the TT Zero race die a death of a thousand cuts. The Isle of Man TT needs to move the electric class from an exhibition lap to a real race, or risk seeing the whole endeavor collapse, like the other electric racing events before it.
This is where the MotoE World Cup begins its story, and from the outset, the FIM’s electric series shows the benefit of seeing the mistakes made before it.
The Grand Prix Advantage
The real power of the FIM MotoE World Cup comes from its ability to leverage the grand prix paddock and experience. This means premier events, premier teams, and premier riders.
More importantly though, MotoE gets to start with the audience that already follows the MotoGP Championship et al. This means not only a turnkey group of fans to watch the races, but having these fans also means a ready-to-go package to pitch advertisers and sponsors – the real lifeblood of a motorcycle racing series.
The money side of motorcycle racing has always been the hardest nut to crack, but it is literally the business of Dorna, the MotoE (and MotoGP) media rights holder and series promoter.
It doesn’t surprise us then to see that the MotoE World Cup is packed with a slew of familiar business names, and these names are the foundation for growing the sport forward.
If you want to tell the health of a racing series, look at the names of the brands involved. Is the list growing or shrinking? Are the brands regional, national, or international? And, what kind of investments are they making into the sport?
Businesses aren’t charities, and as soon as the ROI becomes inverted, they will be the first to exit, well before the teams and riders who are all chasing one more lap around the track.
From that perspective then, the MotoE World Cup has a strong backing, a good foundation, and a solid base to grow from…which makes us ask the next most important question (and this really is the second-most important question): is the racing any good?
The Same, But Different
What we saw in Sachsenring was the proof is Dorna’s pudding when it comes to creating fan-centric racing. The MotoE lap times might be just a tad over the marks set by the Moto3 class, but the racing was no less compelling.
Sprint races always encourage bold moves and hard passes, but when you add them to a spec-class, there is more of an onus put on the riders to make a difference. It shouldn’t surprise us then to see that MotoE provided bar-bashing passes with riders three, sometimes four bikes wide into a turn.
This comes from the spec-bike formula that MotoE is using with the Energica Ego Corsa. The electric superbike has enough horsepower and speed to make the on-track spectacle worth watching, and the spec equipment ensures that the racing action is close and hard-fought.
At the end of the day, this is what fans are really looking for. Sure, there is a bare minimum threshold for wanting to see bikes flying past the grandstands, but at the end of the day, it is the two-wheeled gladiatorial contests that captivate our racing senses.
From this perspective, I would call the MotoE World Cup a success. While the racing was cut short because of a red flag, the five-lap race had no shortage of lead changes, close racing, and crashes. Whomever your rider was, there were moments to cheer and moments to worry.
The thing though, as with most races, you have to have a horse in the race to be truly interested, and that is one of the hard parts still for MotoE to overcome.
The Who, The What, and the Why
When MotoE was first pitched to us, the series was sold as tapping into the existing grand prix paddock, and in many ways that has been the case. But where the electric series founders though is with having recognizable riders that fans can follow and get behind.
Sure, there are former MotoGP racers in the MotoE ranks, namely Bradley Smith, Sete Gibernau, and Randy de Puniet. Other names will likely look familiar to racing fans, like those of Mike di Meglio, Alex de Angelis, Niccolo Canepa, and Lorenzo Savadori.
But let’s take the front row on the German grid for the inaugural race (in the photo above). How many fans know of Niki Tuuli, Hector Garzo, and Eric Granado? I am supposedly and expert in this field, and even I had to google these riders to know who they were.
Motorcycle racing has largely been a soap opera geared towards middle-aged men, and with any good story you need relatable characters. Maybe it will pan out in time that we get to know some of these new names (as we do every new season in MotoGP when fresh ranks of rookies join us in the premier class), but from the starting point, it’s tough.
Spoiler alert, but I feel indifferent that Tuuli won, and that shouldn’t be the case.
Part of what makes MotoGP such a great series to follow are the stories behind the racing. The rivalry between Rossi and Marquez, the battle for a factory ride between Petrucci and Miller, the long road to validation for Dovizioso, and so on.
For real success, Dorna is going to have to do a better job promoting the riders and stories in MotoE, or perhaps more importantly, the series promoter will need to bring in more names that already have fan recognition – whose story we already know.
Room to Grow
All of these problems are Racing 101 problems, but perhaps the biggest challenges ahead for the FIM MotoE World Cup are instances where electric racing differs from its petrol counterparts.
Some of this is in format. Should you cover a series that uses a superpole qualifying format, and sprint race distance, the same way you cover your more traditional series? The answer is probably not.
But what about issues that come from using an electric drivetrain itself? At the start of the MotoE race in Germany, the absence of the audible crescendo of engines was notable.
How do we build the anticipation of the race starting without an auditory cue like we have in MotoGP, Moto2, and Moto3? I hope someone in the Dorna production team is thinking about that concept this week.
What was also noticeable was the need for riders never to let off the throttle, which also means that once a rider lost touch with the group in front of them, it was very unlikely they would get back in the hunt.
So, how do we maintain close racing throughout a sprint race with the performance parity of the machinery is digitally so close. Formula 1 has used a push-to-pass option, which is crude but seems to work, and Formula E has its “fan boost”, which seems more like a gimmick.
Somewhere between the two could be an interesting option, but does that detract from the sport? I don’t have an answer for that, but a digital drivetrain does open up options and ideas that were unavailable to a series promoter for thermic bikes.
While I urge caution on making electric racing too unique from its gas-powered counterparts (racing should be racing, after all), we do have to be aware that there are new advantages and variables on the board now, which Dorna can take advantage of.
In the end though, MotoE looks interesting. From a fan perspective, the six-lap race at Sachsenring was an easy event to add to a weekend of two-wheeled competition. That is to say, the on-track action was short and approachable for the casual fan, and the racing was close enough to entice them to watch MotoE again.
The naysayers to electric motorcycles will still have their voice, but as time marches on, and the racing product continues to entertain, those doubts will be turned around, and we have already seen a couple vocal reversals in this regard. Perhaps, that’s the real victory to come from the Sachsenring.
Photos: MotoE
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