Jarno Trulli is one of the all-time greats of Formula One racing. With 256 Grand Prix starts under his belt, he’s up there with Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello — he knows more than a little bit about how to drive a fast car quickly. Like most F1 champions, he’s a jack of all trades, with history in karts and Formula 3 as well. He’s now turning his attention to Formula E — the all-electric racing class that’s turning a lot of heads.
Formula E is F1 for greenies — the cars are powered by an electric motor producing 200kW (around 270 horsepower), with a chassis made by Dallara, the driving force behind. The cars sound great, with an electrifying high-pitched whine that sounds like a 747 at full take-off power. The same high-pitched whine is sadly missing from this year’s Formula 1 cars.
Trulli put the new Formula E car, with this particular build the Spark-Renault SRT_01E, through its paces at the La Ferté Gaucher circuit, 90km from Paris in France.
The SRT_01E sounds brilliant racing through its gears; it even surprised Formula E CEO Alejandro Agag, who says in the video that until that testing period, he wasn’t sure how the car would sound. Formula E isn’t a world-beating, super-high-speed extravaganza; that’s the realm of F1 and 24 Hours of Le Mans LMP1 racers. It’s about efficiency, technical innovation, and bringing a bit of fun and prestige to the world of electric motoring. [FIA Formula E]