Lewis Hamilton has praised the ambition and work done by Formula E but admits he has little interest in becoming an “electric-head”.
Next month will see the series begin its fifth season with big changes in design and also powertrain as for the first time, a driver will be able to complete a full race without a mid-race car swap.
For the Formula 1 world champion, the goal of Formula E also focuses on a topic that he has become passionate about.
“It’s a difficult one because I’m conflicted,” he said over the weekend in Brazil. “The gasses that we emit with our cars are not particularly helpful for the climate and for the world, so on one side that’s a concern for me.
“But on the other side, as a racing fan, I’m a petrolhead and I will always be a petrolhead. There will never be a time when I’m an electric-head.
“I hope, at least, in my period of time, it’s always going to be a fuelled car with at least some sort of V-shaped engine, with some sort of sound.”
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Plenty of former F1 drivers and manufacturers have made the move to Formula E with Hamilton’s ex-teammate Nico Rosberg a stakeholder and his own employers Mercedes creating a team for Season 6.
“I think it’s great what Formula E are doing and it’s a great start,” Lewis continued. “It’s great to see all the top brands – Audi, BMW, Mercedes – are all getting heavily invested because, particularly on the roads.
“You see the traffic every single day, there are thousands and thousands of cars on the road. There’s the same in every country you go to so the sooner we can get rid of the majority of those cars and then turn them into hybrids.
“I think that would be a massive difference, but there are a lot of other things we can do around the world with businesses to help with those emissions.”
Despite the attraction of the series also causing many to wonder if one day Formula E will challenge F1 for the ‘pinnacle of motorsport’ status, Hamilton doubts that will ever happen.
“I don’t think you are ever going to compare Formula 1 and Formula E,” he claimed.
“Maybe in five, 10 years maybe, but the technology that we have, it’s quite far advanced compared to what they would be having.
“They’re slower than Formula Ford at the moment so they’ve got a long way to catch the speed of an F1 car. I don’t know if that’s their target.”
The 33-year-old admits he will have one eye on what’s going on, however…
“I think it’s really impressive. I’ve been watching their cars on social media and they look pretty cool, so I wish them all the best and looking forward to seeing it progress,” he concluded.