Formula E Spark-Renault electric race cars arrive with the teams at Donnington

Ahead of the first Formula E race in Beijing in September, the ten teams taking part have received their cars from Renault at Donnington.

No one knows if the Formula E experiment – an ‘F1’ Grand Prix series for electric racing cars – will garner the same sort of interest as its ICE counterpart, but with the first Formula E race scheduled for Beijing in September we’ll soon find out.

Ahead of that debut race, Renault and Spark Technologies has delivered the teams their cars – all the same Spark Renault SRT_01E – to the Formula E base at Donnington.

After a series of tests at a variety of circuits earlier this year, the Spark Renault SRT_01E passed all its final systems and architecture tests, which has allowed this first batch of the final series cars to be delivered for the teams to practice ahead of the race.

Present at the handover were former F1 driver Alain Prost – who is running the French E-Dams team – as well as Alejandro Agag, Chairman of Formula E Holdings, who was presented with a Renault Zoe by Renault so he can be squeaky green away from the race track.

Patrice Ratti, GM of Renault Sport Technologies, said:

We are delighted to have worked alongside Spark ahead of the delivery of the first 10 Spark-Renaults to the Formula E teams. It was no mean feat because this is the world’s first small-scale production-produced single-seater electric racing car to deliver such a high level of performance.

It all looks a promising scenario for the Formula E outing, and even through the atmosphere will be a little dampened at races without the roar of exhaust noise, the ample torque electric cars deliver should make for some interesting racing.

We’re looking forward to it.