Mexico race raises curtain on 2023 Formula E season

First of 16 rounds this weekend. Marks race debut of Gen 3 car.

- Alex Ingram

THE 2023 Formula E World Championship kicks off this weekend in Mexico City, and season nine of the all-electric series brings huge changes with it. In a category that has always majored on unpredictability, the combination of new Gen 3 cars that are faster but trickier to drive than their predecessors, a fresh tyre supplier, new teams and a merry-go-round of driver transfers means that predicting who will finish the season as champion is harder than ever before.

If a driver wants to take the spoils at the end of the 16-race series, the first thing they will need to get used to is the latest Formula E car. The Gen 3 model boasts some radical changes over its predecessor, and these start with the electric motor.

This now produces 350 kilowatts; that's 469bhp and an increase of 134bhp over the Gen 2 car. Combine this with a shorter chassis that's 60kg lighter, and this all contributes to a car that can theoretically top out at 200mph - although that's an unlikely figure for the cars to reach on the tight and twisty street circuits that make up the Formula E calendar.

It should result in a significant reduction in lap times, but early testing in Valencia has revealed the new car to be tricky to drive on the limit. Combined with teams and drivers getting to grips not only with a new car, but also with fresh tyres (Hankook has now replaced Michelin as the official supplier for Formula E), the lap times recorded in testing didn't show quite the increase in performance that some people had been predicting.