It is without questions that the future of motorsport is electric vehicles. We have seen racing series spring up that convert the classic racing series to electric, whether it is Formula E or Moto E they have all been born out of an existing non-electric series. But with sustainability in mind, there exists an opportunity for all new racing series to be born. One that I have discovered recently is the eSkooter Championship.
On first though, racing scooter may seem like a kind of dumb idea, it brings up a lot of questions of how raceable are scooters and how exciting could they really be, but let me tell you why this new series excites me so much.
Low Cost
Motorsport is expensive, in almost all of it forms it cost a lot of money to get a car or bike on the grid, and it cost even more to get it competitive. But when you lower the scale down to an electric scooter, the cost lower as well.
The same idea goes for the riders, it’s not a secret how much money has to come out of the driver or rider to get into the upper and even middle levels of motorsport. eSkooter addresses this by lowering the cost of entry for riders and claiming to be “the most accessible pro racing series”
eSkooter won’t hold its first race until next year but, as of today, they are testing the S1-X in the Italian city of Cremona with a load of different riders from all different backgrounds. The championship also claims to be committed to further diversity and inclusion, which is being showcased has they have had both men and women testing for them in Cremona.
Sustainability
Motorsport is also infamous for its massive carbon footprint, in the past few years a lot of series have committed to net-zero carbon emissions by whatever year, but eSkooter plans to start that way. They have tasked FE driver and eSkooter founder and ambassador Luca di Grassi as leaded advocate for sustainability and have been working with the UN and WHO on their “BreathLife” campaign.
They have committed to traveling light, which should not be too hard considering the size of the scooters compared to other racing series’ cars or bikes. Furthermore, they also have committed to travel by rail from city to city when possible, as well as leaving as little a footprint in their host cities as they can.
The scooters themselves are sustainable, the carbon fiber chassis are made of recyclable material as well as the tires and batteries. eSkooter also promises that all the R&D used to create the scooters will be given to others in the E-Scooter industry to further grow micromobility across the world.
Racing
While we have yet to see wheel-to-wheel racing in the eSkooter championship, the projected weekend schedule seems interesting. During the two days of racing, a grid of 30 riders will compete in five heats of six riders. The four fastest in each heat will move on to the next round, while the slowest 10 fight for the last four spots in the next round. The next round is cut by half, moving on to the semi-finals, and the top three from those four heats go onto the grand final while those eliminated fight for team points.
On Sunday, the teams’ championship is run by a knockout tournament between the 10 teams of 3 until a winner is crowned.
While the weekend schedule is a lot more complex than other series, I think it will make more sense when we see it in action. One benefit of the complicated weekend schedule is the sheer amount of races we get to see. We don’t have any information of lap numbers, but we do know that the circuit will be less than a kilometer.
The scooters themselves, titled the S1-X are reported to go up to 100 km/h, 2×6 kW twin motor, two-wheel drive, 1.33 kWh battery capacity, a lean angle of up to 45 degrees and weight 35 Kilograms.
Conclusion
I believe that the eSkooter Championship is one of the most exciting of this happening in the motorsport world right now. It can demonstrate the future of the sport with its commitment to sustainability and its low barrier to entry, which will hopefully mean the series is not plagued with the money over talent issues many other series face. I am incredibly excited to see the eSkooter Championship race, and I will be following its development as a series very closely as more things come together.
For more information on the series: https://esc.live/
Edited by: Flip Jacobsen
Mikey McGuire F1 