Formula E will soon overtake ‘boring’ F1 - Jaguar chairman

Formula E will soon overtake Formula 1 as the most popular category of motorsport, according to Jaguar Racing chairman Gerd Mauser.

The all-electric championship is on the verge of entering its fifth season and has gone from strength-to-strength due to the unpredictable nature of its races and entertaining on-track action around street circuits at major world-wide cities across the opening four campaigns.

An increased push towards electrification on the roads has already helped the series attract major car manufacturers including Renault, Audi, BMW and Jaguar, while the likes of Nissan, Mercedes and Porsche will boost Formula E’s grid in the coming years.

Speaking at the British manufacturer’s official car launch in London ahead of the 2018/19 campaign, Mauser praised the development and excitement of Formula E, which has already seen four different drivers’ crowned champion in four seasons.

“We are very satisfied with the development of Formula E - it is very exciting, very interesting races,” Mauser said.

“It’s absolutely not boring. If you compare to Formula 1, you watch the start on Sunday and then you fall asleep, wake up and say ‘is it Vettel or Hamilton [who won]?’. This is totally different to Formula E, which has lots of action.

“Formula E had six different winners last season, you don’t have that in Formula 1,” he added. “The top 15 in the timesheets are often within one second, which is also a big difference to Formula 1.

“[In the coming years] we will have nine OEM’s on the grid which I think in the history of motorsport has never been seen before. This is really sensational.”

The upcoming season - which begins in Saudi Arabia on December 15 - will mark the introduction of a new specification car, dubbed the ‘Gen2’, which features increased power modes and battery storage that will eliminate the need for the mid-race car swaps that have been part of races since Formula E’s inception in 2014.

Mauser claimed Formula E has grown at an increase of “48 percent year over year” and has already surpassed MotoGP in terms of average TV viewing figures per race.

“Formula E is the fastest growing series in the world at the moment,” he explained. “Last season 338 million people watched Formula E.

“This is a 48 percent year over year increase and if this growth continues it won’t take too long to overtake Formula 1. We already surpassed MotoGP on a race average basis.”