A hundred races, eight seasons of spectacular racing and some of the craziest moments the motorsport has seen. Formula E might just be the most exciting series on four wheels out there and its growth has been extraordinary.
There have been 77 drivers, 22 race winners, seven champions with multiple title-deciders along the way.
A few of those wild finales feature in this top 10 list of the best Formula E races of all-time since the series began in 2014.
10) Season 1 – Beijing, September 2014
The inaugural Formula E race had the most spectacular of endings with Nicolas Prost leading all the way until the last lap
Second-place driver Nick Heidfeld was closing the gap and went for it on the final corner of the last lap.
Prost made a desperate defensive move, darting to the left-hand side so the pair collided which sent Heidfeld into a spin and he caught a kerb sideways, and flipped into the barrier in dramatic style.
Neither driver was able to continue just a few hundred metres from the finish line, giving Lucas di Grassi the honour of being the first ever Formula E winner.
“There’s nothing I can change,” Heidfeld exclusively told Total-Motorsport.com when asked whether he still thought about that moment.
“To win the first race of the championship would have been super cool. The small positive thing is normally people don’t remember if you lose a race but because it was such a major crash, at least people know I could have won that race.”
9) Season 5 – Rome, April 2019
Mitch Evans and Jaguar‘s maiden win in Formula E came the hard way with the New Zealander chasing Andre Lotterer for the majority of the race.
It was a great tussle on the streets of Rome with Lotterer typically defending vigorously, only for Evans to dive the inside at the chicane in the middle of the lap to tale the lead of the race.
There was a late scare for Evans though as he failed to initially take his second attack mode, but he just did enough to hold on.
Lap 1 also saw a classic Formula E pile-up thanks Jose Maria Lopez, there’s always a few each season isn’t there.
8) Season 1 – Buenos Aries, January 2015
The 2015 Buenos Aries E-Prix was a race of attrition, with three drivers crashing out at the final chicane including two of the race leaders.
Sebastien Buemi clipped the inside wall when running in the lead, forcing him to retire before Di Grassi did the same thing when he inherited first place.
New race leader Heidfeld was given a drive through penalty for speeding in the pit lane, so the underdog, Antonio Felix da Costa in the Amlin Aguri came through to take the team’s only win in Formula E.
Further behind, there was a monumental battle between Jean-Eric Vergne, Daniel Abt, Jamie Alguersuari, Bruno Senna and Nelson Piquet Jr for the final spot on the podium.
7) Season 4 – Mexico City, April 2017
When you’re nearly a lap down in Formula E, surely it shouldn’t be possible to be scoring points, never mind thinking about victory. Well, Di Grassi had other ideas in Mexico City 2017.
Having been hit by Maro Engel early on, Di Grassi was forced to pit for a new rear wing but was helped by a safety car to get onto the back of the pack.
In those days, each driver had to jump into a second car as the powertrains were not efficient enough to last a race distance – it’s remarkable the development in electric power since then.
Anyway, Di Grassi took the opportunity to make a pit stop to jump into his second car, along with Jerome d’Ambrosio.
There was still around two-thirds left of the race though so it looked like they wouldn’t be able to get to the end without going at crawling pace.
As everyone else pitted, Di Grassi and d’Ambrosio jumped to the front. Disaster struck when a safety car closed up the field so everyone was on their tail with a lot more energy.
Lopez and Vergne fought hard for third, knowing Di Grassi and d’Ambrosio would likely be sitting ducks.
The Argentine went for a move on d’Ambrosio but he spun and Sebastien Buemi nearly collected him. D’Ambrosio was now defending hard from Vergne as a long train of cars were within just a few seconds of each other. The battling allowed Di Grassi to gain a crucial lead of four seconds.
Vergne and Sam Bird eventually both overtook d’Ambrosio with the latter bravely going all the way round the outside of the Belgian at Turns 2 and 3. It was too late though as Di Grassi somehow held on with a stunning victory.
6) Season 5 – Santiago, January 2020
A last lap pass saw Maximilian Gunther claim a brilliant win in Santiago in a race which saw fighting all the way through the field.
Techeetah teammates Vergne and Da Costa had a great scrap in the midfield, for example, which potentially cost the latter later in the race.
Back at the front Gunther was chasing down Evans for the lead, as the pair went side by side through the opening few turns, before he eventually got by at Turn 8.
The typical Formula E chaos continued behind the front three cars with the Mercedes, Venturi, and Techeetah drivers all fighting for the same piece of track.
Da Costa, who started in 10th, was on a charge and found himself in the lead after a forceful overtake on Gunther at Turn 9.
Any thoughts about the race being decided by the stewards didn’t matter though as Da Costa was on the limit with his energy and battery temperature, as Gunther breezed back past on the final lap to become the youngest Formula E winner ever at 22 years old.
5) Season 1 – London, June 2015
Piquet, Buemi and Di Grassi all went into the final race of the inaugural Formula E season with a chance to be the first champion.
Championship leader Piquet qualified down in 16th with his rivals starting further up the grid.
Buemi was therefore favourite to take the title but he spun early in the race which cost him a position, but a moment which proved to be crucial later in the race.
The championship swung between Piquet and Buemi as the positions changed throughout E-Prix, with the Swiss driver knowing he needed to overtake Bruno Senna to become champion as Piquet put himself in a championship winning position.
Senna defended vigorously in the remaining few laps and Buemi just could not find a way by, despite drawing alongside and bumping the Brazilian on numerous occasions.
It meant Piquet became first ever Formula E champion in a title decider that went down to the very last corner of the season.
4) Season 8 – Jakarta, June 2022
A Techeetah front row lockout didn’t prevent arguably the most exciting race of the 2022 Formula E season, with an exciting three-way duel for the win.
Attack mode strategy was key as Evans fought the Techeetah pair of Da Costa and Vergne.
Evans made an outstanding overtake on Vergne to snatch the lead, with Edoardo Mortara also joining the fight.
Vergne didn’t give in and was all over the back of the Jaguar driver in the final two laps, but couldn’t quite get past as Evans came out on top in a thrilling battle between the championship protagonists.
3) Season 4 – Punta del Este, March 2018
The duel between Vergne and Di Grassi in Punta Del Este 2018 was one of the most exciting race-long battles you will see in motorsport.
It was pure racing and although there was no overtakes, they were literally millimetres apart at times and the intensity, the excitement and the tension was sky-high.
Both drivers were both right in the limit as they maximised the braking zones and the speed they could carry through each of the turns and chicanes, in a battle which was Formula E‘s version of Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso in Formula 1 at the 2005 San Marino Grand Prix in Imola.
Vergne came out on top in, probably, the most underrated race in Formula E. Certainly one for the purists.
2) Season 5 – Mexico City, February 2019
There is something about strange and wonderful things happening with Di Grassi in Mexico City which was proved again in 2019.
Pascal Wehrlein took his maiden Formula E pole position and was doing everything right to keep Oliver Rowland and Di Grassi behind for most of the race, with only a couple seconds splitting the trio.
Di Grassi made his move during the second and final attack mode phase by ducking underneath Rowland in the stadium and began his pursuit of Wehrlein.
Wehrlein had one percent of energy less than Di Grassi so was having to defend hard in the final two laps, as nearly everyone ran into trouble with their energy management.
The pair came together at the Turn 3/4 chicane with Wehrlein cutting the chicane to retain the lead.
Di Grassi tried again at the penultimate corner, only for Wehrlein to shut the door before he ran out of energy just 100 metres before the finish line.
Somehow, Di Grassi found a gap between Wehrlein and the edge of the track to slide past as the final moment and win the race.
1) Season 7 – Monaco, May 2021
Monaco 2021 will go down as a pivotal day in Formula E history in the coming years as it was the first time the series raced on the full circuit at the Principality and it delivered in abundance.
Robin Frijns led the early parts of the race as everyone else proved that you can overtake at Monaco with some great racing.
Da Costa took the lead with 16 minutes to go from Frijns, with Evans following through to take second, only to immediately overtake the Techeetah driver on the hill up to Massenet as he went from third to first in the space of about 10 seconds.
A safety car bunched the field together which gave everyone time for a short breather. Evans was fighting hard to keep Da Costa behind as the pair fought hard but fair in the final two laps.
Da Costa made a fantastic overtake into the Nouvelle Chicane on the brakes with Evans just about hanging on for second place. The best race Monaco has ever seen? Quite possibly.
