Formula E has achieved a remarkable amount in its 12-year history. Yet at the same time, it has often had a rapid-reflex aptitude for self-sabotage. <\/p>\n
Prior instances have come via multiple fragmented calendars and one-and-done races; bizarre marketing campaigns (remember the car being thrown out of a plane?); and weird team takeovers \u2013 see last year\u2019s Maserati MSG fiasco<\/a>.<\/p>\n But one thing that it has usually been able to depend upon is its sheer quality of drivers and a unity over the need for progressive growth.<\/p>\n Remarkably, the incendiary letter signed by all 20 drivers that The Race exposed yesterday<\/a> is not the first time a trade union-style flashpoint has occurred in Formula E.<\/p>\n Punta del Este in March 2018 is now a long-forgotten controversy, but drivers at the time were considering some \u2018industrial action\u2019. What that actually meant was potentially sitting out a practice session, but it never came to pass.<\/p>\n The hot topic at that time was that teams were shortcutting belt applications on drivers when they were changing cars. Weird tie-wrap mechanisms were used after the minimum pitstop time was removed after the previous Mexico City E-Prix, and drivers rightly felt that this was jeopardising their safety.<\/p>\n Paddock legend has it that a driver – actually one of the 10 champions in the series\u2019 history – directly phoned then FIA president Jean Todt from the Uruguayan venue. It is said that Todt took the call but terminated it within 60 seconds, signing off with a universally forthright two-syllabled phrase that made it clear he had neither the time nor the patience for the call to continue.<\/p>\n Nine years on, Jeff Dodds, Formula E\u2019s hardworking CEO, and his team are busy getting ready for the European leg of the world championship, the Gen4 car is being universally praised in early testing, Opel is about to join as a new brand<\/a> and the final season of Gen3 is brewing into another classic title fight with multiple contenders. All should be well with the electric world.<\/p>\n Add into that lucky dip of positivity a messy start to Formula 1\u2019s new electrically advanced era, as its latest cars split opinion not just among millions of fans but also its most talented drivers<\/a>, then a fertile ground to grow upon spreads out in front of Dodds and Formula E.<\/p>\n Like a giant plug socket waiting to be switched on, they should have a collective hand ready to push it in and switch it all on.<\/p>\n And then that letter drops through the letterbox of Mohammed Ben Sulayem, and so Formula E\u2019s domestic affairs become the biggest talking point of the season by far.<\/p>\n You can see why Dodds is said to be massively disappointed by the whole situation.<\/p>\n The Race also revealed last month<\/a> that Dodds had invited Formula E\u2019s enfant terrible (everyone\u2019s enfant terrible) Dan Ticktum to his office in Hammersmith, London, for a chat and a biscuit.<\/p>\n There Dodds will have reminded the Cupra Kiro driver that Formula E is also a brand and a product as well as a sporting series and refuge for Ticktum\u2019s erratic career too.\u00a0<\/p>\n