What makes Formula E's new documentary really glow
Formula E has released a new documentary series called Driver, which isn't perfect, but there's moments of real quality shining a light on the 2024 season
Formula E’s new behind the scenes documentary series Driver is its best ever attempt at giving an access-all-areas insight into the often cartoon and scatty all-electric world championship.
Overall, this is an engrossingly shot journey across the 2024 season, one of, if not the most spectacular, in Formula E's decade-long history.
It features input from all the main players in the title fight and beyond, both in real time and as revisionist talking heads. These include The Race’s Sam Smith and The Race founder Andrew van de Burgt via The Race’s Formula E podcast.
There are two clear stars of the four hour-long episodes: Antonio Felix da Costa and Dan Ticktum. They each lend great and genuine discernment into their characters and how they are slaves to racing and trying to win.
States of high adrenaline, dopamine and serotonin are all explored in one of motorsport’s toughest disciplines for drivers and this comes across well for those unsure of what Formula E drivers are specifically tasked with in races, or indeed in preparation for them.
There is a great deal of scene setting of the personalities and of the series in general, which although very fast-forwardable for seasoned enthusiasts, does have to be rolled out for new viewers, at which Driver is clearly targeted.
These are some of the nuggets of real gold amid the four episodes that will be available on Amazon Prime Video from Friday, May 2.
Da Costa's 2024 rollercoaster
The Antonio Felix da Costa and Porsche intra-team headbutting that went on through most of the 2024 season was uncovered by The Race in late March of that year just when his stock was at an all-time low after a coruscating start to the campaign.
It’s not precisely known how close he was to getting binned off by Porsche. But by Tokyo last May it felt tangible and the bad blood in the Porsche garage seeped out. Driver shines some light on how fraught it all was with some truly intriguing honesty and insight from da Costa and also from Porsche team boss Florian Modlinger.
The polar opposites of their characters are laid bare and take just moments to crystallise for those that don’t know them. The happy go-lucky yet casually introspective demeanour of da Costa shines through just as clearly as Modlinger’s functionally and analytically focused Robocop-style mantra of ‘success is king’.
The clash of personalities is wonderfully yet subtly illustrated throughout the episodes and it’s a credit to the direction that it isn’t distilled into a lazy ‘goodies’ and ‘baddies’ vibe.
The only thing that unites the pair is winning, and they do this together. Yet still, da Costa feels like Modlinger is never truly satisfied and that feeling is backed up by The Race’s experience of the Porsche team chief, who never really showed anything approaching a reflex emotion of satisfaction until da Costa’s team-mate Pascal Wehrlein won the title in London.
The most intriguing part of da Costa’s season, which was a true epic even just to cover as a journalist let alone know how intense it was in its own white heat, is when da Costa is trying to analyse his relationship with Modlinger.
"Florian is very much success driven,” says da Costa.
“If you're winning, he is in love with you, and if you are not, then he isn’t."
For his part Modlinger is the model professional but without being too corporately grating. He’s a pure racer too, it’s just in a different style to da Costa. The imposing German could have come out of this documentary as a typecast Teutonic nightmare. He absolutely doesn’t because he’s not pretending to be something he isn’t and its clear he absolutely loves both racing and Porsche in equal measure.
Also interesting in da Costa’s journey - which is handled imaginatively with insights into his personality make-up - is his reaction after inadvertently taking out his good mate Nick Cassidy at the season finale in London last July.
Close to tears, similar to those he shed for the incident at the time, he presents a figure not only genuinely remorseful for the contact but one struggling to digest and understand Cassidy’s reaction. It’s similar to a kid being told his parents aren’t angry, just disappointed.
Dan Ticktum, the enigma
Dan Ticktum? F****** hell!
That’s The Race’s response when asked to sum up one of motorsport’s true one-offs in a sentence or twelve. So, how to appraise one of racing’s genuine enigmas, its pantomime villain?
Driver does a decent job as it outlines his rise from karting upstart superstar, to early single-seater ban outrage for driving into a rival behind the safety car at Silverstone, to paid professional.
Although he probably won’t think so, in many ways Formula E saved Dan Ticktum because he went from semi self-sabotaging Formula 1 peripheral to paid professional overnight, and over several seasons fighting against uncompetitive equipment he has fostered a reputation beyond the cartoon anti-hero.
The problem is, it doesn’t appear that Formula E knows what to do with him.
The fun and quirky side of Ticktum isn’t exploited enough. There is self-awareness and some self-depreciation there, and he doesn’t take things too seriously. Why not push that more as a promoter?
Driver at least does that quite nicely and at the end of it the emphasis is on the viewer deciding how to interpret Ticktum. Lovable and irreverent ambitious upstart or spoiled brat with a bag of chips on his shoulder? You are left to decide.
“The hate-train” that Ticktum mentions is real and regrettable but, unfortunately for him, always waiting at the station.
Perhaps the most moving part of the Ticktum portrait is when they talk to his mum, Claire, who gets upset at the memory of her 15-year-old son being vilified so mercilessly when he was banned in 2016. It’s hard not to feel a whole lot of empathy as she tearfully says: “I know the real Dan.”
But trying to decode Dan Ticktum in this documentary doesn’t really have a resolution in a sporting sense because he had such a frustrating season of very few highlights due to being hamstrung by the ERT package he was driving.
A follow-up this season could be much more interesting should there be one. Ticktum has teed himself up for either a huge justificatory reveal or a bit of a fall, as his reorganised team got its hands on a competitive and championship-winning package from Porsche for 2024-25.
Mitch Evans – 'What was that?'
In some of the tensest footage in Driver Mitch Evans struggles to comprehend the season finale mess in London that led to a title chance slipping away for both himself and Jaguar team-mate Cassidy.
After the race Evans is pretty much open-mouthed and struggles to articulate words as he sees team boss James Barclay for the first time.
“What was that?” he asks looking Barclay directly in the eye.
“It was complicated. We’ll look back on it,” is Barclay’s response as he stares into the distance.
Prior to that there is another high-tension moment. As the synchronisation between Evans and Cassidy lets in a predatory Wehrlein in the London season finale and things start to break down, Jaguar’s race director Gary Ekerold gestures to Evans’ engineer Josep Rocha and mouths "talk to him, talk to him”.
Rocha, clearly agitated, replies: “What do you want me to talk to him about?”
Ekerold responds: “I want you to tell him we are trying to work out a plan and he just needs to try his for now. Just keep him calm.”
This is the real gold in Driver. Insight, however tense and painful it will be for many to re-watch, illustrates what was really happening that day. It’s riveting and edgy. Just great TV.
Additionally, Cassidy’s sometimes opaque public exterior becomes clear very occasionally, such as when he is asked just hours after losing another title "do you feel like you’ve got that killer instinct to win a championship?".
"No," comes the reply. "I’ve been too nice for a couple of years and it’s bit me."
In the context of that interview taking place just hours after the London disaster which wasn’t of his making, Cassidy is being way too hard on himself. But in a sense everyone is in the mad-house, trippy world of Formula E.
Champion's storyline crumbles
Jake Dennis is an interesting, funny and popular guy.
But when his season crumbles away in the middle of the campaign the curiosity in what appeared to be a very possible title defence ebbs away just as tepidly as his thread through this series.
His input into Driver thus becomes a bit of a lame ‘meet Jake’ style piece which will be a nice souvenir for him and his girlfriend but don’t add much to the viewer in getting an insight into the real him and his Andretti team.
The best parts are the archive of a teen Dennis bouncing around karting paddocks and a direct delivery from the late karting legend Martin Hines stating he was going to the very top.
Dennis should have had a crack at the real big time in F1 but that feels a bit unexplored here, as does the faith that Andretti showed in him to give him the opportunity to finally shine.
Other parts of the documentary can feel like fillers too unfortunately, such as Ticktum and team-mate Sergio Sette Camara messing about trying to win a chicken nugget in a Tokyo amusement arcade. In a way, perhaps that feels like something of a metaphor for their season battling the efficiency vacuum of a car they simply had to tolerate.
In fairness there are interesting elements in this style too though, such as da Costa getting dewy eyed over Porsche’s amazing archive, Evans’ adorable Mum (Tracee) and old-school Dad (Owen), who somehow survived a ludicrously serious accident when Mitch was a toddler in New Zealand.
The Evans and Cassidy rivalry which some have tried to stoke up is a non-starter as expected but the story of the pair growing up together and ending up achieving a sumptuously synchronised 1-2 at Monaco is nicely laid out.
These are all nice additions to a chronicle that looks nice, has a solid narrative and explainers of what Formula E is and why it matters.
It’s a sound combination of explainer and entertainment, but it’s the characters and peekaboo insights that really make it glow.
