Pure ETCR: The Startup Series With an Eye on the Future
(photo: Pure ETCR)
Pure ETCR, the first iteration of an electric touring car championship which, the FIA hopes, will grow more and more popular, has had a challenging but promising first season, as it pulls into Pau in the south of France for the final race of the season.
The planned season-closer in South Korea, as with so many races in so many championships, has had to be cancelled, but Pure ETCR’s promoters, Eurosport Events, have adapted impressively to the ever-changing nature of the sporting calendar in the COVID-19 era.
Pure ETCR is certainly an interesting concept. To anyone who recalls touring car racing being the most exciting form of racing on the planet, the idea of the format getting a reboot as an electric series is enticing. The rules package for ETCR, the umbrella formula which governs Pure ETCR, is designed to make the series perfect for product promotion, and shies away from any form of technical arms race, all the better, the organisers hope, to appeal to manufacturers who are willing and happy to race toe-to-toe on the track with rivals, but who do not welcome a DTM or nineties Super Touring-style escalation of budgets.
Pure ETCR is intended as a formula for product promotion and marketing, not an engineering showcase - something which may endear it to increasing numbers of budget-conscious brands in a world in which funds are tight.
How does it work?
Hyundai, one of the Pure ETCR manufacturers (photo: Pure ETCR)
First, there is a pool draw, to decide which of two pools the 12 drivers will go into. Each pool has an equal number of drivers from each manufacturer, for reasons related to car-sharing (see below). The Battle Rounds, between three drivers at a time, then take place, with the winners, the runners-up, and the third-place finishers of each initial Battle Round taking part in a second Battle Round against their equivalent from the other round in the pool.
On the second day, there is a qualifying-style Time Trial, followed by the Pool Final, which is between all six drivers on that side of the draw.
What obstacles did Pure ETCR have to overcome?
The problem faced by many a startup series is a lack of manufacturer interest in the launch season leading to a lack of cars. Adding the expense of building an electric touring car, and the organisers had to find a way to make a series with three teams, all of which had built only two cars, into a compelling spectacle.
They set about doing this by having car-sharing between two drivers, doubling the pool of competitors, and bringing some intriguing teamplay, as the driver out first in a car is keenly aware that he must make sure it is delivered in good condition to the next driver. In practice, this led to some relatively tame first-day two-car battles, where a driver in Pool A would pull into a convincing lead, or fall behind, then focus on bringing the car home.
The hoped-for outcome of the battles - trios or pairs of drivers, drawing by lots, going at it wheel-to-wheel in evenly-matched machines - hasn’t always materialised for the simple reason that a risk that pushes the envelope could put not only a driver, but also his teammate, in danger of missing the second day’s racing.
As one spectator said on Saturday, “imagine if Driver A in Pool A were rivalling Driver B in Pool B for the title, and were to bin it in the wall to prevent their teammate going out?” Clearly this kind of subterfuge would have been welcomed by no-one, and with the close-knit nature of the four-driver teams, it probably would have led to a driver leaving the series. Put simply, the limited resources for the 2021-model Pure ETCR make it vital that teammates - whoever they are - work for each other’s betterment. While noble, this makes for some battles that never quite hit the heights spectators might hope for in a touring car series.
The action on the second day is another matter. Time trials, as anyone who enjoyed Formula One’s brief experiment with single-driver qualifying runs in 2003 will agree, are always fun, and the six-car Pool Final is fantastically enjoyable. One of the most memorable Pool Finals was for Pool A in Copenhagen. With Mattias Ekstrom in the Cupra leading into the long corner running up to the line, Luca Filippi sent his Romeo Ferraris through a gap only just big enough for a car. It was the kind of calculated risk that drivers had, up to that point in the meeting, seemed understandably reticent to take, and it was a crowning moment in the weekend’s racing.
In its first season, Pure ETCR has featured two manufacturer-backed teams from Cupra (in association with Zengo Motorsport), and Hyundai (with operational input from Sebastien Loeb Racing). They have been joined on the grid by a full privateer entry, the Giulia by Romeo Ferraris (the long-time Alfa Romeo and Abarth specialist tuner), which entered a car which shares its styling with the Alfa of the same name. Romeo Ferraris are working with Hungarian outfit Mira.
Michela Cerruti was a racing driver of some repute in her own right, both for Romeo Ferraris, and also for teams such as Jarno Trulli’s Formula E team in the category’s inaugural season. As she said when speaking at the Copenhagen round, “Romeo Ferraris was the man finding my talent, so to say, and when I stopped racing it was natural for me to go back and take care of everything concerning racing, thanks to my experience in many championships as a race driver.”
Rodrigo Baptista in the Romeo Ferraris (r) battles Jordi Gene (photo: Pure ETCR)
Now running day-to-day matters as Director of Operations at Romeo Ferraris, the Italian exuded pride in how far they had come. This was during a year marked by the passing in July of her father, Aldo “Baronio” Cerruti, who was also a successful driver, and inspired the Pure ETCR entry as a key figure in the team.
“Today I’m really impressed to see the steps we’ve made. This is certainly the most demanding project we’ve faced so far, but we’ve shown we’re capable of [bringing] our competencies to the various projects and technical regulations. This is the apex of the company’s history so far.”
Up against two manufacturers, after, according to paddock sources, Alfa Romeo decided against going all-in on a factory operation in the first season of Pure ETCR, Romeo Ferraris has been able to stay more than competitive, thanks to the unique format of the series. This is added to the control Magelec powertrain, and Williams Advanced Engineering battery.
While the cars are engineered by the teams, there is no danger of any manufacturer streaking off into the distance. Cerruti was happy with how things had gone this season. “For sure, there are more disadvantages in being a privateer because you cannot take advantage of big resources, but as long as we can do it, we do it with our own forces.”
Getting teams on board
When launching a new racing series, there is usually a great deal of excitement from fans and early adopters, but the hardest part can be getting manufacturers on board. The mothership TCR touring car format is now globally successful, with manufacturers from all major automaking nations, and yet this season of Pure ETCR, following on from a delayed start due to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, can arguably be viewed as a kind of moving billboard for the concept.
Manufacturers will only buy into a series which fits their needs, goes the logic, and so Pure ETCR seeks to provide a platform on which any manufacturer can be successful on any given weekend, and where the cars have a family resemblance to those which people can buy.
The problem for all forms of touring car racing, as written by Neil Hudson a couple of years ago, is that the kinds of cars that sell well (or that are being released as all-electric models) are not necessarily the ones that people are buying in droves. Hence, the Hyundai Veloster, Cupra Leon, and Giulia are all ETCR racers which do not have electric road variants. The hope of series organisers is that this will change in time.
The drivers taking part
Each team has a healthy mix of youth and experience, with veteran “name” drivers being supplemented by young chargers being given, in some cases, a first opportunity with a manufacturer. Hyundai is running Frenchman Jean-Karl Vernay and veteran Brazilian Augusto Farfus (who spoke to the Motion E Podcast during the Copenhagen weekend), along with BTCC and WTCC stalwart Tom Chilton, and Corsican John Filippi (no relation to the Italian Luca).
Romeo Ferraris has been running British driver Oliver Webb, the former NIO Formula E driver Luca Filippi, young Brazilian Rodrigo Baptista, and until Copenhagen it had Stefano Colletti in the fourth car. Austrian BMW manufacturer driver Filipp Eng signed to race in Denmark and the subsequent races at the Hungaroring and Pau, and he brought his knowhow to bear quickly, with improved performance and the racecraft expected from a former DTM frontrunner.
Philipp Eng felt instantly at home at Romeo Ferraris (photo: Pure ETCR)
Eng said, of the switch to electric motorsport with his Pure ETCR outing, “it’s a different beast. It behaves very well, considering it weighs 1.8 tonnes! The power is very impressive, especially [when at the full allocation of] 500kw.” He felt it was unusual, coming from an ICE background except for some outings in tests for the BMW i.Andretti Formula E team, having such a change in the dynamics of the car between sessions.
“It’s a bit weird, because you drive around with 300kw all day, and then you drive the same car with 200 extra kw, and it’s a totally different car. It’s a different approach you need to take. [Also] you have no engine braking. You have to reset your mind a bit - in a DTM car you have to go to the limit in qualifying, but here it’s different - you arrive everywhere so quickly but have to brake earlier, and we have this special road tyre, which is very sensitive to degradation, so surface temperature is key here, and you have to keep the [tyre] temperature low.”
Cupra, the Volkswagen-owned sporting offshoot of Seat, has been fielding its Leon hatchback this season, familiar from TCR series around the world for seasons, and the chassis which was the basis for the original ETCR test car. Their drivers are former DTM and World Rallycross champion Mattias Ekstrom (who also pilots the ABT/Cupra Extreme E car), Catalan Mikel Azcona, promising Hungarian Daniel Nagy, and, returning to racing after a seven-year period in which he worked as a development driver, Jordi Gene.
The unflappable Mattias Ekstrom (photo: Pure ETCR)
Ekstrom has the demeanour of someone who doesn’t get particularly stressed out in any situation, and he seemed to be enjoying the Pure ETCR experience, perhaps especially given that he can mix circuit racing with these cars, with an indulgence of his passion for the loose stuff with Extreme E. Very few drivers have achieved what Ekstrom, whose father was also a successful rallycross driver, has achieved, moving from asphalt to mixed surfaces and still winning.
“I was part of racing - it feels a long time ago - when nobody would think of this, and the only battery cars were my radio-controlled ones,” Ekstrom said, of his current dual role in electric series with Cupra. “But this feels pretty unique and a great adventure.” Turning to the Pure ETCR car and whether its low downforce levels made it more fun to drive, he said, “it’s a beast to drive, super fast, but not really made for drifting. You need to be efficient - the tarmac, too, isn’t made for going sideways. Extreme E, obviously, is different in this respect.”
Ekstrom indicated that he still had a will to be competitive, in spite of his past achievements. “If you leave no stone unturned, you’ll have no regrets; for sure there’s some interest to win and do well. As long as I’m competitive, I’ll try and do it for as long as I can.”
Cupra suits Ekstrom’s liking for a close-knit team, too. “There are a lot of people here I have known for many years, and seeing young kids like Mikel [Azcona] growing up, giving him advice, and spending time with Jordi [Gene] - it’s great and I enjoy it a lot.”
Ekstrom’s own career highlights might surprise those who watched him dominate - at times - the DTM in the 2000s, but he has always made his own versatility a virtue. “I enjoyed lots of moments in my career - NASCAR, V8 Supercar, working with Cupra on the electric cars - and I wouldn’t trade any moment in my career, because I think the whole thing is what makes it great.”
Ekstrom’s wish for Pure ETCR, when it moves up to full FIA World Cup status next season, was concise, and shared, presumably, by the series organisers. “I would like to see Audi, BMW, and Mercedes on the grid.” If Pure ETCR can achieve luring in even one of those blue-chip manufacturers, its future may be bright. While the current format is somewhat gimmicky, and was created due to a need to make the most of a small grid, we need to look at potential when it comes to new racing series, and Pure ETCR has plenty of that.