Amid the boom of Formula One and other racing sports in the United States, Formula E—a single-seater series for electric cars—is the latest to try and manufacture a Drive to Survive-style cultural moment. The recently released Amazon Prime miniseries Formula E: Driver follows the lives of four of the 22 drivers on the Formula E grid as they compete to be crowned champion.
Jake Dennis, one of the primary subjects of the new show, has been a staple in the sport for the entirety of the 2020s. Driving for Andretti, the 29-year-old Brit won the Formula E world championship during the 2022–23 season—the campaign just before the one profiled by the docuseries.
Dennis spoke to Sports Illustrated about his experience being one of the leads of the show, as well as where he hopes to see Formula E go from here. He also broke down the differences between F1 and Formula E when it comes to sustainability and the cars, while also touching on his current performance.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Sports Illustrated: What was your experience filming Formula E: Driver, especially coming off of a season where you won the world championship and you’re right at the forefront of the sport?
Jake Dennis: Generally [it was] my first proper time doing a documentary series. It was sort of a camera, every race, filming your every emotion. I felt like the series did a good job of capturing the insights of what it’s like for a driver. Obviously for me, my season sort of didn’t go as anyone wanted, especially the second half of the season where we sort of deteriorated and didn’t get the best results. But I think the storyline itself was very good. You obviously had me at the start of the year, world champion, winning some races and getting podiums. And then you had [Antonio Felix] da Costa, as the dark horse who sort of came from potentially losing his seat to then almost finishing top three in the championship. I think generally the series as a whole did a really good job of capturing all that and making the most of the insights between the four characters.
SI: One of the best moments was the tense conversation you had with Antonio after the wreck in Berlin. It’s that sort of access that captures your attention. What were you hoping that the series would show about yourself and about Formula E?
JD: I think the people who are watching it or people new to watching it, they can get the results online anywhere. They’re not really too fussed about who wins the race or anything like that. It’s really about capturing the insights and the behind the scenes. The fight between me and da Costa, the heated discussions with Jaguar are the end of the season when it didn’t go their way. I think they’re really the insights that any sort of sports documentary now is trying to capture. That’s what allows the fans to connect with us the most… I think they can only do it to a certain extent with only four episodes, with four drivers. I would obviously love to see more. I think that’s something which some of these Netflix series now are doing incredibly well. They’re a bit longer, maybe a little bit shorter of an episode. Ultimately, I think capturing the insight and the emotion of the athlete is the most important thing of these series.
SI: Where are you hoping to see Formula E coming out of this moment?
JD: I think just to build a bit more of a reputation in the public eye. These cars now are getting pretty quick. The step that we’ve made this year from last year is quite large with the four-wheel drive and stuff like that. Then, the Gen 4 car coming out in basically a year and a half is a very large step forward. It will be the second quickest single-seater car there is. It won’t be too much slower than Formula One. In that aspect, it’s going to be pretty impressive. If we can just get more eyes on Formula E, that’s the main goal here. It’s still a relatively new series in the grand scheme of things. It’s only the 11th championship year, whereas Formula One, Indycar, all of these bigger platforms have been around for a little bit longer.
SI: What is it like to be a part of something that’s so rapidly changing both when it comes to the electric car industry and a sport as new as Formula E?
JD: Just the evolution and the technologies evolving, it’s kind of hard to keep up. Every time I arrive at the racetrack, the car’s got a new software in it, but even just the whole championship itself is pushing the boundaries more and more. We’re trying to race at more locations, more exotic locations… We've obviously raced in some pretty unique and very cool places, but then also some interesting places, you could say. I just look forward to seeing where the industry goes itself. There’s a lot of talk about electric vehicles for the future, their user-friendly ability right now… [A lack of] fast-charge stations are ultimately what’s stopping people from buying electric cars now. The charge time’s a little bit too long and maybe they’re not frequent enough on the roadside at the moment. But that’s only going to improve. We have fast charging in Formula E this year, which I think it’s like a 10% charge in 30 seconds and that’s ultimately preparing the manufacturer to be able to put this into a road car at the end of the day, which is pretty exciting.
SI: You’ve spent a number of years as a development driver in F1 with Red Bull. How do you see F1 and Formula E in conjunction with one another?
JD: I think right now, both championships are pretty safe in terms of their desires. Formula One is obviously trying to become more sustainable, but it is a long way off to the level that Formula E is at. Obviously there’s new regulations coming out next in 2026 for Formula One, which is going to be a big change, bringing in the battery side of it. It’s not fully electric, it’s still got an engine in the back of it… I think it’ll be more when my career ends to be honest. I would imagine the next 10 years, they’ll both be pretty different still. But I would love to see maybe when I’m 60 years old, see where Formula One is alongside Formula E. I think they’ll be pretty close between each other not just in time but more in where their goals and desires are in the community and what the FIA wants to do with the two series.
SI: What do you see as the major difference in the skill sets between the two cars?
JD: I would say really the difference for a Formula E car is what you would do in qualifying basically to what you do in a race. In qualifying, you drive it like anything, try and drive as fast as you possibly can, break as late as you can, push the car to the absolute limit. This is what we’ve done our whole career and you grow up knowing what to do. But then it’s really the race aspect side where you’re trying to do this energy management and with all these different techniques, all these switch changes during a lap, all these cryptic codes you have to read to your engineer. There’s a lot more communication with your engineer… And then just energy management, you’re not always driving flat out. You’re very much driving to little beeps in your ears telling you when to lift and how to basically be the most efficient from point A to B. Anyone can burn off into the distance for 30 laps, but then if the race is 31 laps, you’re not going to have enough energy to finish. It’s like a marathon not a sprint.
SI: This season you’ve taken a little bit of a downswing coming off of that world championship during the 2022–23 season. What do you and Andretti need to climb back up the ladders and challenge for podiums and wins?
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Jake Dennis Q&A: Formula E World Champion Talks Miniseries Fame, Sport’s Growth.
