The second season of the Amazon Prime documentary Formula E: Driver is released on Friday and does not disappoint when it comes to the melodrama of the all-electric world championship.
Shot across the entire season, with intensive access to drivers and teams, the series follows eventual 2024-25 champion, Oliver Rowland; the defending champion, Pascal Wehrlein; his team-mate, Antonio Felix da Costa, rookie, Taylor Barnard; and Formula E’s pantomime villain/hero/anti-hero/cabaret artist, Dan Ticktum.
The series was commissioned by Formula E and directed/produced by Astronaut Films. The series features expert opinion and analyses from David Coulthard, Karun Chandhok, Nikki Shields and yours truly, The Race's Sam Smith.
Bitterness defined: Wehrlein-da Costa fissure explored
The Race recently revealed details of the apoplectic fallout between Porsche pair da Costa and Wehrlein, which occurred just before the season-opening Sao Paulo E-Prix last December.
What was really said between the two has never been revealed and, despite a camera being present on the driver parade that day, no eavesdropping is caught enough to add to the situation that developed. However, there is an amusing moment when Jake Dennis makes a 'zipped lips' motion to the camera just after what is thought to have been the confrontation.
What we do know is it left both drivers raging. Wehrlein because he believed an element of disrespect had been dished out by his team-mate, and da Costa because he took offence to Wehrlein's perceived 'grassing up' of what he felt was a jokey encounter to his team.
Whatever actually transpired, it was a terminal spat that had zero chance of recovery. It set more than just a frosty tone for the season ahead.
Their story is told in several phases. Firstly, there are the dramatic encounters in Brazil. These became more intense when Wehrlein ends the race trapped upside down in his car after an accidental coming together with Nick Cassidy's Jaguar.
Then there is the fractious relationship between the pair playing out in Shanghai, where they almost collide. In Berlin a few weeks later, they actually do in one of Formula E's more ludicrous incidents: a lame misunderstanding between the pair in free practice that pitched da Costa into the wall.
Da Costa, ever forthright, says tellingly at one stage: "Sometimes I'm like, 'It's Porsche, one of the best brands in the world, just shut the hell up, deal with it and go to work'.
"Then sometimes I think, 'Look, I'm turning 34 this year, and why should I not be happy?'"
"I'm not going to lie," he adds. "There are opportunities out there to go and do this job for somebody else. I've been dwelling with my mind and with my heart. It's not easy, and it makes me even more angry that one single individual is pushing me this way. But in the end, I just want to do what I love and in a happy way."
The reality was that by this stage da Costa had already mentally checked out of Porsche, although his heroic drive to sixth place in the penultimate race at London ExCeL is deservedly covered as it was so important for Porsche sealing the teams' and manufacturers' titles.
The awkwardness between the pair of combatants is palpable, as is the response of the Porsche senior management. By some miracle the titles were achieved, which surely will stand as some kind of all-time feat considering the bitter animosity the two drivers had toward each other.
It is telling at the end of the series when Wehrlein, asked if one day he and da Costa will enjoy a "beer over a sunset in a bar somewhere", replies with a cursory "maybe". It is delivered with such apathy as to leave no doubt that this could be a long healing process.
Ticktum vs Barnard: The surprise rivalry
It's the conflict Formula E and actually many of its fans to this day didn't really know they had on their hands.
An all-British ding-dong between two of its brightest talents: Ticktum and Barnard. They even have similar haircuts!
The unlikely spat has its roots in a few on-track skirmishes but it's one in Shanghai that opened it up rather nicely. That was when Barnard was defending his position from a charging Ticktum while entering the first corner. In an extremely marginal move to defend his position, Barnard angers Ticktum significantly.
The icy blast from Ticktum intended for Barnard is dismissed by the then-McLaren driver with complete disregard for his new nemesis.
"Reckless?" Barnard replies to a rhetorical question from the producers. "Maybe, but I won't take what he [Ticktum] says in interviews too seriously.
"I'm not here to make friends, I'm here to win and that’s the way it's always been," adds Barnard, who completely befits the nonchalant, smiling, baby-faced assassin reputation he's garnered.
Ticktum meanwhile acknowledges that he himself is a driver who is "obviously more emotional than most", while then happily fanning the flames of his new rivalry by describing Barnard as that "f***ing annoying little kid" after beating him in Jakarta, the scene of Ticktum's breakthrough win a few weeks after the Shanghai incident.
If this level of flailing continues into the present season - and into the Gen4 era - we are all in for a treat between two of Formula E's most promising drivers.
Ticktum's the gift that keeps on giving
Ticktum's character has never been shy in revealing itself but often the driver, the professional, the red-in-tooth-and-claw competitor gets lost amid all the madness he is often culpable of conjuring up himself.
Formula E: Driver actually does a very good job in creating a strong collage of a personality, who is sometimes misunderstood or stereotyped a bit too much.
Of course, there are the high comedy moments, such as Ticktum driving his wonderfully ludicrous 1980s Cadillac limousine through central London, pontificating unfavourably about all the joggers going 'round and round and round' like he's a Phil Daniels geezer shooting a 21st century Parklife remake.
Then there is the post-Jakarta trip to Cupra Kiro's Silverstone headquarters, when he asks if he can keep his own winning trophy and resolves the matter by taking the decision for himself and scooting off with the swag.
It's all whimsically bonkers and amusing. But actually, much more interesting is Ticktum's 2025 journey, which starts darkly with a very underwhelming performance from him and his team in Monaco.
From that point on, the recovery arc is well-illuminated by the cameras that follow him and also his mental minder, the well-known head-fixer Gerry Convy, who as usual comes across brilliantly as the no-nonsense guru playing a part in Ticktum getting a pole position, a podium, and a win last season.
"Everyone has vulnerabilities and everyone makes mistakes," says Convy about Ticktum.
"He's never, all of a sudden, going to morph into a shiny racing driver. It's not going to happen. There's only so much you can change."
That's a good encapsulation of Ticktum and his belief in himself, although being a possible da Costa replacement at Porsche is a vivid section at the end of the series. A touch embarrassingly, he ends the encounter with a frivolous swipe at the manufacturer's decision to upgrade factory driver Nico Mueller instead of taking a chance on his own meteoric talent.
"Not pissed off at all...they seem to like Nico, which is fine," Ticktum says with a glint in his eye. "I'm better than him but it's their choice at the end of the day. If they want to go and take someone slower...fine."
Rowland's emotional odyssey
"All the stress, pressure, years of hard work just came out, and I couldn't control it. It was just pure relief."
Rowland's title season gets especially poignant and multi-layered coverage, justly. The quote above is upon his realisation of his dream to call himself a world champion. But before it there is a detailed chronicle of why it meant so much to him.
This is a nicely subtle, humanising coda to the well-worn story of an against-the-odds success, which followed the struggle Rowland faced against innumerable early-career hurdles: the emotional, early death of his father; the switch from a burning Formula 1 ambition to become a paid professional; then the lean years with Mahindra; prior to him reigniting his Formula E title chance in his second spell at Nissan. They are all laid bare.
Although the title was one of Formula E's least dramatic, in the sense of a genuine fight, the producers do a really neat job in focusing on the personal struggle of Rowland. If you didn't know Rowland's story, it is told with enough tenderness that it works simply and effectively on a human level.
The standout moments are firstly when he travels to his hometown of Penistone near Barnsley. That is where he visits his mother. There, she has kept all of her son's trophies from his junior career and when she makes it clear it was just reward for years of sacrifice and scrimping to make ends meet, you see a kind of realisation on Rowland's face that she and her late husband put so much into his career, all against significant financial odds. It's a genuinely touching and lovely moment.
"The biggest fear sometimes is that they put everything into me and nothing would come out of it," says Rowland of his parents.
Later, there is the Berlin double-header in July, when Rowland felt like he might be spiralling into an absurd capitulation after he erratically clouted Stoffel Vandoorne's Maserati in race one.
With Wehrlein gnawing 19 points from his title lead, Rowland retreats to his hotel and essentially stares into space, feeling the pressure for once during his otherwise formidable season.
But he comes through it, of course, and becomes a world champion - which prompts another reach for the tissues.
For a driver who openly relates how he suffered panic attacks immediately after his dad's untimely passing, Rowland's success takes much richer and almost visceral meaning.
"My dad would have been super proud of what I've achieved, becoming world champion," says Rowland. "All the sacrifices that he made to his life and everything was kind of worthwhile.
"It's hard for me to imagine what he would have said."
It's highly emotive stuff and Rowland, not known for displaying a heart-on-sleeve approach away from the cockpit, delivers it unflinchingly.
But in true Rowland spirit, he adds a great down-to-earth element too, which is followed by a laugh.
"But to be honest, I'm not sure if he would have even liked electric cars!"
All four episodes of Formula E: Driver are available to stream on Friday, 28 November, on Prime Video at no additional cost with a Prime membership.
