After an exciting start to the season, the MotoE is ready to return to the track this weekend for the 2024 French GP, at Le Mans. At the top of the standings we find the 2023 Champion, Mattia Casadei, followed just one point behind by Hector Garzò and the winner of the recent WorldSBK race in Assen, Nicholas Spinelli.
This weekend, in Le Mans, it will take place the 2024 MotoE French GP, the second round of the MotoGP electric category.
On the previous four occasions when the MotoE Championship was at Le Mans, we have always seen races that were decisive for the battle for the championship. In 2020, due to two crashes, both Casadei and Matteo Ferrari (Felo Gresini MotoE) were forced to abandon their dreams of winning the category title, won that year by Jordi Torres (Openbank Aspar Team) on the French track. In 2022, it was Torres himself who suffered an adverse fate when, due to a fall at the first chicane, he fractured his tibia and fibula and had to give up the title race. On the same weekend, Casadei, Torres' teammate at the time in the Pons team, won his first race in MotoE. In addition to Casadei, the other riders who won in MotoE at Le Mans were: Torres (twice), Eric Granado (LCR E-Team), Matteo Ferrari, Dominique Aegerter and Niki Tuuli. No one has so far been able to get two pole positions in France; at the moment Granado, Casadei, Torres and Ferrari are all tied at one.
The first round of the 2024 MotoE World Championship provided an exciting start to the season in Portimão, with plenty of food for thought ahead of the upcoming races on the classic Le Mans circuit. The reigning World Champion Mattia Casadei (LCR E-Team) immediately rose to the top of the standings thanks to the two podiums achieved in Portugal, but the gap to his main pursuer is only one point: Hector Garzò (Dynavolt Intact GP MotoE™) is in fact very close after the two second places obtained in Algarve.
Behind the leading duo, we find Nicholas Spinelli (Tech3 E-Racing), who won race 1 in Algarve but then crashed in the second. Spinelli arrives at Le Mans with sky-high morale after the sensational victory in WorldSBK at Assen, where he won as a rookie in the category. Among the protagonists of the French weekend, there will certainly be Eric Granado, who crashed while leading in Race 1 at Portimao and fourth in Race 2 and the two winners of last year at Le Mans: Jordi Torres and Matteo Ferrari. The Italian rider of the Gresini team was the fastest last year on the French track, obtaining pole position, circuit record and victory despite having served a long lap penalty. Casadei also achieved the same level of performance at Le Mans in 2022.
In the French weekend, three riders aim to reconfirm the good results obtained in Portugal: Kevin Zannoni (Openbank Aspar Team), who has always felt at ease on the Le Mans circuit, Lukas Tulovic (Dynavolt Intact GP MotoE™), fourth in the championship, and Oscar Gutierrez (Axxis MSi), who achieved a podium in his debut race as an official rider in MotoE. Many eyes will also be on Chaz Davies (Aruba Cloud MotoE™ Team) to see if the former Supersport champion will make progress in his apprenticeship with the Ducati V21L.
MotoE World Championship
The standings of the MotoE 2024
The teams and riders of the MotoE World Championship 2024
2024 is the second in which the MotoE World Championship is held with Ducati electric V21L. If, as far as the bike is concerned, there is no big news awaiting the new model for the 2025-2026 two-year period, on the rider front, there are several important changes. The first of all concerns the reigning world champion, Mattia Casadei, who announced the agreement with Lucio Cecchinello's LCR team. Casadei won the title with the PONS Racing team in 2023, the last year in the world championship for the Spanish team, which in addition to the MotoE, also left the Moto2 class. PONS Racing has been replaced by another Spanish team: MT Helmets – MSi, which will, therefore, participate in Moto2024, Moto3 and MotoE.
MT Helmets – MSi, for the MotoE class, takes the name of Axxis-MSI, lining up Miquel Pons and Oscar Gutierrez. Miquel Pons is a Spanish rider with already three years of experience in MotoE and winner of the Catalan GP in 2021, while Oscar Gutierrez is almost a rookie in MotoE, having raced last year with the Ducati V21L on a couple of occasions, to replace the injured Luca Salvadori.
Returning to the LCR team, Cecchinello's team line-up will be the Casadei-Granado duo: the reigning world champion and the rider who has won the most races in MotoE.
Gresini Racing has also confirmed both Matteo Ferrari and Alessio Finello for 2024, while the Aspar team has renewed its trust in Jordi Torres and has chosen as his teammate Kevin Zannoni, fresh from two podiums in the MotoE 2023 with the Sic58 Squadra Corse. For 2024, Nicholas Spinelli, the young Italian rider who won the last race of last season, has reached an agreement with the Tech3 E-Racing team. In Hervé Poncharal's team, Spinelli teams up with Alessandro Zaccone, in his second consecutive season with the French team.
In addition to the Axxis-MSI team, there are two other rookie teams in the MotoE 2024: Klint Forward Racing and Aruba Cloud MotoE. Klint Forward Racing took over the two Ducati V21L ex-RNF, thus doubling its presence in the world championship and lining up four riders in Moto2 and MotoE. Together with Maria Herrera, Andrea Mantovani, who won two races last season, is on the Forward team. In addition to the bikes and Mantovani, Forward Racing took the technical director, Ramon Forcada, winner of four MotoGP titles, as Jorge Lorenzo's crew chief from the RNF team. Instead, the Aruba Cloud team selected two rookies with electric motorbikes to ride the Ducati MotoE on track: Chaz Davies and Armando Pontone.
Among the nine teams taking part in the MotoGP electric class we also find Dynavolt Intact GP and the Sic58 Squadra Corse. The first confirmed Hector Garzò, winner of his first MotoE race last year and fourth at the end of the championship, and announced Lukas Tulovic, returning to MotoE, where he had already raced in the 2020 and 2021 seasons. The Sic58 team has confirmed Kevin Manfredi for 2024, in his third season in MotoE and fresh from two-second places in 2023, and has chosen Massimo Roccoli as the team's second rider.
These are the teams and riders of the MotoE World Championship 2024:
LCR E-Team: Mattia Casadei – Eric Granado
Felo Gresini MotoE rider: Matteo Ferrari – Alessio Finello
Openbank Aspar team: Jordi Torres – Kevin Zannoni
Tech3 E-Racing: Alessandro Zaccone – Nicholas Spinelli
Dynavolt Intact GP: Lukas Tulovic – Hector Garzò
Ongetta Sic58 Squadra Corse: Kevin Manfredi – Massimo Roccoli
Axxis – MSi: Miquel Pons – Oscar Gutierrez
Klint Forward Racing: Andrea Mantovani – Maria Herrera
Aruba Cloud MotoE: Chaz Davies – Armando Pontone
The weekend schedule of MotoE 2024
The weekend of MotoE kicks off on Friday at 8:30 am with FP1, before a second session, FP2 at 12:45 pm. The combined times of FP1 and FP2 decide the direct entrants to Q1 and Q2, starting at 17:05 pm.
Saturday is show time for the MotoE World Championship: it's the day of the double race.
Race 1 starts at 12:15 pm, immediately after the qualifying session of MotoGP, and is the first race of the weekend. This is followed by the qualifying session of Moto3 and Moto2 and the MotoGP Sprint race.
Race 2 follows the MotoGP Sprint Race, with the lights going out for the second race of the weekend set for 16:10. It is a double event that gives the electric world incredible visibility and ensures fans from all over the world the best of this parallel path of sustainable innovation.
MotoE World Championship 2024
The schedule of the 2024 MotoE French GP
The technical innovations of the 2024 season
For the second year, the riders of MotoE have the electric motorbike of Ducati, the V21L. For those who don't know it, the characteristics of the Ducati electric, they are: 150 HP of power, 140 Nm of torque, and 282 km/h of maximum speed. The bike weighs 225 kg, of which 110 kg is from the 18 kWh, 800 V liquid-cooled battery. The latter is contained in a carbon casing, which transforms it into the frame of the motorbike itself. On the Ducati MotoE, the rear brake is no longer mechanical but 'electric'; the braking action is achieved through electronic engine management.
The electronic controls, which include Ride by Wire, Traction Control, Slide Control, Wheelie Control and engine braking management, make riding the V21L substantially similar to riding any other Ducati racing bike.
Among the electronics innovations, we highlight the increase in the number of maps for the engine brake, which goes from three to nine, while the number of maps for Traction Control and Ride by Wire remains unchanged. Among the main electronics upgrades, we highlight the adaptive Traction Control function, which now has rear tyre wear among its parameters.
One of MotoE 2024's main innovations lies precisely in Michelin tires. The quantity of recycled and eco-sustainable materials rises further, reaching 49% at the front and 53% at the rear. The latter is characterized by a particular tread design that symbolizes Michelin's "all-sustainable" strategy and evokes the Vision Tire presented by the French company in 2017.
Last but not least, we would like to point out the Anti-Wheelie "celebration mode": at the end of the race, after having crossed the finish line, the riders of the MotoE can disengage the Wheelie Control to celebrate by doing a wheelie on the returning lap.
MotoE World Championship 2024
The calendar of MotoE 2024: 16 races and the new-entry of Portimao
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