Formula One vs Formula E vs WEC

I love motorsport above all other sports. I have been watching Formula One and British touring cars since the early nineties, and used to view it as a matter of pride to stay up for as many of Le Mans' 24 hours as I could (I'm old now - I now choose to enjoy it over the course of a week). In recent years I've also started following many of the junior single seater series, to the extent that there are now drivers where I've followed their careers up to the top tiers of motorsport. For me there are three racing series that are above and beyond all others - Formula One, Formula E and the World Endurance Championship. But which is best? To decide, I have created an arbitrary series of scoring criteria and an arbitrary scoring system, which I shall list out below...

Which has the best Marques/Teams (otherwise known as the 'does it have Ferrari' criteria)?

F1 - 3 points

Formula One - through sheer brand power - attracts the best manufacturers and brands in motorsport. Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes, Aston Martin, and this year Audi, they're all there. Bosh done move on.

FE - 1 point

There have been some big manufacturers in Formula E over the years, with McLaren, Audi, Maserati and BMW on the grid. This season, although there are some recognisable names on the grid (Andretti, Penske and Lola for example) the only top tier manufacturers still running are Porsche and Jaguar. The barriers to entry seem to be fairly low with new brands joining all the time, so I think they just need to make participation more attractive to the big manufacturers to stick around.

WEC - 3 points

To be honest when I started answering this question I thought F1 would be the clear winner here, however all the manufacturers I listed in F1 (Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes, Aston Martin) are all on the grid in WEC. Add to that Porsche and BMW, and then add classic endurance marques Peugeot and Toyota, and then add add in a dozen others as well, and its just everything you could want. With multi-class racing the grid is huge, and the roster matches that.

Which has the best drivers?

F1 - 3 points

All the drivers in F1 are at the pinnacle of their sport and their motorsport careers. Verstappen, Hamilton, Leclerc, Norris, Piastri - you feel like each and every one of them would be a superstar in any other series. But they're not in any other series. They're in F1. As is Lance Stroll.

FE - 2 points

There are some fantastic drivers in Formula E. There are drivers like Felipe Drugovich and Zane Maloney who in another life could be in F1, and drivers like Pascal Wherlein, Nick de Vries and Lucas di Grassi who used to be in F1. To be honest though, aside from Antionio Felix da Costa (the best driver to not make it to F1 in the past 20 years, fight me) there isn't anyone on the grid who has that real star quality about them. Its not a young series any more (even though it is compared to the other two), but it just has the feel of a grid made up of drivers who can't get into/couldn't stay in a bigger series.

WEC - 1 point

WEC has the same problem as Formula E, in that you get the feeling that any name on the grid would happily trade their drive for an F1 seat. There are big names - Seb Buemi, Kevin Magnussen and Sebastien Bourdais are drivers who have been in top drives in top series over the past 15 years - but again like Formula E WEC just lacks the superstar presence of F1. Hopefully Fernando Alonso gives it another crack when he finally gives up in Formula One

Does it race on the best tracks?

F1 - 2 points

Now we hit the first problem for Formula One - the tracks. F1 is trapped in a battle of greed versus reality, in that the petrostates of the world are all battling it out have a race, and virtually all modern additions to the calendar are street circuits. I mean I get it, you've got a beautiful city that you want to show off to the world, why bother spending tens/hundreds of millions on a dedicated race track in the middle of nowhere when you can make one on the city streets and take it all down when you're done with it? It makes sense. Its worked for Monaco for decades. But for the most part, its just so BORING. In Baku there is a literal CASTLE on the track, it should be amazing, but to incorporate it the track is a compromise, so the racing is boring. Las Vegas, for all its ceremony and decadence, is just fast cars driving fast in a straight line for long periods of time near some pretty landmarks. There are still some great tracks on the calendar - Silverstone, Interlagos, Spa, COTA - but there are just too many where you can arrive knowing its going to be dull.

Formula E - 1 point

Look I get it. The cars aren't as fast as the two series we're comparing against, so the tracks can't be quite the same. They need to be smaller and tighter to look and feel faster. For the most part though it really does make all the tracks feel a bit generic. There's Rome, Madrid, Miami, Jeddah, but really they lack personality and could just as easily be anywhere else in the world. There are a few which have a degree of personality to them (Berlin races around the old Tempelhof airport, and London runs inside and outside of the Excel Centre), but the highlight of the season is that because the cars are smaller and more nimble than F1 (more on THAT later), Monaco isn't a procession as they're all going flat out with dozens of overtakes and the race is usually banging.

WEC - 3 points

Ok so here I'm going to sound like a hypocrite, as WEC races on a lot of the same tracks as Formula One, and yet I've scored it more highly. Why? Well, WEC just seems to make use of them better. Spa for example, the WEC race in 2025 was I think the best motor race I saw last year (you can find it for yourself on YouTube if you like - more on THAT later too) whereas I can't remember one in the last five....ten? years in Formula One being a banger worthy of one of the best circuits in the world. And its not a one off either - Qatar, which is dreadful for F1 is great in WEC. Imola is usually a procession in F1, and yet WEC we get brilliant racing. They just seem to make better use of the tracks that they visit than F1 does. I just wish they'd go to Silverstone again :(

What's the racing like?

F1 - 1 point

Here is the real problem with modern F1 - the racing is crap. In the past 20 years, I think there's been a handful of years where the racing has been 'good'. And I don't say that because one driver (be that Vettel, Hamilton and then Verstappen) wins all the races, or that the driver in the fastest car always wins - its that watching the average F1 race is just boring. Take the 2025 season, arguably the best one in a while as we had three drivers in genuine contention to win the title. A story that twisted and turned throughout the season to the final decider in Abu Dhabi. The NARRATIVE of the season was fantastic, but the racing was crap. And its been crap for years. I know its cliché to say the cars are too big (they are) and its too difficult to follow (it is) and that the ruleset changes in 2026 should lead to better closer racing (it should), but the reason that sounds familiar is because this is the same thing we do every 5 or 6 years because this just keeps happening. If we're lucky 2026 will be a close competitive season with great racing, but by the end of the year the teams will have got to grips with the regulations and 2027 will be back to not being able to overtake because they can't follow closely enough, so it will have to rely on pit strategy or rain to artificially make the races interesting.

Formula E - 2 points

Formula E is interesting because its biggest weakness is also its biggest strength. A large amount of each car is spec, so the performance gaps between the teams is relatively small. Being limited to the amount of energy they can use during a race encourages drivers to sit in the slipstream and not be in the lead, as its more efficient. It should all be boring, however the comparatively lower speeds means there is a lower dependency on aero parts. In Formula One drivers wont go for a gap as if they damage their front wing, that's pretty much race over. In Formula E, it doesn't matter, so drivers are braver, bolder, and occasionally more reckless. And then there is attack mode, giving 4 wheel drive and extra power for a few minutes each race, where it all goes crazy. More often than not you don't know who is going to win until the last lap - quite the opposite of F1 where you generally know who is going to win by the first corner. To be honest, for me its perhaps too much towards the level playing field and randomness for my liking - its almost too unpredictable for me to get really invested in.

WEC - 3 points

WEC simply has everything. You want overtaking? Multi-class racing means there are two races going on at the same time, and there are thousands of overtakes happening over the course of a single race. You want strategy? There are times when something happens in a race that means a car is way down the field, but the commentators will keep reminding you that they've done it for a reason and it will play out in a few hours time. You then see it play out over the course of a couple of hours, when sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. You want competitiveness? Some tracks suit certain cars and their design philosophy, some suit others. One team will be on top one race then struggle to keep the pace in the next. And then the Aston Martin drives past a microphone and you hear the wail of its engine, and it takes you back to a simpler time when F1 cars sounded good.

How accessible is it to watch?

F1 - 1 point

Ok, controversial one, let me explain. When I say accessible, I mean how easy is it for one person who's never watched it before to stumble across a race, watch it, and get hooked. First and foremost, F1 is paywalled and therefore by definition is not accessible. And if you want to go to watch a race, you can't - the costs are astronomical and prohibitive to virtually anyone who isn't going on a corporate. But lets suppose you have access to and the ability to watch a race - do you understand whats going on? F1 has had a real problem with inconsistently applied stewarding for years now.

Do you understand why that driver got a penalty because they ran slightly off the track? Do you understand why one driver diving up the inside of another is fine, but another doing something almost the same thing is not? Quite often, even the commentators don't. And if informed and invested followers of the sport can't always tell, how can we expect kids or potential new fans to know what's going on? And if you can't understand or can't see the rules being applied fairly or consistently, you can't get invested in it

Formula E - 3 points

At times, Formula E has been an absolute basketcase in terms of rules. The first generation of cars didn't have the battery power to do a full race, so we had the spectacle of drivers literally swapping cars mid race. Then they worried they were rushing and wouldn't swap cars safely, so we had mandated minimum pitstop times, so we saw drivers in their cars in the pits waiting for the clock to tick down so they can drive out again. Then we had the reduction in energy rules if there was a safety car (if there was a safety car for 2 laps, they'd take off 2 laps worth of allowed energy from the cars), which gave us a race where almost the entire field ran out of energy on the last lap. Surprisingly, despite the fact that actually they're probably the most complicated rules of the three series we're comparing, they're executed the most effectively. I think a lot of it is down to the understanding of presentation and putting the audience at the centre of the experience. Attack mode is obvious to those watching on tv through the graphics and sound effects, and to those at the circuit they have blue or purple LEDs on the car to know what power modes they're in.

WEC - 2 points

There are so many cars in a WEC race, it can cause its own problems. Rules are generally applied fairly and consistently, but often we get the scenario where 10 cars will get a penalty for restart infringements half an hour or longer after the event actually happens. Unless you're paying attention its easy to forget and then wonder what's going on and why. And then there's Le Mans. The track is so long that if there is an accident or a breakdown in one part of the track they will often have a slow zone instead of a safety car, meaning that we have short sections where cars come barrelling in at full speed before slamming on the breaks and trundling along slowly for a bit. And whilst I'm a fan, I can't get away from the fact that its much much harder to get into a sport where the race takes 6 or 8 or 12 or 24 hours - its a big investment if you're not fully into it. The good news from an accessibility point of view is that while to watch it live the races are paywalled, they are all shown in full for free on YouTube a few days later, and the commentators are so well informed even if you don't immediately understand whats happening they explain everything in clear and easy detail.

Final Scores

F1 - 10 points

Formula E - 9 points

WEC - 12 points

This is somewhat predictable result as I its based on my opinions and it largely mirrors my view on which series is best, but in all seriousness - in 2026 if you can only pick one to watch, you'll get the best experience and the most joy from watching the World Endurance Championship over any other. Fortunately, you don't have to choose :)