When Alex Lynn pulled into the pits on the 24th lap of 45 in last year's final ABB FIA Formula E race in New York, hurriedly throwing off his seatbelts and leaping into his second car before returning to the circuit, his flurry of acrobatic seat-swapping became the championship's final in-race car change.

Thereafter, the mandatory mid-race pitstop phase was consigned to the history books, preceding a sea change in FE's technological formula as the visually striking Gen2 car rolled out ahead of the 2018-19 season.

The landmark move to a brand new car, coinciding with the introduction of enough battery capacity to last an entire race, underlines how far FE has come in just a handful of years.