Formula E has achieved a remarkable amount in its 12-year history. Yet at the same time, it has often had a rapid-reflex aptitude for self-sabotage.

Prior instances have come via multiple fragmented calendars and one-and-done races; bizarre marketing campaigns (remember the car being thrown out of a plane?); and weird team takeovers – see last year’s Maserati MSG fiasco.

But one thing that it has usually been able to depend upon is its sheer quality of drivers and a unity over the need for progressive growth.

Remarkably, the incendiary letter signed by all 20 drivers that The Race exposed yesterday is not the first time a trade union-style flashpoint has occurred in Formula E.

Punta del Este in March 2018 is now a long-forgotten controversy, but drivers at the time were considering some ‘industrial action’. What that actually meant was potentially sitting out a practice session, but it never came to pass.

The hot topic at that time was that teams were shortcutting belt applications on drivers when they were changing cars. Weird tie-wrap mechanisms were used after the minimum pitstop time was removed after the previous Mexico City E-Prix, and drivers rightly felt that this was jeopardising their safety.

Paddock legend has it that a driver - actually one of the 10 champions in the series’ history - directly phoned then FIA president Jean Todt from the Uruguayan venue. It is said that Todt took the call but terminated it within 60 seconds, signing off with a universally forthright two-syllabled phrase that made it clear he had neither the time nor the patience for the call to continue.

Nine years on, Jeff Dodds, Formula E’s hardworking CEO, and his team are busy getting ready for the European leg of the world championship, the Gen4 car is being universally praised in early testing, Opel is about to join as a new brand and the final season of Gen3 is brewing into another classic title fight with multiple contenders. All should be well with the electric world.

Add into that lucky dip of positivity a messy start to Formula 1’s new electrically advanced era, as its latest cars split opinion not just among millions of fans but also its most talented drivers, then a fertile ground to grow upon spreads out in front of Dodds and Formula E.

Like a giant plug socket waiting to be switched on, they should have a collective hand ready to push it in and switch it all on.

And then that letter drops through the letterbox of Mohammed Ben Sulayem, and so Formula E’s domestic affairs become the biggest talking point of the season by far.

You can see why Dodds is said to be massively disappointed by the whole situation.

The Race also revealed last month that Dodds had invited Formula E’s enfant terrible (everyone’s enfant terrible) Dan Ticktum to his office in Hammersmith, London, for a chat and a biscuit.

There Dodds will have reminded the Cupra Kiro driver that Formula E is also a brand and a product as well as a sporting series and refuge for Ticktum’s erratic career too. 

What Dodds will not have appreciated is that a few weeks on from that encounter - which came after Ticktum sounded off to The Race about championship driving standards and his perception of sub-par stewarding standards - he would have the other 19 drivers outlining their grievances directly to the most powerful man in global motorsport. 

Publicly, Formula E is distancing itself from the drivers’ letter to president Ben Sulayem, just as the teams and manufacturers – who were remarkably unaware it had been sent – are too. Dodds has not spoken publicly yet, but expect him to follow the FIA’s lead in talking it all down. 

The reality though, is that Formula E is now immersed in this furore. Whether the drivers are justified in their action or not, it just doesn’t look fantastic for the greater image of a world championship that should be highly polished by now.

The timing is pretty awful too. Post-Jarama this weekend, Formula E will go into a six-week ‘spring break’. This is not as long as some of its more recent infuriating gaps, but it is still a decent fallow period of racing, just when the rest of the motorsport world is waking up from winter slumbers. 

Kudos to Formula E as it has at least taken the decision to formally introduce the Gen4 car at the end of April, in an event that is soon to be confirmed. It will occur at a time when F1 will be in an enforced hibernation state because of the Gulf crisis, and it all comes at a vital period when it has the racing dancefloor to itself.

Let’s face the reality: F1 and Formula E are not really rivals in a competitive sense. But if Liberty Global’s ambition for it, and the FIA’s technical allowance for its tech is allowed to grow exponentially, then the Gen5 era (approximately 2030-2034) could push F1 close on speed and spectacle. Then what?

The build for that time has already started. There may still be a lot to iron out, notably the increased costs for teams that don’t make it into the black, season upon season. But their long-term future in it is assured, with now six manufacturers (Jaguar, Nissan, Stellantis, Mahindra, Porsche and Lola), eight brands (the aforementioned six plus Opel and Citroen) and four strong independent teams (Envision, Andretti, Penske and Kiro) all heading into Gen4 this winter.

Is Formula E though, through blind-siding spats like the current drivers’ letter controversy, allowing its eyes to be taken from the trajectory of the ball?

An example. A recent Bloomberg report linked Chinese EV battery and automotive manufacturer BYD, not to Formula E, but to F1 and the World Endurance Championship. Why so? 

Is it because it sees those two sporting spectacles as more attractive propositions? You’d have to say that is the most likely, including the possibility that such as BYD join something commercially interesting too. F1 batteries are free and open, as opposed to Formula E batteries, which are spec until 2030 at the very least.

Ask Porsche motorsport boss Thomas Laudenbach about a topic such as battery freedom and you will get a very interesting and very technically passionate answer on why Formula E needs to look at advancing its openness, with financial responsibility of course, sooner rather than later. 

So, the recent unease between drivers and officials can be viewed as a mere domestic affair perhaps. And it is likely to be resolved amid something approaching an amicable settlement this weekend at Jarama.

Frankly, it has to. Because Formula E’s occasional self-sabotaging nature simply has to be curtailed if it is to be considered as a mature sporting proposition, as it pushes on into its second decade, and seeks to become at the very least much more coordinated and aligned, at the very least between its competitors and the race-makers.