Just watched my first Formula E race from Buenos Aires. I must say, absent noise apart, it was a great spectacle. Tough, close and fair racing, with tight battles at the front running right down to the chequered flag. Unless Bernie & Co make some substantial changes to differentiate F1, I can see E becoming the must-see championship for avid race fans within a generation.
I've watched 3 E races since it started and am afraid I was bored after 10mins each time. Lack of speed/noise makes it no threat to F1 for me.
Seen a couple of races. My initial suspicions where right. It is ****ing awful. Actually. It is worse than I expected. The ONLY reason the racing will continue is because the FIA wants to show the good it's doing to the idiot greenies of this world. This needs to end.
Agreed. I watched a few as well. I somehow had my DVR set to record every E race. I figured that out the other day and made sure to cancel it. All I kept thinking of while watching it was me driving around on my Power Wheels as a kid. Well, I also kept thinking, can't they go any faster?
I'm wondering what the E is for? Excruciating Embarrassing Emasculated Exiguous Energyless A perfect example of trying to shoehorn something that is stupidly seen as politically correct onto those who have no intrinsic interest. Perhaps they're working on the principle that if you feed people enough **** they might start liking it.
Don't get me wrong. The cars look dreadful, sound ridiculous, and are relatively slow compared to F1. However, the racing itself was excellent. Continuous close quarters stuff like Karting or Moto GP. This is what F1 currently lacks. Pressing a DRS button to pass on a straight does not constitute racing craft. I genuinely miss the close quarters rivalry of Hakkinnen and Schumacher etc. Let's hope F1 gets some that dynamic back from 2017.
F3/GP2/3 etc all are close quarters racing too, and faster than Formula E...yet never threatened F1. F1 has never really been close quarters racing. The battles we remember, we remember because it was one of those few races they actually where racing close quarters. that said, F1 does need a fix.
I am not going to add to the controversy, but have you noticed that e-races take place on temporary circuits in town? Most of them also benefit from government help in most countries. Formula E is targeting a new audience, and not trying to interest die-hard F1 fans. IMO.
I heard Eric Olthwaite has also added E to his other interests:- precipitation patterns in Yorkshire and shovels
I've seen some races on TV. Other than the lacking of noise, the lacking of speed and the lacking of exciting pit stops, it was good. In other words, nothing like Formula1..
There is close racing as in many other spec series. The concept is interesting, but I think this needs many more years of development.
Not sure what they are using for batteries, but the car's seem to get awefull slow as the race goes on. Lots of low end torque, then nothing, then later, not even the low end torque. I was the only Electric RC monster truck in a field of 2 strokes for a few years, pit stops to change batteries were a pain compared to a splash of fuel. With Lithium Polymer, the 2 strokes now have to pit 2-3 times, but I couldn't afford to switch to those at the time. The Lithium Polymer may be some sort of hazard I guess, honestly, all batteries are that I know of, we've managed to *largely* control gasoline, but batteries are a different story. If they can invent a truely green battery that doesn't come from turning places into wastelands with open pit mining, have it give consistent performance, and be safe in crashes, I might be interested. Don't drink the water for miles around places where the innards of batteries are made, trust me, I did it once unknowingly. This is what gets my goat - the "green" movement - is all about reducing CO2 for marketing, CO2 is what a plant breathes, low atmosphere C02 creates green. These electric batteries, their disposal, and mining on the other hand, make burnt out wastelands. Its all just marketing bull ****. Nothing green about it. Battery powered eletrics may be clean at the area of operation, and give off being "green", but they sure make a mess in their creation, disposal, charging, etc. This is NOT the sustainable future. A different form of energy storage, flywheels especially, are what are needed, not batteries.
I wouldn't mind them on the Montreal undercard. Plenty of recognized talent behind the wheel, therefore a good draw from the cognoscenti attending. Its as good a series as any to assess potential, I have no problem watching Heidfeld, Senna and Daly duke it out. E-racing imho, loses the plot when the bandits jump to a new horse midway. No sound is difficult enough, but two cars per race ? I'd rather them stay in the car for the entire race and watch sparks from ceiling antenna....
If anything, I find the Formula E cars better looking than the F1 cars. They haven't complicated aero, by the look of it, and the semi-enclosed wheels are something I like too. Instead of ridiculous front wings seen in F1, Formula E have simpler wings. They look better than Indy cars as well, IMO.
+1 IMO the only future fuel quite simply is hydrogen. Yes it's a hard right now to make it, but using James May's words, so was the concept of television. Best of all, we keep a decent noise out of it, too!
Formula E has great camera angles, pit and principal interviews during the race, direct fan interaction through fanboost, clear as a bell radio messages, and action. What I don't like is the high-pitch sound. I don't choose between 1 and E. I enjoy both.
The reason why they don't have complicated aero is because the series is so tightly regulated that they're not allowed to change anything on the chassis/aero side of the car - They're not even allowed to build their own chassis! And the parts teams can make themselves are so tightly regulated that they all end up making pretty much the exact same power units/drive units. There's no design innovation allowed - Despite all of the different teams involved, it's basically a one make series, hence the close racing. Frankly, the regulations concerning the cars in Formula E make F1 look like a race car designers free for all! The funny thing is, the main complaints made against F1 these days are that it's over regulated, all the cars look the same, the cars are too quiet, and (some) fans dread the idea of three car teams as they think it would be bad for the racing! The harsh reality is, if you truly want guaranteed close racing in F1 every season then the answer is simple: Make it a one make series where all of the drivers have the exact same car, with the exact same power units, and don't allow any design innovations - Just like Formula E (and many other lower race series), that way, no driver can have a car advantage or a power unit advantage to help them out, they would have to rely on their own natural skill and ability. Of course the down side to that is it would no longer really be F1 any more!
