FIA Formula E Championship

englishpremier · 14 Sep 2014 at 21:24

Wasn't impressed with anything I saw other than Heidfeld getting some air.

What the hell is the point of the warm up lap? They cruised round at like 20mph.

Will give it a few races and see if the show improves, it just looked so slow.

b|gf|sh · 14 Sep 2014 at 22:24

Got round to watching the race on itv player this afternoon, few thoughts:

- Ridiculously slow warm-up lap, they need to sort that out.
- Car change instead of pit-stop, but what's the point if they have a minimum set time they're allowed to do it in, defeats the point a bit...
- Skinny street track races with fairly wide cars, and tight 90 degree corners, gonna get loads of overtaking with that approach :confused:

- Seriously what's with the DJ? Playing dodgy dubstep/breaks during the build up and safety car, just no...

Just as well Moto3/Moto2/MotoGP was on this morning too, proper racing :cool:

Skeeter · 14 Sep 2014 at 22:49

The warm up lap is slow enough to be surplus to requirements.

They have a minimum time for the car swap to ensure safety. Its the same in all series that have driver swaps.

Glaucus · 15 Sep 2014 at 02:38

Andretti certainly thinks the technology will mature fast.

Right now, we are going to be going about 25 to 30 minutes with the battery at 130 to 140 miles and hour. Five years from now, we'll probably be going 200 miles an hour with a battery that is half the weight that goes two or three times farther. That is what competition does."

Will be interesting what the first race next season brings and if we see this 30%+ better batteries, some teams have said.

Skeeter · 15 Sep 2014 at 07:51

Shame he is way out on his statement of how things are now. They are doing about 80mph for 25 minutes at the moment.

Indy500 · 15 Sep 2014 at 16:23

Skeeter said:
Shame he is way out on his statement of how things are now. They are doing about 80mph for 25 minutes at the moment.

I assume he means top speeds, but why wouldn't he talk it up? The same was said about hybrid engines in F1, regardless of the fact they were slower (at least to begin with).

iamdjdz · 15 Sep 2014 at 17:51

To be fair some of the racing was actually pretty good, I think the track layout wasn't that exciting so limited the viewing fun.. other layouts look better. The noise is so annoying though! Overall I enjoyed it bit probably won't watch all the races live..

Skeeter · 15 Sep 2014 at 18:35

Indy500 said:
I assume he means top speeds, but why wouldn't he talk it up? The same was said about hybrid engines in F1, regardless of the fact they were slower (at least to begin with).

But they couldn't pull full speed for 25 minutes either. It supports my observation that all the dialogue is very forced, and you wonder how long it can go on for before the technology catches up, or people get bored of forced smiles and jump ship.

A season of boring races might kill the series before it gets to show its full potential, which would be a genuine shame. The problem is there are some very specific issues that if solved, would do wonders for the series. But the problem is I think it's too late to make the changes this year.

kaiowas · 15 Sep 2014 at 19:45

Like every other attempt to get a high level single seater series off the ground in recent years this will be dead in a few years time. The reason will have nothing to do with the format, the drivetrain or the venues, it'll be because single seater racing is inherently dull when you're honest about it. Formula 1 continues to succeed because to many casual fans it *is* Motorsport. They watch it because they've always watched it, it's engrained in the sporting landscape. Without the history, this will never gain sufficient mainstream appeal to support itself and will follow much the same arc as A1GP.

Skeeter · 15 Sep 2014 at 20:08

And Formula Masters and Formula 2.

There is a lot wrong with how they have structured the formula, being a single seater series is part of it.

Alibaba99 · 15 Sep 2014 at 21:05

Skeeter said:
The warm up lap is slow enough to be surplus to requirements.

They have a minimum time for the car swap to ensure safety. Its the same in all series that have driver swaps.

Really? There is a minimum time for Le Mans, WEC, ALMS, Blancpain?

Skeeter · 15 Sep 2014 at 21:31

Yes, they are enforced through the other regulations. For WEC its the refueling regulations, and in top flight GT racing its by the number of people allowed to work on the car. For lower level GT racing like British GT it can be a minimum stop time.

In all series with driver swaps the pit rules are formed in such a way that a normal pit stop will always take long enough to ensure a safe driver change. With FE they do nothing except change drivers, so the only option is to use a time limit.

Indy500 · 16 Sep 2014 at 16:34

Skeeter said:
And Formula Masters and Formula 2.

There is a lot wrong with how they have structured the formula, being a single seater series is part of it.

At least Superleague Formula sounded good

Skeeter · 16 Sep 2014 at 18:20

Oh yeah I forgot that "gem".

ShakenNstirred · 16 Sep 2014 at 19:57

changing cars because they cant do the full race in 1 is silly and really shows the technology just isn't there yet, just like in road cars it only any use if you only drive in city's and very short trips

Skeeter · 8 Oct 2014 at 16:54

Hmmmm.....

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/116124

Mini Macau? How about no.

Varsh · 8 Oct 2014 at 17:32

It reminds me a little of Castle Combe.

At least this track isn't just a straight line unlike China...

Skeeter · 8 Oct 2014 at 17:44

Castle Combe is a great track. Battersea Park on the other hand...

Varsh · 9 Oct 2014 at 11:01

HAve they laid out the plans for Battersea yet?

kaiowas · 9 Oct 2014 at 13:28

Saw something the other day suggesting that they'll be running some half-baked cut down version of the Monaco track too.