Formula E 2014/2015 season

Do you really think 10 races a year is going to launch battery technology forward by any amount? I expect a single battery manufacturers R&D department did more testing before lunch today than FE would provide in a whole season.

And I don't think suggesting that LG Chem or Panasonic, global leaders in EV battery development, would be better placed to push battery technology than Leonardo Di Caprio is a particularly silly thing to say at all...
 
You know what, I think were being overly negative on this. This all sounds very promising:

"That’s why, next season, work will be allowed on the powertrain, the inverter, the energy regenerators and on the overall energy efficiency. Furthermore, each team will be able to ask a given constructor for its powertrain to be supplied at a fixed maximum cost, thus allowing even the smaller teams to benefit from technology that would otherwise be unattainable. As from the third season, different batteries will also be allowed, although there will still only be one chassis supplier. It’s the fifth season that will see a significant change, in that instead of the current use of two cars per race, each driver will use just one, thus requiring a doubling of battery life. It’s an ambitious target and in order to reach it, competition between these constructors and others that might participate in the future, will be vital.”
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So not just 8 teams. A team gets a Spark chassis and an FIA single spec battery, and then a choice of any one of 8 power trains. That's 7 more than I expected. Then in season 3 they will be able to buy a battery from a selection of sources too.

It's all sounding quite good for a series I thought would die. There are 5 teams on the grid this year that aren't lined up to be manufacturers, if they all become customer teams that makes the field 26 cars strong next year.
 
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I think it's mostly positive stuff coming from FE, the decisions they have made have usually been sensible and often seemingly influenced by fan opinion... This has been a refreshing change when it's compared to the likes of F1.

It has a long, long way to go though and I'm ok with this 'babysteps' approach, yes the batteries are a major stepping stone ad need a huge amount of development, perhaps it is too big a step for the first year, there could be too much potential gain and they are trying to keep the cars close. Allowing for the sale of technology and effectively customer cars should also help keep it close. Plus a lot of these teams have racing backgrounds, they already have people who are comfortable developing the powertrain, now they know the timeframe they can start putting in place faciities for battery development.
 
The one thing I really hope they change is the tyres. They are far to hard and can't cope with the torque or weight of the cars. They make driving them a bit of a lottery.
 
Skeeter said:
The one thing I really hope they change is the tyres. They are far to hard and can't cope with the torque or weight of the cars. They make driving them a bit of a lottery.
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The suspension really needs to be looked at too, far too many failures... The tyres could well be partly to blame for that also.
 
He's been the best driver on the grid from what I've seen so far.

He was always blisteringly quick when doing Red Bull tests. Though I imagine most people would have been at that time.
 
Glaucus said:
Number one rule should be open up battery development, everything else is a distance second priority.

Personally I would like to see it open, if they don't want it open that's fine, but ti restrict the one area that the sport is meant to speed up is dumb.


If they want it heavily restricted open up battery rather than drive train.
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At which point 1 team completes an exclusive deal for the supply of some bleeding edge experimental battery that can only be produced in very small numbers and wipes the floor with everyone else at every round.

How is that good for the sport?
 
I've been enjoying FE so far. Only thing I do not like is the set time in the pit lane. I'd rather it was a set time the driver and car are in the tent area, then have the pit limiter for the rest of it.
 
Skeeter said:
It is a set time?
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It is a set time from pit in to pit out. In the first race I remember drivers swapping cars asap then going slower than the limit to avoid a penalty but they held up cars who had been held longer in the box and even people still waiting to get to their pit box got held up.
 
Programs on now, and here's qualifying

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