Afternoon all,


Quite surprised this hasn't cropped up already (maybe it has and I missed it).

The first race of the new Formula E series is tomorrow morning.

8:00am - 10:30am on ITV4

or highlights:
6:00pm - 7:00pm

Might be a bit tame/might be the future of motor racing.....

Ooohh, must set a reminder to watch this.

Any known racers in it?

Oh there is some very well known names, inc Truli, Senna, Legge, and few others I can't spell off the top of my head
However good the racing might be it has some (in my opinion) cheep gimmicks
i.e. the fans can vote for the favourite drivers, and the top three get an extra boost
of power for so many seconds...I kinda feel asleep at that stage of the introduction
program.
That said same cars, good drivers I am hopeful for some close descent racing!

Are all the races downhill?? (descent) After year one all cars do not have to be the same so good for one season then pants more likely.

We've been working on electrical safety equipment for the formula e teams which has obviously involved having to go to their offices at Donnington to make sure we get everything just right!
Want to see what the racing is like

quote:

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Originally posted by simonrh
We've been working on electrical safety equipment for the formula e teams which has obviously involved having to go to their offices at Donnington to make sure we get everything just right!
Want to see what the racing is like

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No, personal protective equipment and that malarkey. The control systems in it are quite special and they are beautiful pieces of engineering.

I think the "fan boost" is stupid. Supposed to be a race not big brother. And swopping cars just shows how the technology isnt ready. Some of the tracks look a bit boring-long straights with sharp corners.
I'll give it a go though!
The formula E dj (padding to bulk out a short race) and having practice, quali and the race in all one day suggests they appreciate a 45 minute race is a bit short. Then again I suspect it got them onto some roads that wouldn't have been available for a whole weekend!
The slightly annoying bit will be the fact that I suspect noone will want to lead until the last lap. Better to hang behind the leader and slipstream them and save battery power. Then again some people find tour De France interesting which is essentially the same.

Anyone watching this? It's awful.

I tried to watch it - gave up when the safety car was out. Tried again later when they were racing - got bored within 5 minutes.

When I was a kid, the Co-Op used to deliver milk in the area using an electric milk float. These cars make the same sound and I'm still not sure they are going any appreciably faster.

Just turned it on, the commentator ius quite excited how close the leaders are, but with same cars that don't really look like they are on the dynamic ragged edge not very surprising. Reminds me of fairground electric cart racing, same noise as my old tamiya rc :-)

Even the pit shots show a level of boredom. Maybe it will improve, like it or not its the future.

There's a documentary on national geographic +1 just starting, saw iton sky news and flipping through saw it on NG...

Dat crash on final corner glad to see him walk away

I take it back, horrible crash. Got my heart rate up again. Climbing out, phew.

Thought it was excellent, plenty of moves, Heidfeld was very lucky...head could have hit that armico.
....what happened to the slicks?

Heidfeld was extremely luck to get out of that with no injuries, appauling move by Prost when he relised he had left a gap and just closed the door.



[Edited on 13/9/14 by tims31]

[Edited on 13/9/14 by tims31]

Overall I thought it worked well.

* no point doing warm up lap...more like a cool down lap lol

* Safety car...again made them very slow!

* pit stops - clever to sete the lowest time possible in pit lane and the fact nick heidfield stopped a shorter time in his box and crawled out the pits leap frogging people then holding them up when exiting the pitlane...smart

It was good they went for city tracks, they dont have the batteries / top speed to make them look super quick yet so the stop start nature of street circuit works. I expect the spectacle of seeing it in person is better then on TV.

Overall for a brand new series they did a good job, the fact they spread it out over the year may be the saving grace for the series if it doesnt conflict with other motor races. I will set it up to record but wont make the effort to watch it live.

The stats were 40million people watched it world wide, id expect it to drop to 20ish mill next time when the spotlight doesnt shine so much.

[Edited on 13/9/14 by killerferret666]

[Edited on 13/9/14 by killerferret666]

Just watched a bit of it, sorry yawn

Even more boring than f1, the black circles BMW was more entertaining doing donuts in the advert.

Just glad I am living in what is probably the peak of petrol automotive technology, and it's available to us all.

I guess I'm a little slow to this one, watching it right now. I'm tempted to turn the sound off, the commentator and the whine of the engines are about as irritating as they can get.

When they mentioned pit stops I wondered what was going to happen, then the 'second car' bit registered. I agree with BenB, it's a huge black mark on the concept of electric powered racing.

I like the idea of them trying it, and they've obviously made it appealing enough to get a race series out of it, but it'll be a while before I will want to watch it again.

Now I'm just looking forward to the bump at the end...

Overall I liked it and I thought that the racing was more exciting than I thought it was going to be. They all have the same spec cars so its down to the drivers to make the difference and this resulted closer racing. Better than some F1 races have been this season with virtually no overtaking and it being obvious which team was going to win - barring crashes.

For sure its slower than F1 and the lack of noise is a bit strange, but even F1 doesn't sound right anymore. One of the drivers said that it was hard to work out when to change gear because of the lack of engine noise. Perhaps they should have headphones linked to the motors that simulate the noise of a V8 so that they know when to change .

This was the first race of a new concept. I'm sure that the technology will improve and as it does, the need for the driver to swap cars will be dropped, speeds will increase and tyres and aero performance will have to follow.