FIA Formula E Championship 2014-15

[jondownunder]

Originally Posted by JoestForEver

There were checkpoints outside of the Olympics Park, outside the whole paddock area, outside the pit garage, and outside the Emotion Formula E club. If you want to have a close look at the cars and talk to drivers, arrive on Friday and borrow a "Service/Media" jacket and a Crew permit from some volunteers of your acquaintance. That worked for me.

Sounds like the same unnecessary levels of security as at the second Donington test I attended. There was really no need to keep the relatively small crowd out of the paddock. As I'll only attend meetings if I'm guaranteed the chance of getting close to the drivers, I'll probably skip the London round.

[Rob29]

Originally Posted by jondownunder

Sounds like the same unnecessary levels of security as at the second Donington test I attended. There was really no need to keep the relatively small crowd out of the paddock. As I'll only attend meetings if I'm guaranteed the chance of getting close to the drivers, I'll probably skip the London round.

Hope this was chinese excess securuty ? Glad I missed the last Donington test-was planing to go and had ordered ticket-was unable to get any info-so did not go-apparently spectators were only allowed in the padock for half hour lunch break Hoping to go to London round Battersea Park is place I remember from my childhood-went there by tram about 1948.

[Moneyseeker]

Originally Posted by Rob29

Hope this was chinese excess securuty ? Glad I missed the last Donington test-was planing to go and had ordered ticket-was unable to get any info-so did not go-apparently spectators were only allowed in the padock for half hour lunch break Hoping to go to London round Battersea Park is place I remember from my childhood-went there by tram about 1948.

It looks like it's going to be at Excel. FE announced Battersea Park as their desired location before they had fully explored with Wandsworth council - apparently....

[Gingers4Justice]

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. The sound will forever be a bugbear for me - whether totally silent motorsport will ever catch on, I don't know, but the series itself offers something different. My uni housemate came to stay and the race held her attention - not bad for someone with ADHD and complete ignorance to stuff she's not interested in.

A massive plus for me was how distinctive the liveries were - so much better than the grey/white/black/silver obsession in F1, or the white in LMP1. The chassis themselves look cool as well.

The cars are profoundly unspectacular in terms of speed, but I hope the series stays around long enough for us to see a rapid development race. If it does, we'll see year-on-year lap time games of huge proportions, the like of which top class motorsport hasn't seen since the rapid development of downforce from the mid-60s through the 70s. Before you know it, we'll already be laughing at how simple the current machinery is...

I can't understand why "purists" wouldn't find the series fascinating, at least on that level.

[ivanalesi]

Originally Posted by JohnD

"Pitstop times were missing"

The commentators said that "in the interest of safety" pitstops were set at 50 seconds, with the car being held (in the outlane?) if released before that. So no point in ultrafast car changes, although that didn't stop Bird jumping and running, and no point in posting the times.

JOhn

Yes, but Prost's pitstop was right on time, Heidfeld gained several positions and both Abt guys lost. In fact I think Prost's pitstop was 3 seconds faster than the next best.
If I remember correctly the time you have to get out of the cockpit in case of emergency is 8 seconds, so getting out isn't a problem, but getting in the car is a whole other story because you have to do the harnesses and the radio cable. Then di Grassi explained the procedure to start up isn't exactly go go go, so you have to do some things on the steering wheel and then you have to go. It's not so easy and of course things can go wrong.
They have 1 month to fix these issues to the next race, it can't be perfect from the first race.

[Go_For_Pole]

They have to do something for the warm up lap, the sight of cars crawling was off putting. Other than that the race was fun enough.

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

In fairness, the drivers would want to save their energy for the race!!! But yes, the organisers should've seen that coming...

[fourWheelDrift]

Originally Posted by Biscuits In A Red Bull

In fairness, the drivers would want to save their energy for the race!!! But yes, the organisers should've seen that coming...

They did, they had to drive to a maximum delta, can't help feeling they might have got their numbers wrong though

[Go_For_Pole]

Well, that's easy then, decrease the delta :-) Honestly overall things went much better considering everything was so new. Will Buxton makes a good point reminding that first GP2 race. And that was with conventional technology.

[Tucky]

For those of you that watched it on ITV, did anyone actually enjoy the pre-amble? I found it so cringey I would have skipped it if it wasn't the first race.

F e have got a number of things that need to be looked at for the future but for such an innovative idea I thought it went pretty well. Still not sure if it will last more than a few years though...

[p-matt]

The preamble was poor. Jenny Gow did a decent job but the studio guests totally lacked charisma, and Jann made a few mistakes too. Nicki Shields was very vapid and annoying. Shame we didn't see more of Marc Priestly who spoke very well as always.

[AndyS]

Sat down and watched the ITV coverage, rather than waffle I'll try and put my thoughts in brief points.

Initial Idea - Wasn't really taken with it but was willing to be open minded about it.

The Car - Looks great, particularly the Virgin one in Chrome. They move about and you could really see the drivers working at the wheel.

The Noise - Didn't bother me as much as I thought it would. Sound of the current F1 cars bothers me much more.

The Drivers - Pretty impressive line up for a start up series.

The Track - Looked awful when announced but it was wide enough to encourage racing and no oceans of FIA Grade 1 track run off.

The Racing - Plenty of it and it was pretty exciting to watch. The track actually suited these cars down to the ground.

The Car Change - Not sure about this and whether it looks a bit daft. The tech is new though and battery life limited so no choice really.

Extra Boost Fan Vote - I really don't like this idea and don't see the need for it. Maybe I'm starting to show my age and I'm too 20th century!

The Crash - Ouch that was a big one, but great to see a race going down to the last corner. Only one person to blame for me & those curbs need looking it.

Will I watch Again - Yes, although it just isn't the same as the motorsport I know and love but things move on and maybe we have to accept that.

Has it Got a Future - Time will tell, maybe not in this form but this could well be the forerunner to the future. 100 years ago most people still went about on horse back or in carriages and probably disliked those pesky internal combustion engines. Are we now at a similar point and we are seeing the future? Maybe or maybe not but the next 20 years will be interesting. I'll miss my internal combustion engines though.

[chillibowl]

that about sums it up perfectly for me although at this point im still really intrigued by the fan boost concept. need to see it in effect first which i dont think really happened this race.

the intriguing part for me is that the fans have some small measure of ability to make up for what they perceive as injustice or bad luck. will we see if Heidfeld wins its for next race or will it just be won by the most popular driver?

for any long tern success though, imo, they really need to figure out a way around the concept of two cars. while some drivers seemed to make better use of the time and made up time which in and of itself adds another dimension, i found it overall very confusing.

no timing and lack of cameras in the garages threw me for a loop. obviously it is new though and the coverage has a ways to go. i need a timer and some split screen action.

also a two month break til the next race is far too long.

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

Montagny just has to get my vote, and I hate the idea of fan boost!

[chillibowl]

Originally Posted by Biscuits In A Red Bull

Montagny just has to get my vote, and I hate the idea of fan boost!

he was hilarious in the post race interview.

[GT6]

Well I watched it on ITV4 but few things imho to shout about, yes the crash was spectacular but it was fortunate that a serious or even fatal injury was not the result, the lack of noise was not a plus but the crowd never seemed to get excited so perhaps it has more effect on those present. The presence of more colourful characters like montagny did help so perhaps a few more old timers rather than freshers would help

[Derwent Motorsp]

Totally boring to watch. I then watched Goodwood all weekend. Great cars, different shapes and types in each race and lots of passing in every race.
Won't bother with Formula E again.

[JimW]

I thought that the crowd in the startline grandstand were excited and very noisy about their support.

Jim

[NaBUru38]

Formula E cars need much more power, like 400-500 hp. That would require more batteries, but that adds weight.

Instead, Formula E should adopt a rallycross-style schedule with several 6-8 lap races:

o- Three heat races with 6-7 cars each. Top 2 advance to the final.
o- Two LCQ races with 7 cars each. Top 2 advance to the final.
o- Final race with 10 cars.

[ivanalesi]

I saw the battery pack... it's freaking huge. Next season with car manufacturers will be very, very exciting. Obviously this technology has many areas where improvement is needed.
Renault, Audi, Honda, BMW etc...

[Go_For_Pole]

Obviously in a few years we will laugh with the size of those batteries just as we did with the first mobile phones. Really when the series will open their technical rules it will skyrocket.

[BillWiskins]

Watched on ITV4 as well. Way too early to just write it off, obviously, so I'll watch again but I certainly felt a bit underwhelmed. I didn't hear a word on the subject of the 'fan boost' for the race (ITV4 highlights show, so maybe it was missed) and the pit stops were just silly. Aside from the relatively low speed of the cars, that's what damages Formula E as a platform for electric vehicles, for me. What happens after this season will be much more interesting, but for now, Formula E informs me that electric cars are slow and won't get far before you need to jump out.

I look forward to the development of the series. I keep thinking 'too soon' - another year or two will inevitably bring smaller, better batteries etc. - but that will always be true. This series or one like it was bound to happen eventually, better that it gets going now and we can watch it improve (hopefully) than it never happens at all because the technology isn't 'good enough' yet.

[bella]

Originally Posted by BillWiskins

Watched on ITV4 as well. Way too early to just write it off, obviously, so I'll watch again but I certainly felt a bit underwhelmed. I didn't hear a word on the subject of the 'fan boost' for the race (ITV4 highlights show, so maybe it was missed) and the pit stops were just silly. Aside from the relatively low speed of the cars, that's what damages Formula E as a platform for electric vehicles, for me. What happens after this season will be much more interesting, but for now, Formula E informs me that electric cars are slow and won't get far before you need to jump out.

I look forward to the development of the series. I keep thinking 'too soon' - another year or two will inevitably bring smaller, better batteries etc. - but that will always be true. This series or one like it was bound to happen eventually, better that it gets going now and we can watch it improve (hopefully) than it never happens at all because the technology isn't 'good enough' yet.

quality post, bill

couple of sort-of questions for you (coming from having not seen the race at all yet):

you mention the speed - how are you quantifying that? is it through seeing the numbers, or is it visual? by not racing on circuits i think it's very cleverly removing most of the usual ways of comparing speed, so i'm interested to see how you're judging it as a viewer.

i think you're absolutely right about it seeming a year or two too soon in terms of the available technology now, the pitstops do sound very silly but imo the fast pace at which it's likely to develop will actually be a great selling point for both manufacturers and the series as a whole. the "look how quickly our technology is developing" angle has an unspoken "...compared to f1 where the techno-tinkering is in aero, and what relevance does THAT have to anything?" element to it.

[ivanalesi]

If you are on track and have seen other single-seater racing, then you will probably see the difference. On TV the camera work was very good to mask this and actually make them look fast. Of course the last lap crash added danger to speed, so all is good on TV

[BillWiskins]

Originally Posted by bella

quality post, bill

couple of sort-of questions for you (coming from having not seen the race at all yet):

you mention the speed - how are you quantifying that? is it through seeing the numbers, or is it visual? by not racing on circuits i think it's very cleverly removing most of the usual ways of comparing speed, so i'm interested to see how you're judging it as a viewer.

i think you're absolutely right about it seeming a year or two too soon in terms of the available technology now, the pitstops do sound very silly but imo the fast pace at which it's likely to develop will actually be a great selling point for both manufacturers and the series as a whole. the "look how quickly our technology is developing" angle has an unspoken "...compared to f1 where the techno-tinkering is in aero, and what relevance does THAT have to anything?" element to it.

Thanks. Re: the speed thing - honestly, now that you've made me think about it, I don't know. You make a very good point about the cars being in a different setting, but with all of the walls and scenery being so close on a street course I'd have expected that to make things seem faster, not slower. I've had another look at some of the YouTube highlights and I can't put my finger on it. There's a certain level of 'impressive-ness' that should and usually does accompany seeing a vehicle designed mainly to go really, really fast doing it's thing (especially when they are taken out of their natural homes and put into the close confines of a city) and that quality just seemed a bit... lacking. I wonder if it is to do with the cars looking like they should be faster. I really like the way the cars look, and there are some very good liveries - maybe it's just that their actual pace hasn't yet caught up with their looks just yet...