Formula E Beijing *Spoilers* (Recommend watching the race)

Technically that thread belongs here, hope it gains some views. Would put it in F1-forum, but y'know...

What a fantastic race! The racing was great, close battles, some dirty moves, Safety Car-phase and an absolute idiot. Formula E delivers everything you want from a race. If you didn't watch it, I'd really recommend looking for a full race-replay, it's worth it.

That being said, Lucas di Grassi won, though either Prost or Heidfeld should have. Prost was leading the whole race masterfully just to lose it in an absolutely idiotic move. Turning into another car in the braking zone is not excusable (like some Magnussen-moves). The result was a big crash, but good to see both drivers uninjured. Heidfeld is right to be furious, he would have won if it wasn't for Prost's stupidity.
So Jean Todt has witnessed what sausage curbes can do (another one in GP3 at Spa this year: [www.youtube.com]). Time to change these into something better?

Your opinions on the race? I think, it was great, great and a bit more of great. That's what F1 would need, that close driving was really exciting. Cars don't sound bad either, I am actually surprised that they sound so good and you can hear them revving when in Onboard-view. The "EJ"-idea is great, as is hearing the crowd cheer. Looking forward to November 22nd!

I really enjoyed it. The series has potential in abundance; let's hope the more progressive aspirations of Agag help make the series a real asset to motorsports. With F1 bound by complacent arrogance, FE can pick up on big TV deals that F1 won't touch.

So, so gutted for Nick. Prost was very, very amateurish with that move; it was very dangerous to put a driver at risk like that. I know where my FanBoost vote is going.

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GPGSL: S6 - TafuroGP Tester (14th) /// S7 - ART Tester (6th) /// S8 - Demon Driver (13th) /// S9 - Demon/Snake Driver (13th) /// S10 - Snake Driver (???) ///]
"My ambition is handicapped by laziness" - Charles Bukowski

Sadly that "Big TV deals". In Germany Formula E is only available over Sky. Pay-TV ftw? Nope, I watched ITV4-stream and will continue to do so. But I don't think every racing fan is gonna do so, FE would be better off asking RTL or another Free-TV-station.

Tbh I hope that Prost gets a penalty for that move. Even if he dominated the weekend (day), that move destroyed everything for him. Poor Nick will get many sympathy, though he will not be able to buy himself anything through that (except for next race, that's most likely a fan boost for him, none for Prost). Frightening to see a car lift off like that in such a sudden moment. No one could expect something like that happen (I thought Heidfeld was too far away to attack), and then BAM and the car was upside-down. Shocking to see really, hearing the crowd didn't help at that particular moment. Thankfully it looks like the car is designed to hold together at way higher speeds than its top-speed, so most crashes shouldn't result in injury.

That was pretty good - for the most part, Formula E are doing things right

I was surprised how much overtaking was there with the attrocious track design, and even more so that Nick was uninjured!

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GPGSL -
GPGSL-3 - Pizza Party Racing manager and driver
Nations Cup - Team Scotland manager

If this is the level the tracks are going to be at it won't make a second season. I love the odd street circuit but a season full of them - if this is the standard of most - won't be tolerable.

Somewhat ironically, the one type of track this would suit perfectly is a club racing circuit - something like Falkenberg or Cadwell, but they're trying to promote it, so won't go to the pesky little tracks the cars need to succeed.

The cars themselves are slow, which isn't too bad given the poor brakes (good, and I wish F1 cars had worse brakes) and the rock hard tyres, but they were struggling to get over 100mph, and different tracks will expose it horribly, and they'll not keep the imagination of the public.

Oh and that @#$%& beat from the "ejay" in the background. You can @#$%& right off with that right now. And take the fan boost bollocks with you too.

It's doomed to a spectacular failure without a serious rethink.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/13/2014 03:53PM by gav.

gav Wrote:
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> If this is the level the tracks are going to be at
> it won't make a second season. I love the odd
> street circuit but a season full of them - if this
> is the standard of most - won't be tolerable.
>
> Somewhat ironically, the one type of track this
> would suit perfectly is a club racing circuit -
> something like Falkenberg or Cadwell, but they're
> trying to promote it, so won't go to the pesky
> little tracks the cars need to succeed.
>
> The cars themselves are slow, which isn't too bad
> given the poor brakes (good, and I wish F1 cars
> had worse brakes) and the rock hard tyres, but
> they were struggling to get over 100mph, and
> different tracks will expose it horribly, and
> they'll not keep the imagination of the public.
>
> Oh and that @#$%& beat from the "ejay" in the
> background. You can @#$%& right off with that
> right now. And take the fan boost bollocks with
> you too.
>
> It's doomed to a spectacular failure without a
> serious rethink.

I don't mind the street circuit policy; in fact, it makes the series more fan-accessible by "bringing the race to the people".

Why does it matter how fast the cars are now? They're single-seater electric cars in their infancy; they'll get quicker as the series grows. The automotive sector need Formula E to push the technology to allow electric power to become a viable alternative to fossil fuels, so expect the envelope to be pushed and the battery capacities to grow.

The EJ thing wasn't like, an amazing idea, but I'm sure FE will take feedback on that front and perhaps try something else. Again, the FanBoost is to make it more accessible to fans, although it didn't exactly have a spectacular effect anyway.

Franck Montagny showed the racing could be amazing. In a few seasons' time, Formula E can be massive. They're already collecting good TV deals, and if they exploit the sectors of the media F1 won't touch, then it can become a competitor.

I rather think you're missing the point, Gav. The series is supposed to be different; if it just settles into obscurity by trundling around the same circuits as other single-seater categories then you're right, it would die off quickly. However, it brings an air of a "circus" about it; it travels from city to city, bringing the event to the masses. There's no point in settling for mediocrity and going to little club circuits, because then a) the infrastructure's not there and b) the fans would be far too far away from the action. You have to be aspirational with this sort of thing; you don't generate publicity with steady, conservative measures.

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GPGSL: S6 - TafuroGP Tester (14th) /// S7 - ART Tester (6th) /// S8 - Demon Driver (13th) /// S9 - Demon/Snake Driver (13th) /// S10 - Snake Driver (???) ///]
"My ambition is handicapped by laziness" - Charles Bukowski

Jake's right. I'm not all-out against street circuits but the layouts seen in this series are mostly bad examples.

About TV coverage - in the UK, at least, they've done it right: Formula E is AFAIK the only international racing series with live, free-to-air coverage in the UK for all rounds (it is, however, a tragedy that it's the only one!). Free-to-air makes it accessible - I wouldn't have given a damn about this series if it was behind a paywall over here. Similar reason why BTCC's so popular - Bernie, do you hear me?!

The music was crap but at least it was very quiet on my TV!

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GPGSL -
GPGSL-3 - Pizza Party Racing manager and driver
Nations Cup - Team Scotland manager

I was going to create this thread but you beat me to it!

I actually enjoyed the race a lot. Close action and lots of fighting. The cars sound awesome! (Obviously not comparing to your regular race car, but you get me).

Low point is the annoying beat they play in the background. I thought at first it was the local feed but as I read here, it was the world feed. Really irritating, the cars aren't exactly silent, you know. I know there's no VROOM VROOM, more rather like a WIIII WIIII but still, people want to hear it. Also the plain idiotic last lap crash. It was made more dramatic by the even more stupid kerb, but still Nico Prost deserves a penalty, no excuses. He apologised though, which makes me less angry.

I'll be looking forward to Putrajaya and hopefully be there in Punta del Este! I'll be sure to share everything here if I make it there.



Stats: 139 Starts / 7 Wins / 9 Poles / 5 Fastest laps

Quote
Carlitox
I'll be looking forward to Putrajaya and hopefully be there in Punta del Este! I'll be sure to share everything here if I make it there.

I had to search for both of those places as, even though my geography is decent, I'd never heard of them. I fully expect total and utter carnage in Uruguay.... it's in the Maldonado region. :D

Carlitox schrieb:
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> I was going to create this thread but you beat me
> to it!

Well, I only created that thread AFTER the race was over :D

Next time I'm gonna create that thread on Thursday / Friday, F1-style, y'know, just to beat you again. Series is definitely worth it.

So I'm the only one who likes the "EJ"-thingy? I can't say that I heard anything while the race was green, or was that just me? Because that's something I found really good. When the cars are going fast, they are loud enough so there is the audio going on. But when they aren't racing (formation lap in particular) you wouldn't hear those cars, making the whole broadcast kinda silent except for the commentators. That's why the background-beat makes sence (atleast to me). It has to stay in the background though but (again from my point of view) that wasn't an issue.
Btw, mentioning formation lap. Never saw cars going THAT slow during a formation lap. Didn't know what to think about that though, it was clear they'd do it for energy-saving (wanted to write fuel-saving but that doesn't fit here...). Still I couldn't help but deride it.

Rumors are Prost is getting 10 place grid penalty for that manouvre. Couldn't find official news but it's told by several sites. For me that's too lax. You can't just make a defense move and go to the inside 1. under braking (which I think it is, if not it was very close before the braking point) 2. if you don't see the driver you are defending from. However I oppose quite a few comments on "Prost did that on purpose", "He needs to get banned for the whole season", "He wanted to let Heidfeld crash" etc. Prost didn't know that Heidfeld was already beside him, because he had checked solely the wrong mirror. It's not an excuse for 2. , still that crash didn't happen because Prost wanted to crash Heidfeld. Bad driving yes, intention no.

gav Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I had to search for both of those places as, even
> though my geography is decent, I'd never heard of
> them. I fully expect total and utter carnage in
> Uruguay.... it's in the Maldonado region. :D


Hahahaha I expected that! But you might be even more right than you think, the track is almost the same used by TC2000 some years ago, and if you thought Macao was narrow, look at this!






Stats: 139 Starts / 7 Wins / 9 Poles / 5 Fastest laps

I don't know if it's because I only watched the ITV4 highlights which seemed poorly edited but nothing excited me about this Formula-E.

The track design lacks imagination and seems to be a bit 'put in as many chicanes as you can'.

The quality of the entrants and drivers is mainly pretty impressive, but I don't like the cars themselves. The fact that it's electric doesn't bother me, I accept that technology moves on a different concepts develop but nothing excited me about this.

It could be down to ineffective coverage, like I said the ITV4 Highlights left much to be desired and perhaps better coverage would have shown it in a better light.

The switching to a 2nd car because the battery life is too short for the race distance was baffling. That's not so much strategy but who can do up seat belts faster. Why not simply have two shorter sprint races instead?

And this fan vote for giving drivers extra boost, now that's naff and a hundred times more ridiculous than F1's 'Abu Double'.

I might watch the next race if I can be bothered.. but for me it's definitely missing something.

So Formula E apparently got some Swiss politician to think about hosting an ePrix in the future. Agag must be very happy right now because getting Swiss to even consider running a motorsport event is a huge success.
In other news somebody apparently didn't watch the Formula E-race but a F1-race? Kinda funny to say that the ePrix was boring and the cars were "creep[ing] around the track one after the other". Might have to mention some of the less exciting races of F1 this year and maybe the last years.
[motorsportstalk.nbcsports.com]
On the other hand yes, this only was one race. Formula E has to prove that they can show exciting racing every time. No, it's not about the two leading drivers crashing the last corner, although that may or may not have been the best thing that could happen to the series.

Jim, I thought exactly the same about the track design. I really hope that these will get better because it was all about chicanes. However the youtube-vid above looks promising. Hope I'm not wrong.
About that pitstops: I think in late 2nd or 3rd season we might see pitstops becoming mandatory and happening without the car changes. Currently technology is only so far. Also there is a minimum time limit on the stops so safety isn't compromised.
Won't defend the Fan Boost now, just saying it's for 5 seconds in one race. So the driver can overtake one person in normal conditions at most. It might be race-deciding but only if the driver who got that fan boost has the pace to driver for the win.