I have to admit that I was a big skeptic of Formula E at the start, but without the lame car swaps half way through the new season is pretty good. The Mexico City race yesterday though had an *all-time* finish! Just watch until the end: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NoeleP_UB4
funny, I got suggested that today, decided to watch thanks to this... I might have to go look into this a bit more. I agree, removing car swaps is a big step in making me more interested in it.
Epic that cars could barely finish, and epic that a car that cut the chicane still fought for the win.... Werlien should have backed off and let Degresse pass him. Instead, we had that odd fight for the finish that wasn't real. The 5 second penalty he got was epic in terms of how it put him in the final results.
It was interesting to see all of the cars brake so early to generate some power to be even able to finish the race.
I'm still not quite there for Formula E. The ultra tight and slow chicanes that they have to put in kind of suck. The concept that they are individual maker cars when they are identical.... While it's nice to see them race that close together, that's all because they have almost no downforce, thanks to the minimal drag they have to run. It's like watching Formula V at the SCCA championship. The big difference is that they do a lot of banging off of each other, since the wheels are more covered. Which is why I think open wheel racing should stick around.
The racing some times looks like watching Grand Turismo and some of the track layouts are bad, but does have some close racing. Australian V8 series has some epic finishes as well. I wish F1 and WEC would take a closer look at what they do and adapt. The actually have similarities in common with heavy influence of manufacturers, spec cars and some form of electric recovery. I think Australian V8's is another series to take a peak at, Nascar could learn from them.
In reply to trigun7469 :
The reason for the close racing is twofold- first, there's barely any aero, so there's barely any reason cars can not be nose to tail, and second- the cars are all the same.
The aero issue is getting VERY close attention for the 2021 season. The spec car is never going to change- as that's just not F1 nor WEC. The WEC has tried spec cars before, and while they have been good field fillers, few pay attention to those classes. As a matter of fact, the LMP2 class is not all that interesting, since they all have the same powertrain (to me, at least).
Seems like Formula E has a few things going for it. Close racing, lots of OEM involvement and some well known drivers. It always seems too gimicky to me though.
In reply to alfadriver :
I don't think it's necessarily just the rules, I think its a fresh vibe. Look at how the cover the races and all the gimmicks. Fan boost might be ridiculous but maybe a lottery for boost might be interesting in F1 or indycar. Indycar took some of the areo out and has spec cars, but the driving looks more refined.
In reply to trigun7469 :
Maybe, but I don't want racing to turn into a popularity contest.
alfadriver said:In reply to trigun7469 :
Maybe, but I don't want racing to turn into a popularity contest.
thanks for putting that feeling into a more succinct statement. also, I don't want to give away my privacy and have to download an app to "be a fan"
The FE stuff interests me greatly.
Given the tendencies of F1 to generally follow European car trends (small engine, turbo, hybrid technologies possibly), how much longer before F1 becomes FE? I’m guessing not much longer.
edit: I would LOVE to see an E-NASCAR.
alfadriver said:It was interesting to see all of the cars brake so early to generate some power to be even able to finish the race.
I'm still not quite there for Formula E. The ultra tight and slow chicanes that they have to put in kind of suck. The concept that they are individual maker cars when they are identical.... While it's nice to see them race that close together, that's all because they have almost no downforce, thanks to the minimal drag they have to run. It's like watching Formula V at the SCCA championship. The big difference is that they do a lot of banging off of each other, since the wheels are more covered. Which is why I think open wheel racing should stick around.
So, the funny thing to me is that I've actually been noodling about a "Formula eVee" replacement for a few years, and I actually prefer watching the FV and HP SCCA races over most of the more "premiere" ones. I think there's a lot of worth in limiting downforce and emphasizing mechanical grip... especially in a platform that has reduced vibration without having an ICE powerplant. Similarly, I'm ok with the body-contact... although the one that launched the car up and over is... concerning.
I would like to see more open rules set that allows multiple bodies, and more varied PowerUnits and their location.
A 401 CJ said:
Given the tendencies of F1 to generally follow European car trends (small engine, turbo, hybrid technologies possibly), how much longer before F1 becomes FE? I’m guessing not much longer
I think it will be a while still. These cars a struggling to do ~50mins of running, while a typical F1 race is 2.5hours? In 5 years they've gone from, what 200kW for ~30mins to 250kW for 50. So we've still got 2.5 times to go on range... so, maybe 8 years? {which is an unfounded, no-maths, WAG}
I think it bizzare that Wehlein gets shoved and forced to cut the chicane and receives a penalty while the guy that does the shoving wins.
Open wheel nascar in the making?
That was fun to watch, but it also looked like amateur hour in million dollar cars.
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