Formula E, the future of racing, just a few changes required??
The weekend just gone I watched - like many of you two specific motor races. The Australian Grand Prix, and the Miami EPrix. Now, as I have mentioned before I am an F1 fan of 30+ years vintage so I know my stuff but of the two, this weekend the E won over the the F.
I was skeptical at first over Formula E, yes, I know green racing can only be a good thing and we have to look to the future as gas, oil etc will run out eventually but, and it is quite a big but, I feel the FIA have got something wrong.
We have some big name drivers in FE, plenty ex F1, some endurence stars, up and coming youngsters and a good range of top drawer teams ranging from experienced set ups such as ABT and Andretti to former drivers (Trulli) and "manufacturer" squads (E.Dams Renault) among others however I can't help thinking something is not quite right. don't get me wrong the racing so far has been very good, (a cynic may say the Bejing final lap 1st place crash was staged to give the series more publicity but that is maybe for another discussion) but the pit stops do not work for me. I know the cars have a certain amount of power, I know electric engines don't have a huge range at the moment, even less so at these speeds, yet surely we can do something else in the pits.
We have all had to remove a mobile phone or camera battery in the past. surely its not too different if only on a larger scale to have a pit stop where the driver comes in, has his tyres changed as you would expect. the cover lifted off the car and maybe 2 seperate banks of cells are removed and replaced one at a time to ensure all the relevent systems are still working during the stop before sending out a fully "charged" car to the finish?
The other issue I have with the series is the open wheel/prototype look to the cars, to me they look like they have been designed to attract 9 year olds much like the 1st gen A1 GP cars (rememeber them!) of the early part of the century. With more and more manufacturers producing electric and hybrid vehicles IMO a touring car style race would be a better way of promoting your race series as people can buy a similar car to what is being driven by Jean Eric Vergne or Nelson Piquet Jnr. Race on Sunday (well Saturday) sell on Monday.
Plus if you want to run the two car style race you only have to adapt the tried and tested touring car method of multiple races at an event and change the cars over inbetween events, would the public know? I doubt it unless told!
I'm not trying to be difficult and pick fault with the series here, FWIW I think it is a good series, these are just a few things I would have liked to have seen done differently.
I was skeptical at first over Formula E, yes, I know green racing can only be a good thing and we have to look to the future as gas, oil etc will run out eventually but, and it is quite a big but, I feel the FIA have got something wrong.
We have some big name drivers in FE, plenty ex F1, some endurence stars, up and coming youngsters and a good range of top drawer teams ranging from experienced set ups such as ABT and Andretti to former drivers (Trulli) and "manufacturer" squads (E.Dams Renault) among others however I can't help thinking something is not quite right. don't get me wrong the racing so far has been very good, (a cynic may say the Bejing final lap 1st place crash was staged to give the series more publicity but that is maybe for another discussion) but the pit stops do not work for me. I know the cars have a certain amount of power, I know electric engines don't have a huge range at the moment, even less so at these speeds, yet surely we can do something else in the pits.
We have all had to remove a mobile phone or camera battery in the past. surely its not too different if only on a larger scale to have a pit stop where the driver comes in, has his tyres changed as you would expect. the cover lifted off the car and maybe 2 seperate banks of cells are removed and replaced one at a time to ensure all the relevent systems are still working during the stop before sending out a fully "charged" car to the finish?
The other issue I have with the series is the open wheel/prototype look to the cars, to me they look like they have been designed to attract 9 year olds much like the 1st gen A1 GP cars (rememeber them!) of the early part of the century. With more and more manufacturers producing electric and hybrid vehicles IMO a touring car style race would be a better way of promoting your race series as people can buy a similar car to what is being driven by Jean Eric Vergne or Nelson Piquet Jnr. Race on Sunday (well Saturday) sell on Monday.
Plus if you want to run the two car style race you only have to adapt the tried and tested touring car method of multiple races at an event and change the cars over inbetween events, would the public know? I doubt it unless told!
I'm not trying to be difficult and pick fault with the series here, FWIW I think it is a good series, these are just a few things I would have liked to have seen done differently.
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