Formula E is the first FIA series involving purely electric cars featuring 10 teams from all around the world, with various former F1 drivers racing for them, alongside other motorsport regulars. If this takes off, then there could be a lot of development in electric car technology in general, with Audi and Renault already in the sport as teams and McLaren providing the bulk of the electronics. Especially with batteries and charging them up, the main issue with electric cars as it is. More here. It starts this Saturday, with the E-Prix taking place in Beijing, China and it will be aired on ITV 4 in the UK. [video=youtube;epVsHbGW-9E]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epVsHbGW-9E[/video] Will you be watching it?
[video=youtube;NXV24en7emE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXV24en7emE[/video] Here's an onboard of a lap around Donnington.
Looking forward to the first race (even though I think it starts 1am on Sunday). Nice to watch something different with some good quality drivers in the field. A few females and a nice range of nationalities. Only a 10 race season so i'll try and watch as much as possible to see if i'll enjoy. Teams and their drivers: Amlin Aguri - Katherine Legge, Antonio Felix da Costa Andretti Formula E - Franck Montagny, #2 TBD Audi Sport ABT - Lucas di Grassi, Daniel Abt China racing - Nelson Piquet, Ho-Ping Tung Dragon Racing - Jerome d'Ambrosio, Oriol Servia E.Dams-Renault - Nicolas Prost, Sebastien Buemi Mahindra Racing - Karun Chandhok, Bruno Senna Trulli - Jarno trulli, Michela Cerruti Venturi - Nick Heidfeld, Stephane Sarrazin Virgin Racing - Jaime Alguersauri, Sam Bird
What an entertaining race that was! Just 10 seconds covered the top 8, and there was overtaking throughout the field. Montagny did well to come back from a lower position to take 2nd through sheer overtaking. I'm starting to like this guy, The Heidfeld vs Prost battle was immense and Heidfeld was in the clear and Prost was in the wrong. These two guys slugged it out for the race lead with the final 5 or so laps to go, and Heidfeld overtook Prost into the penultimate corner of the final lap, but then Prost swerved into him taking both out of the race. You don't get any better finishes than that!!!
The kerbs were what launched Heidfeld into the air. Was good to see him safe and sound, and proves the car's safety as well. Fanboost ade no difference to the proceedings either. I like this series, the first race has been excellent and well organized.
Aye, the sausage kerbs exacerbated an accident for the second time in a few weeks after the GP3 accident at Spa. [video=youtube;LIqOUnvTnAM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIqOUnvTnAM[/video]
Well if they wanted drama on the first race, they certainly got it! Pathetic from Prost, probably did deserve to win it after leading the race very well, but Heidfeld pushed him enough so that he ran out of energy and was going to be a simple overtake into the last corner before Prost turned into him. Thankfully Heidfeld got out fine, one of the worst crashes i've witnessed live in some time. I like that the teams (barring one or two) are quite even and we'll see some close racing. Practice/Qualifying/Race all in one day helps as well. Thought I would hate that DJ throwing electronic music in the background but it was done nice and subtle, helped cover the noise of the engines that will take me a while to get used to. Would rather they went to actual tracks rather than cities to improve overtaking opportunities, but I suppose putting in the cities will get bigger crowds and interest. Also don't like the car swapping in that they have to go to a minimum time. You can't have a fast pit-stop, but can have a slow one. Think it will be one of those series that will be good in a couple of years, where drivers and teams are used to the races, good at strategising and hopefully have the technology to go through a whole race in one car.
This seems quite funny with the extra power and the ex F1 drivers. I took awhile to realise the E stands for electric though.
I wasn't convinced. The V6 turbos in F1 were a bit underwhelming but these sounded like electric lawnmowers. And although 150mph in its own right isn't slow, compared to F1 it is. I also note that Prost Jr didn't fall too far from the tree...
