formula e Formula E Championship 2014-15 Season

[MightyJordan]

Been looking forward to this new formula since the initial announcements. First race of the inaugural season is tomorrow, so let's see if it garners any interest on here. :)

 

The Car - Spark-Renault SRT_01E

All the technical information is available here.

 

Due to the limited range, each driver's got two cars a race; pitstops will be car swaps, like in MotoGP (and occasionally done in Formula 1 in the 50s before it was banned).

 

Also: FanBoost. Now, each car - like IndyCar - has a push-to-pass system that grants extra power for a short time; in Formula E's case, 90bhp for five seconds. Unfortunately, this will be limited to just three drivers (thankfully up from the initial one): the ones who get the most votes in the FanBoost poll each race (which closes 20 minutes before the race start); they'll get one boost per car each race.

 

Team and Driver Lineup

Virgin Racing (UK)

#2. Sam Bird (UK)

#3. Jaime Alguersuari (Spain)

 

Mahindra Racing (India)

#5. Karun Chandhok (India)

#21. Bruno Senna (Brazil)

 

Dragon Racing (USA)

#6. Oriol Servi? (Spain)

#7. J?r?me d'Ambrosio (Belgium)

 

e.dams Renault (France)

#8. Nicolas Prost (France)

#9. S?bastien Buemi (Switzerland)

 

Trulli GP (Switzerland)

#10. Jarno Trulli (Italy)

#18. Michela Cerruti (Italy)

 

Audi Sport ABT (Germany)

#11. Lucas di Grassi (Brazil)

#66. Daniel Abt (Germany)

 

Venturi Grand Prix (Monaco)

#23. Nick Heidfeld (Germany)

#30. St?phane Sarrazin (France)

 

Andretti Autosport (USA)

#27. Franck Montagny (France)

#28. Charles Pic (France)

Reserve: Matthew Brabham (USA / Australia)

 

Amlin Aguri (Japan)

#TBA Ant?nio F?lix da Costa (Portugal) Not racing in Round 1 (China) due to DTM commitments.

#55 Takuma Sato (Japan) Round 1 (China) only.

#77 Katherine Legge (UK)

Reserve: Fabio Leimer (Switzerland)

 

China Racing (China)

#88. Ho-Pin Tung (China)

#99. Nelson Piquet, Jr. (Brazil)

Reserve: Antonio Garc?a (Spain)

 

 

Race Calendar

1. Beijing ePrix (China) - Beijing Olympic Green Circuit - 13 September 2014
2. Putrajaya ePrix (Malaysia) - Putrajaya Street Circuit - 22 November 2014
3. Punta del Este ePrix (Uruguay) - Punta del Este Street Circuit - 13 December 2014
4. Buenos Aires ePrix (Argentina) - Puerto Madero Street Circuit - 10 January 2015
5. TBA - 14 February 2015
6. Miami ePrix (United States) - Downtown Miami - 14 March 2015
7. Long Beach ePrix (United States) - Long Beach Street Circuit - 4 April 2015
8. Monte Carlo ePrix (Monaco) - TBA - 9 May 2015 - Local time
9. Berlin ePrix (Germany) - Berlin Tempelhof Airport - 30 May 2015
10. London ePrix (United Kingdom) - TBA - 27 June 2015

 

All race days will be timetabled the same in each city's local time...

 

So, if you're in the UK, the race will start at 09:00 tomorrow, as Beijing's seven hours ahead of us. I've added links to the local times of each city in the calendar to help.

 

Points are the same as Formula 1 - 25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1 - with a couple of extras: 3 points for pole position in qualifying and 2 points for the fastest lap of the race.

 

 

How to Watch

The info's available here, but I'll relay it here too.

• USA: Fox Sports 1
• UK: ITV4 (live + highlights) & BT Sport (highlights)
• China: CCTV-5
• Germany: Sky Deutschland
• France: CANAL+
• Japan: TV Asahi

 

[123456789A]

I saw an Aguri team and had my hopes up to see Yuji Ide making a return to formula racing. So disappointed he will not be on the grid.

[sundayx Veteran]

This is cool. I hope it picks up with more and more investment and also brings some of the technology to road cars.

[CrashG]

Some familiar names there & should be interesting. DVR is set :)

[MightyJordan]

Wish I was able to edit the original post; didn't realise the polls didn't show up. :pinch: Made a slight error on the FanBoost too: it's a 40bhp boost, not 90bhp; guess this article was wrong.

[MightyJordan]

Beijing ePrix Practice 1

 

Beijing ePrix Practice 2

 

Beijing ePrix Qualifying

[George P Global Moderator]

Maybe it's just me but I think the Beijing track is weak. 

[MightyJordan]

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[MightyJordan]

Maybe it's just me but I think the Beijing track is weak.

It's not just you; you can tell it's a pretty underwhelming circuit from the map...

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

I can't even watch the race here in .de without coughing up for pay TV. :/

[MightyJordan]

...well, that was certainly an interesting finish.

:omg:

 

Looks like Nico Prost

.

 

 

Daniel Abt did finish in 3rd, but he failed to serve a drive-through penalty, so he got demoted to 10th.

 

Driver of the Race: Franck Montagny - Pretty consistent and some great passes.

Reject of the Race: Nico Prost - No contest after taking out Heidfeld going into the final corner of the final lap.

[MightyJordan]

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[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

Alain Prost's move on Senna in 1989 was harsh, but not nearly as dangerous as what his son pulled on Heidfeld today. Thank $deity for the safety of modern race cars - 10 - 20 years ago this would have been a fatal accident.

[what]

An absolutely pitiful display for the sport. It's nothing but an exercise in battery management. The commentators kept saying you can't push as you won't finish the race, which if accurate, turns the sport into a drab 45 minute endurance event. It's also evident that pit stop strategy is not part of the sport as people are going to pit on the middle lap, give or take one lap, as there's no tyre or weight advantage in pitting any other time.

 

The one bit of decent action right at the end and the guy in the lead steers right into the guy coming up behind him. If that's the level of skill and sportsmanship you're going to get, it's easy to see why these guys aren't in F1 and why the sport will fail (well, after you get over the social media gimmick and the claims of an enivronmentally friendly racing series which requires two cars for every driver).

 

I also expect that as the races are all city circuits, the tracks aren't going to vary massively and we're unlikely to see much of a difference in the style of racing.

[MightyJordan]

I also expect that as the races are all city circuits, the tracks aren't going to vary massively and we're unlikely to see much of a difference in the style of racing.

Well, the next race in Putrajaya will definitely be an improvement from today's track...

As for the rest of the tracks revealed so far, you can make up your own minds there: Punta del Este - Puerto Madero - Long Beach. What concerns me is that's only half of the season; the other half still haven't had their tracks finalised and there's still one ePrix in February that needs to find a location, let alone sort out a track layout. :/

[Scirwode]

Well, the next race in Putrajaya will definitely be an improvement from today's track...

As for the rest of the tracks revealed so far, you can make up your own minds there: Punta del Este - Puerto Madero - Long Beach. What concerns me is that's only half of the season; the other half still haven't had their tracks finalised and there's still one ePrix in February that needs to find a location, let alone sort out a track layout. :/

 

I know the area in Putrajaya where they are going to race and if anything it is going to be very challenging, especially if the weather is very hot!

 

Scirwode

[CrashG]

Well, that was different and the crash at the end was...  :omg:    The sounds of the cars didn't quite sound the same as the testing footage posted earlier, must've had that mic right at the motor.

[PiNoYz]

Well, Formula E is.. different..  It was so weird to hear the cars run, sounded like RC cars and thought they were really slow.  Compared to F1, it seems really boring.. but I'll give it a few more races.

[beanboy89]

Well, Formula E is.. different..  It was so weird to hear the cars run, sounded like RC cars and thought they were really slow.

I thought the exact same thing. The cars looked slow and they sounded exactly like an RC car.

[PiNoYz]

I thought the exact same thing. The cars looked slow and they sounded exactly like an RC car.

 

With one of the on-board telemetries, I've seen the highest speed was around 179 kph (111 mph).

[MightyJordan]

I thought the exact same thing. The cars looked slow and they sounded exactly like an RC car.

Yeah, Keith Collantine (one of the Formula Renault commentators on BT Sport) described them as "Sub-F3 slow."

 

With one of the on-board telemetries, I've seen the highest speed was around 179 kph (111 mph).

I never caught the fastest speed reached on the Beijing track, but on the specs page, the FIA claim the top speed is 150 mph.

[simonlang]

heidfeld crashing is really suiting to what this guy has ever shown in f1. :rofl:

[philcruicks]

Finally Managed to get around to watching the whole race, shocking end.
I think Prost has gotten of quite lightly for a clearly deliberate move.

Car 8 (Prost) handed 10 place grid penalty for next race for causing an avoidable collision

3 Drivers also also have penalty for exceeding the energy usage.

* Cars 3 (Alguersuari), 77 (Legge) & 66 (Abt) handed 57s penalty for exceeding 28kWh battery consumption

 

Hopefully a lot of the annoyances will go away over a few years, as batteries get better and more powerful they should be able to run at full power for the whole race/go faster, and hopefully the timed pit stops will change so that'll actually add something to the race rather than just being a necessity due to running out of battery.

 

I think we all need to remember this is just the 1st race of an entirely new formula, think how much F1 has changed over the years. We just need to give it some time and support it.

I'm gonna try and get tickets to the London race providing its not crazy expensive (which if they want this formula to succeed they shouldn't be).

[elenarie]

At least his last name Prost suits him well. It is quite a derogatory term in Macedonian.

[MightyJordan]