Formula E New and Interesting

Hi peeps! I just thought I’d dive on here and throw my opinion on the internet for everyone to bore themselves with!

The first ever Formula E race was held today in Beijing and on the whole was a pretty interesting race to be honest. Obviously the first thing you notice is the sound of the cars (if you can ignore the music soundtrack on the race coverage) it’s like a jet (very quietly) taking off, a kind of whine but not a bad sound at all. I quite like it. Hearing the tyres squeal is always a treat for a motor racing fan if they’re watching at home, you hear it when you watch races at the tracks but not so much on TV. Some of the chicanes had the cars and their tyres singing. Really good.

As with all motorsports there is occasional rubbing or other impacts between the cars which although fun to watch in tin tops, its not really on with open wheel racers because of the exposed tyres. Putting aside “that incident” there were other cases where the cars were making contact, mostly without much damage. This is the nature of a street based racing series the track is simply too narrow to allow two cars squirming as much as these Formula E ones were to fit. Its something I’m sure they’ll iron out in time but it worries me slightly that even in the first race there was a pretty massive shunt. That Nick Heidfeld managed to walk away from that crash is a testament to the solid construction of this first season’s car. The roll structures, bodywork and survival shell worked flawlessly to protect Nick as he was launched into the air for a few pirouettes before landing awkwardly inverted on the run off area in the last corner.

I’m struggling to see why Nicolas Prost seems to have escaped any punishment BUT it is obvious it wasn’t intentional in his defence. The move was daft and dangerous if you know somebody is attempting an overtake. If you watch the playback, he turned the wheel without knowing where his opponent was. Do the mirrors on those cars need looking at? Street tracks are far more bumpy than the purpose built ones they used for the tests. Time will tell how this pans out.

All in all though a very enjoyable inaugural race for the series. I hope more  like that follow for the rest of the season.

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