The Lucas di Grassi Formula E Thread

[UncreativeUsername37]

I would love it if this made it onto the FE billing. While I enjoyed my trip to Battersea for the FE in season 1, one thing that was definitely lacking was on-track action. OK, so I am spoilt by the TOCA package whenever I go to see the BTCC, but there was more to see and more going on when I went to the Indy 500 and even F1 usually has GP2/3 or something. (And I am not yet including RoboRace - no drivers to get behind, etc.)

What happened to Roborace anyway? I thought it was supposed to support all the rounds of FE, but there isn't anything even acknowledging the existence of a race anywhere. Is it just the European races or something like that?

[Ataxia]

What happened to Roborace anyway? I thought it was supposed to support all the rounds of FE, but there isn't anything even acknowledging the existence of a race anywhere. Is it just the European races or something like that?

They're still developing. They sent a test car to Hong Kong to demonstrate its capabilities, but due to battery issues they were unable to run it.

There's a video about it here.

[dr-baker]

What happened to Roborace anyway? I thought it was supposed to support all the rounds of FE, but there isn't anything even acknowledging the existence of a race anywhere. Is it just the European races or something like that?

They're still developing. They sent a test car to Hong Kong to demonstrate its capabilities, but due to battery issues they were unable to run it.

There's a video about it here.

I too thought that it was supposed to be ready by Hong Kong, but when I was a spectator at the Donington Park FE test in August and I saw the test hack, I thought it seemed unlikely that the RoboRace cars would race any time soon. (How many of the race cars even exist yet? Which ten teams will get to race the cars? Etc...)

[Londoner]

Good race, but I'm getting more than slightly tired with drivers just letting Buemi pass them without much, if any resistance. Rosenqvist didn't even try to defend his lead.

I mean come on lads, make it difficult for him, give him a challenge!

[dinizintheoven]

I'm getting more than slightly tired with drivers just letting Buemi pass them without much, if any resistance.

Well, quite. Remember that first season, with six different winners in the first six races and seven overall? I already have this sense of cold dread that we're looking at a Buemi benefit year in much the same way that Michael Schumacher had in 2002 and 2004. Even when luck is against him he still manages to win.

At least Channel 5's coverage was improved - admittedly I was watching it on My5 later but there were no ad breaks during the race, so I suspect there may have been complaints about them doing so last time round.

[Barbazza]

At least Channel 5's coverage was improved - admittedly I was watching it on My5 later but there were no ad breaks during the race, so I suspect there may have been complaints about them doing so last time round.

Agreed, it was much better this time - no ad breaks at silly time, and they produced the show so that Nicki Shields was more obviously an actual presenter this time. Once we (hopefully) get rid of Martin Haven for the next few rounds, it will hopefully be closer to the ITV2 standard.

Shame about the dull race though!

[Rob Dylan]

Formula E is quickly becoming very samey Why do I get the feeling we all already know Buemi is going to win a second title by the end of the year? Hopefully Rosenqvist can fight at the front and provide some variety, however; it's been since the German round in the first season that we have had a maiden winner in FE.

[dinizintheoven]

So I just took a look at the Formula E calendar.

Already I am awarding Reject Of The Season to whoever it was decided there should be a three month break between the Marrakech and Buenos Aires rounds - the same length as the off-season break! I mean... it's not as if there's a lot else going on between November and February in motorsport, is there? And it's not as if the races in hot countries, or in the Southern Hemisphere, would have any trouble hosting a race in December and January...

[dr-baker]

So I just took a look at the Formula E calendar.

Already I am awarding Reject Of The Season to whoever it was decided there should be a three month break between the Marrakech and Buenos Aires rounds - the same length as the off-season break! I mean... it's not as if there's a lot else going on between November and February in motorsport, is there? And it's not as if the races in hot countries, or in the Southern Hemisphere, would have any trouble hosting a race in December and January...

Yeah, a few days ago, I thought I needed to find out when the next race was, so I could catch it on TV. Damn, that's a long wait. Easy to forget Buemi's dominance hopefully over that time period. Or for Buemi to forget how dominate?

[golic_2004]

So I just took a look at the Formula E calendar.

Already I am awarding Reject Of The Season to whoever it was decided there should be a three month break between the Marrakech and Buenos Aires rounds - the same length as the off-season break! I mean... it's not as if there's a lot else going on between November and February in motorsport, is there? And it's not as if the races in hot countries, or in the Southern Hemisphere, would have any trouble hosting a race in December and January...

Yeah, a few days ago, I thought I needed to find out when the next race was, so I could catch it on TV. Damn, that's a long wait. Easy to forget Buemi's dominance hopefully over that time period. Or for Buemi to forget how dominate?

I forget where I read it from on Twitter, but I did hear they may try to maybe switch the Buenos Aires race to January to shrink down the gap between races. It likely won't be the case this season but next season should include a January race in my honest opinion.

[UncreativeUsername37]

The eRace could've been done better. No showing of the practices or qualifying, an unsatisfyingly low amount of racing for a one-off event, and the direction missed a lot of action. The podium ceremony was delightfully awkward as well. The apathetic crowd, Pahkala having to make two trips, Huis not coming out on cue and still looking pissed off when he finally did.... Plus no post-race interviews or analysis. At all. Overall, I'd say they put in too much hype for what the whole thing actually entailed, so what should've been an important, fun event was really a bit of a disappointment....

[dr-baker]

Plus Jerome Custard was a DNS due to technical difficulties and there was a post-race penalty for 6 laps of Fanboost instead of 6 seconds!

[girry]

The eRace could've been done better. No showing of the practices or qualifying, an unsatisfyingly low amount of racing for a one-off event, and the direction missed a lot of action. The podium ceremony was delightfully awkward as well. The apathetic crowd, Pahkala having to make two trips, Huis not coming out on cue and still looking pissed off when he finally did.... Plus no post-race interviews or analysis. At all. Overall, I'd say they put in too much hype for what the whole thing actually entailed, so what should've been an important, fun event was really a bit of a disappointment....

Not to forget the buggy mod, which enabled Pahkala to win (and thereafter get demoted to 3rd with a penalty) with his fanboost stuck on, and where a lacking frontwing wasn't too bad; the terrible track (well, it's Vegas after all); and the total lack of livetiming + identification for the cars on the broadcast, making it almost impossible for a casual to find out who was who.

Most amateur simracing leagues would have done a much better job with the production of the race than the Vegas crew...

[Ataxia]

Come on now, they're not going to get this right first time. For a first real competitive eRace, I think it worked out incredibly well. I'm not into the whole simracing scene or whatever, but I found it all enjoyable to watch.

Could things be improved? Er, yeah, nothing's going to be perfect on the first attempt. However, what they had was good, engaging and fun to watch. Fantastic to see all of the drivers and commentators taking it seriously, and it's a fantastic way to bring the real sport and the simulated versions together.

[dr-baker]

Come on now, they're not going to get this right first time. For a first real competitive eRace, I think it worked out incredibly well. I'm not into the whole simracing scene or whatever, but I found it all enjoyable to watch.

Could things be improved? Er, yeah, nothing's going to be perfect on the first attempt. However, what they had was good, engaging and fun to watch. Fantastic to see all of the drivers and commentators taking it seriously, and it's a fantastic way to bring the real sport and the simulated versions together.

You're right of course.

[UncreativeUsername37]

Not to forget the buggy mod, which enabled Pahkala to win (and thereafter get demoted to 3rd with a penalty) with his fanboost stuck on, and where a lacking frontwing wasn't too bad; the terrible track (well, it's Vegas after all); and the total lack of livetiming + identification for the cars on the broadcast, making it almost impossible for a casual to find out who was who.

So it was as crazy as it sounded. The bizarre number of Formula E races with prominent post-race penalties continues, even here....

And I thought the track was good; yes, I wish there were some high-speed corners so that that skill set wouldn't just be ignored for the big final, but I didn't find it an insufferably dull Sochi or something like that. If I'm going to compare it to something, it reminded me of Baku a bit. And yeah, the lack of timing did suck.

Come on now, they're not going to get this right first time. For a first real competitive eRace, I think it worked out incredibly well. I'm not into the whole simracing scene or whatever, but I found it all enjoyable to watch.

Could things be improved? Er, yeah, nothing's going to be perfect on the first attempt. However, what they had was good, engaging and fun to watch. Fantastic to see all of the drivers and commentators taking it seriously, and it's a fantastic way to bring the real sport and the simulated versions together.

I did enjoy it overall, but there were a lot of (almost-but-not-quite literal) glitches for something like this. I didn't expect everything to be perfect, but to me it was more than just "not everything was perfect".

It did seem for a lot of the time that a lot of the real drivers didn't really want to be there... until their natural competitiveness took over, of course. I know one of the commentators said that too, so it isn't me. It was kind of amusing that that's how it went down.

[girry]

Come on now, they're not going to get this right first time. For a first real competitive eRace, I think it worked out incredibly well. I'm not into the whole simracing scene or whatever, but I found it all enjoyable to watch.

Could things be improved? Er, yeah, nothing's going to be perfect on the first attempt. However, what they had was good, engaging and fun to watch. Fantastic to see all of the drivers and commentators taking it seriously, and it's a fantastic way to bring the real sport and the simulated versions together.

Of course the concept is awesome, and for the likes of us who already like Formula E and/or simracing it was enjoyable to watch regardless of what. Was especially delightful to see Rosenqvist, Frijns, López, da Costa and a few others right on the heels of the best sim racers on their own turf. To continue with that collaboration, I'd love to see the winner get a crack in the wheel of a real thing in the Donington test this summer or something.

The thing is, though, that it's not the first time a sim race gets hosted. Which is why it was frustrating to watch such an amateur job at executing the show overall, exactly when so many fans of other esports might have accidentaly taken a peak at sim racing - whilst knowing that there are tens of races hosted daily over many different sims, where amateurs put up an easily more professional and less glitchy event than these guys (apart from the studio element - but if anything, everybody being in the same physical location should just make hosting the race easier).

[Ataxia]

But it's the first time they've really done anything like this. You argue "well, they could just hire people who have done this before", but I'm sure they had a lot of expertise on their side. Unfortunately, things do just go wrong sometimes.

Anyway, in some new FE news, Esteban Gutierrez has managed to prolong his career by signing up for the championship; apparently it'll be with Dragon as Duval's got a lot of clashes with DTM.

Ugh.

[mario]

Come on now, they're not going to get this right first time. For a first real competitive eRace, I think it worked out incredibly well. I'm not into the whole simracing scene or whatever, but I found it all enjoyable to watch.

Could things be improved? Er, yeah, nothing's going to be perfect on the first attempt. However, what they had was good, engaging and fun to watch. Fantastic to see all of the drivers and commentators taking it seriously, and it's a fantastic way to bring the real sport and the simulated versions together.

Of course the concept is awesome, and for the likes of us who already like Formula E and/or simracing it was enjoyable to watch regardless of what. Was especially delightful to see Rosenqvist, Frijns, López, da Costa and a few others right on the heels of the best sim racers on their own turf. To continue with that collaboration, I'd love to see the winner get a crack in the wheel of a real thing in the Donington test this summer or something.

The thing is, though, that it's not the first time a sim race gets hosted. Which is why it was frustrating to watch such an amateur job at executing the show overall, exactly when so many fans of other esports might have accidentaly taken a peak at sim racing - whilst knowing that there are tens of races hosted daily over many different sims, where amateurs put up an easily more professional and less glitchy event than these guys (apart from the studio element - but if anything, everybody being in the same physical location should just make hosting the race easier).

I would agree that the general sentiment has been that, whilst the concept may have been quite interesting, the overall execution was ultimately poorly received and most of the discussion after the race has revolved around the glitches in the "Fanboost" system - which, given the sums of money offered, had quite serious potential repercussions.

Yes, it is true that such an event was unlikely to go entirely smoothly when attempting something like this on a fairly large scale (though I believe that Mercedes organised a sim race that actually garnered more viewers than this event, and the Mercedes event seemed to go much more smoothly as well).

Still, there did seem to be issues that could and probably should have been resolved beforehand, particularly since there is some speculation that the mod in question wasn't even properly made in the first place (and may have been a somewhat botched conversion job).

Anyway, in some new FE news, Esteban Gutierrez has managed to prolong his career by signing up for the championship; apparently it'll be with Dragon as Duval's got a lot of clashes with DTM.

Ugh.

It's worse when they are suggesting that Duval may lose his seat altogether due to his clashes in the DTM series, with Gutierrez profiting as a result. There is also a suggestion that Gutierrez may only be getting the seat because Massa, having initially agreed to drive for a Formula E team, has now withdrawn from his contract in order to make himself available to Williams.

[Rob Dylan]

Gutierrreeeeeezzzz!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Aislabie]

Gutierrreeeeeezzzz!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He's definitely got a very exciting race seat for next year.

[Rob Dylan]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/127760/formula-e-eyes-december-season-opener
So they want to move the first round to December, so as to lessen the break between races after this year's hilarity. So it looks like they'll have December to June rounds instead of October to June rounds, which I guess will make the season itself tighter and more watchable, but leaves a huge gap between them both.

It also probably makes Formula E even better for the various motorsport rejects who lose their seats at the end of the year, as they can jump into FE a few weeks later

[UncreativeUsername37]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/127760/formula-e-eyes-december-season-opener
So they want to move the first round to December, so as to lessen the break between races after this year's hilarity. So it looks like they'll have December to June rounds instead of October to June rounds, which I guess will make the season itself tighter and more watchable, but leaves a huge gap between them both.

It also probably makes Formula E even better for the various motorsport rejects who lose their seats at the end of the year, as they can jump into FE a few weeks later

We move ever closer to the season being in one calendar year....

[Rob Dylan]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/127951/rosberg-rules-out-racing-in-formula-e
I know the dreams of many here will be shattered, but we're setting up a support group for those affected by the news of Rosberg's abandonment of the FE dream in favour of his dignity, in case you need it.

[yannicksamlad]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/127951/rosberg-rules-out-racing-in-formula-e
I know the dreams of many here will be shattered, but we're setting up a support group for those affected by the news of Rosberg's abandonment of the FE dream in favour of his dignity, in case you need it.

I very much enjoyed the above!
I wonder when any driver in F3 , Formula Renault, karting etc will ever say " My ambition is to drive in Formula E".. I tried to like it - some good names and some very good drivers. But I dont like it. The racing seems less exciting than Scalextric

[CoopsII]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/127951/rosberg-rules-out-racing-in-formula-e
I know the dreams of many here will be shattered, but we're setting up a support group for those affected by the news of Rosberg's abandonment of the FE dream in favour of his dignity, in case you need it.

Bah! And he could've validated his championship and silenced the naysayers in one fell swoop.

Never mind.

[watka]

Yes, Formula E does comes across as a bit of a retirement home for older drivers or those who never quite made it in F1 and don't fancy sports cars.

[Aislabie]

Ma Qing Hua is like a poor man's Taki Inoue.

[madmark1974]

Apparently they ran their first test race for the Roborace series in Argentina :

https://electrek.co/2017/02/18/self-driving-car-race-crash-buenos-aires-formula-e-eprix/

Roborace, an electric driverless car racing series which is currently still in development, had their first “real” “race” today, driving two DevBots on the same street circuit at the Formula E Buenos Aires ePrix.

The two cars made their way around the track at a cautious yet respectable pace, with the “winner” reaching a top speed of 115 mph. Unfortunately, the losing car didn’t fare so well, getting itself into an accident and taking itself out of the race.

[Barbazza]

Obviously everyone else is getting bored with this series now given that I've only just watched the race and there are no comments on it yet!

The C5 coverage was unbelievably poor for this one. OK so we lost Martin Haven from the commentary - that was the one good point. But why were Andy Jaye and Jamie Alguersuari broadcasting from a converted broom cupboard? I'm also fed up with them not covering qualifying properly and whizzing through it in about a minute, and the post-race coverage for every event so far has been practically non-existent, basically 2 ad breaks, the podium ceremony and interviews with the Top 3.

Having a different driver winning a race would be nice too.....

[UncreativeUsername37]

I've been watching the races. Whilst perfectly entertaining, they just haven't generated obvious major talking points.

[Rob Dylan]

Obviously everyone else is getting bored with this series now given that I've only just watched the race and there are no comments on it yet!

The C5 coverage was unbelievably poor for this one. OK so we lost Martin Haven from the commentary - that was the one good point. But why were Andy Jaye and Jamie Alguersuari broadcasting from a converted broom cupboard? I'm also fed up with them not covering qualifying properly and whizzing through it in about a minute, and the post-race coverage for every event so far has been practically non-existent, basically 2 ad breaks, the podium ceremony and interviews with the Top 3.

Having a different driver winning a race would be nice too.....

Buemi's just dominating too much. Not only is he in one of the top machines, I would say he's also the most complete FE driver on the grid. It's why I really wanted to see him come back to Formula 1: not only has he shown he's good enough for it multiple times, it would also add a little - you know - variation to the races!

I still haven't seen the race yet. Youtube streams the whole saturday, but in Sweden I'm apparently only allowed to watch the practice sessions, a.k.a. the sessions that don't matter. And knowing Buemi won it doesn't exactly fill me with a strong urge to go and check the race out.

[Barbazza]

Buemi's just dominating too much. Not only is he in one of the top machines, I would say he's also the most complete FE driver on the grid. It's why I really wanted to see him come back to Formula 1: not only has he shown he's good enough for it multiple times, it would also add a little - you know - variation to the races!

I still haven't seen the race yet. Youtube streams the whole saturday, but in Sweden I'm apparently only allowed to watch the practice sessions, a.k.a. the sessions that don't matter. And knowing Buemi won it doesn't exactly fill me with a strong urge to go and check the race out.

You're not missing much - it was a pretty dull race with very little reject-worthy fun. Having already discussed the C5 coverage in the UK, it has to be said that the official FIA feed didn't do a great job either. Steward investigation notices sometimes being shown on screen, sometimes not, drivers coming in for penalties when they hadn't been officially confirmed etc etc.

[Dj_bereta]

I'm forgetting to watch the races.

[dr-baker]

I'm forgetting to watch the races.

Yeah, I didn't watch it live either. Social life as a mature student nurse...

[dinizintheoven]

I also managed to forget on the day - cheers for that, Minecraft - and have had so many problems trying to get My5 to work that it was only today that I saw the race. Only the qualifying session (did anyone know they show that on Spike?) was listed in the "Catch Up" section, not the race - I had to use the Search bar to find it, and every time I saw the same message:

Whoops!
The programme you're trying to watch isn't currently available. Please try again later.
AU-3727
null

Last broadcast: 18 February, 2017
Available until: 21 March, 2017

Lies, all lies, Channel 5. You know, it's not 1997 anymore, the time where only a fraction of the country could actually watch your channel, not that anyone who could ever did, but sort it out anyway.

What I had to do to be able to watch the race was abandon the Mac completely - having tried Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera and always seen the same message - and switch to my ten-year-old Windows laptop and use Internet Explorer. Whereupon the adverts always played perfectly but when it came to the race coverage I was gree...

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...ute while it thought for a minute and a half what it was suppo...

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...sed to be doing, which was VERY ANNOYING. At least that cleared up by the time the race started, and I'd already restarted the computer twice by that point and set the page on My5 to the home page so it didn't load MSN or any of that other Flash-heavy extraneous junk that would clog up the memory.

NOTE TO SELF: DO NOT MISS LIVE RACES EVER AGAIN.

[Rob Dylan]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/128435/extra-berlin-race-replaces-brussels-event
So there will be three double-headers in a row now, with a second Berlin round replacing the Brussels one. It's not exactly looking rosy for Formula E at the moment...

[tommykl]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/128435/extra-berlin-race-replaces-brussels-event
So there will be three double-headers in a row now, with a second Berlin round replacing the Brussels one. It's not exactly looking rosy for Formula E at the moment...

I wouldn't be too bothered by this. Reading into it, it seems more like a classic case of Belgian mismanagement than FE being unattractive to the city. The track was originally going to be next to the Atomium, but was moved to Koekelberg because everyone suddenly remembered a music festival was happening nearby. Then, no one could be bothered to actually organise it.

This is a country where the Flemish government forgot to sell land for the construction of a new national stadium.

[Ciaran]

Suddenly I don't feel so bad about Irish "parish pump politics".

[Nessafox]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/128435/extra-berlin-race-replaces-brussels-event
So there will be three double-headers in a row now, with a second Berlin round replacing the Brussels one. It's not exactly looking rosy for Formula E at the moment...

I wouldn't be too bothered by this. Reading into it, it seems more like a classic case of Belgian mismanagement than FE being unattractive to the city. The track was originally going to be next to the Atomium, but was moved to Koekelberg because everyone suddenly remembered a music festival was happening nearby. Then, no one could be bothered to actually organise it.

This is a country where the Flemish government forgot to sell land for the construction of a new national stadium.

Well it's not really land, to be precise it's a no longer existant road that was never scrapped from the registers and some local city councils trying every little thing to avoid the construction from happening, thus claiming they still regularly use that non-existant road. (that makes it sound even more like classic Belgian mismanagement, as they should've scrapped that road more than 50 years ago) But yeah, organising something in Brussels (or any other major city) never goes well in here...