Grand Prix Rejects

Posted: **11 Mar 2019, 15:15**

mario wrote:Now, because time penalties cannot be protested, they tried to get around that by protesting the provisional results instead - but the stewards just rejected that move, noting that it wasn't meant to be a mechanism for protesting against penalties that can't be protested. Their attempt to get the penalty increased was therefore dismissed. https://www.racefans.net/2019/03/11/ste ... -for-bird/

So at least we can not accuse the FIA of leniency. No FIA Leniency. No FIAL. Dammit, I failed at getting a FAIL acronym...

Posted: **24 Mar 2019, 03:48**

That was a weird race from the start procedure to the chequered flag, even for Formula E. Also, if di Grassi loses the title by 8 points, I'm going to be so angry with the world.

Starting on a bridge looked really cool.

Posted: **24 Mar 2019, 12:07**

UncreativeUsername37 wrote:That was a weird race from the start procedure to the chequered flag, even for Formula E. Also, if di Grassi loses the title by 8 points, I'm going to be so angry with the world.

I wouldn't worry about that, someone behind the scenes will ensure we have a fifth champion in five years...

Part of me is also wondering if it might be worth a bet that Oliver Rowland will finish ahead of his season 2 champion teammate.

Posted: **28 Mar 2019, 15:49**

And then there were four.

Those four being Sam Bird, Lucas di Grassi, Jérôme d'Ambrosio and Daniel Abt.

Posted: **28 Mar 2019, 21:54**

No great loss. He'd been driving dreadfully this year anyway. OK, the car's clearly not the best but Mitch Evans has been trying his best whereas he clearly hadn't.

Posted: **01 Apr 2019, 10:10**

dinizintheoven wrote:Those four being Sam Bird, Lucas di Grassi, Jérôme d'Ambrosio and Daniel Abt.

The power of magical nepotism.

Posted: **13 Apr 2019, 19:25**

Mitch Evans wrote:Terribly sorry I barged your car into the wall, old bean...

André Lotterer wrote:SCHWEINHUND!

Mitch Evans wrote:...in my Jaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaag.

André Lotterer wrote:Ach so, kein problem. You will enjoy your champagne, ja?

And so the stage was set for the most purple of race victories, and Virgin weren't even involved.

Posted: **13 Apr 2019, 19:28**

And yet somehow, despite a perfectly middling and uneventful race to eighth place, Jérôme still ends up taking the championship lead. This title bid simply refuses to die.

Posted: **14 Apr 2019, 03:00**

You all seem to be forgetting something.

Stoffel Vandoorne FINISHED THIRD in the dog-turd that's the HWA.

YESSSSSS BOI

Posted: **14 Apr 2019, 09:32**

well piquet sure made a great decision to leave

Posted: **16 Apr 2019, 17:58**

Hilarious that he threw his toys out of the pram just before that, couldn't have happened to a nicer bloke....

Mind you, I think Mitch Evans is making that car look very good - always good to see a Kiwi win, and to give Lotterer a taste of his own usual tactics made it even sweeter.

Meanwhile, Lopez continues to prove that he is utterly useless in open wheel racing.

Posted: **16 Apr 2019, 19:53**

Barbazza wrote:Meanwhile, Lopez continues to prove that he is utterly useless in open wheel racing.

USF1, what could have been.

Posted: **27 Apr 2019, 14:38**

THIS IS NOT A DRILL, IT IS ACTUALLY RAINING DURING AN FE RACE.

Predictably, it's absolute chaos on track as none of the drivers have any grip. That being said, regardless of what happens now, Nissan have easily won ROTR. :facepalm:

Posted: **27 Apr 2019, 15:40**

East Londoner wrote:THIS IS NOT A DRILL, IT IS ACTUALLY RAINING DURING AN FE RACE.

And predictably in FE, they didn't do things by halves. It didn't just rain, the commentators said it was hail!

Posted: **27 Apr 2019, 23:39**

East Londoner wrote:Predictably, it's absolute chaos on track as none of the drivers have any grip. That being said, regardless of what happens now, Nissan have easily won ROTR.

And it wasn't for the lack of trying on Edoardo Mortara's part to take it away from them...

Also, if anyone missed this statistic: after Jaime Alguersuari, Fabio Leimer, Jean-Éric Vergne, José Maria López and Alex Lynn couldn't manage it... finally, Sam Bird's team-mate has won a race!

Posted: **28 Apr 2019, 21:24**

Just when you think Formula E races can't get any weirder.

Posted: **29 Apr 2019, 20:45**

UncreativeUsername37 wrote:Just when you think Formula E races can't get any weirder.

https://www.autosport.com/fe/news/14307 ... nto-helmet

Posted: **27 Jun 2019, 03:06**

Just watched Bern... great first few laps, great final few laps. It deserves at least one post of appreciation!

Posted: **27 Jun 2019, 15:29**

I was going to, but got caught up in the moment of having an article published while trying to watch England threaten to unseat South Africa as Rejects Of The Cricket World Cup.

I have to wonder if, given that F1 is already heading for another season akin to 2002 and 2004, Alejandro Agag saw the writing on the wall last year and was determined to send FE careening off the deep end in the other direction. Yes, I know street circuits have restrictions that proper racing circuits don't, but why do the circuits have to have so many of these silly, silly chicanes that were absolutely bound to produce the kind of pile-up that happened on the first lap? We see what happens every year at Monza when 20 F1 cars try to get through the Rettifilo on the first lap, but that's a wider track and doesn't have a wall on one side and a whole pile of Tecpro barriers on the point of the chicane... it was inevitable that the similarly-shaped chicane on the Bren track wedged two cars into an impenetrable roadblock. And we've seen similar traffic jams in the past with circuits that have tried to use two sides of a grade-separated highway connected by a hairpin that's far too close to the start line (and of course there's another one of those just round the corner for the season closer).

Maybe you could say this was acceptable when FE was an experimental series in the first four seasons with the first-gen car, which were an extended test run to see if electric racing actually worked. In this second phase, as manufacturer interest ramps up ever further, and those manufacturers want nothing more than to wield their electrically-powered supremacy on the track, the series needs to give them suitable tracks to do that on. Never mind that JEV said the Bern track reminded him of Pau, how about if the Pau Grand Prix became an FE race? And the return of the Birmingham Superprix has also been mentioned around these parts...

Posted: **27 Jun 2019, 18:46**

A large part of me wants to say that inevitable track-induced incidents are a fun part of FE's character, but it is probably for the best that they don't happen as much. And I'd love to see the Pau Grand Prix be in a major series again. "Winning the Pau Grand Prix" hasn't meant enough for quite a while....

Posted: **29 Jun 2019, 11:38**

Personally, I would like to see Pau, Macau and Surfers Paradise on the calendar for FE, alongside Monaco. These are all long-established street tracks with a bit of prestige to them, which would help to boost FE's profile further. Although FE didn't last long at Long Beach...

Posted: **29 Jun 2019, 12:58**

I was tempted to mention Macau, but figured the organisers of the Macau Grand Prix didn't want to take the focus off their main event - if FE could be brought there, though, it'd negate the need for a rejectful circuit around a smog-addled Chinese city (though they'd probably still insist on one anyway). Surfers "Where's The Apostrophe, You Flaming Galahs?" Paradise is a fine idea, especially as it could fill that awkward gap in the Northern Hemisphere winter that's meant two-month breaks in previous seasons. I also notice that, with the newer shortened circuit used only by Supercars, GT racing and sub-F3 single-seater series, the steady development of FE cars means they could go for the outright lap record...

Posted: **29 Jun 2019, 16:49**

dr-baker wrote:Personally, I would like to see Pau, Macau and Surfers Paradise on the calendar for FE, alongside Monaco. These are all long-established street tracks with a bit of prestige to them, which would help to boost FE's profile further. Although FE didn't last long at Long Beach...

Perhaps Adelaide or Melbourne could be used if Surfers Paradise doesn't work out? Australia and New Zealand have plenty of good street courses seen in Supercars.

For China they can always dust off the Wuhan circuit used for WTCC for a time: https://www.racingcircuits.info/asia/ch ... ReU1P6QzIU

Posted: **16 Jul 2019, 08:05**

Hopefully everyone's caught up with both FE races from New York by now.

Very entertaining, it has to be said, and yet again Buemi ends up near the top of the standings having seemingly come from nowhere.

Out of the newbie ex-F1 drivers who came in this season, Wehrlein has definitely been the most impressive, though inconsistent, and Vandoorne and Massa have both been quite underwhelming, but I kind of expected that from both of them TBH ...

Posted: **16 Jul 2019, 23:19**

madmark1974 wrote:Hopefully everyone's caught up with both FE races from New York by now.

Very entertaining, it has to be said, and yet again Buemi ends up near the top of the standings having seemingly come from nowhere.

Out of the newbie ex-F1 drivers who came in this season, Wehrlein has definitely been the most impressive, though inconsistent, and Vandoorne and Massa have both been quite underwhelming, but I kind of expected that from both of them TBH ...

To be fair on Stoffel, that HWA was a piece of thrash most of the year. He still basically destroyed Paffett throughout the year (altho, not a hard achievement on itself by 2019), and was much more competitive than the car was.

He had the pace in qualifying, but usually in sunday's the struggled more due to the tendency of the car to use more energy than others.

Posted: **20 Jul 2019, 15:36**

Miguel98 wrote:
madmark1974 wrote:Hopefully everyone's caught up with both FE races from New York by now.

Very entertaining, it has to be said, and yet again Buemi ends up near the top of the standings having seemingly come from nowhere.

Out of the newbie ex-F1 drivers who came in this season, Wehrlein has definitely been the most impressive, though inconsistent, and Vandoorne and Massa have both been quite underwhelming, but I kind of expected that from both of them TBH ...

To be fair on Stoffel, that HWA was a piece of thrash most of the year. He still basically destroyed Paffett throughout the year (altho, not a hard achievement on itself by 2019), and was much more competitive than the car was.

He had the pace in qualifying, but usually in sunday's the struggled more due to the tendency of the car to use more energy than others.

I am contractually obligated to hype up how good Pascal was this year, at least in qualifying. One of the best over a single lap, for sure.

As for Vandoorne, he was 100% let down by the team. Formula E is so different from other series that even with years of motorsport experience, it takes a lot of getting used to. The strategy game is very different, and over the season HWA showed signs that they hadn't quite gotten to grips with it yet. Energy use is a huge factor here, and if they can't make the most of the powertrain by working out a good lift-regen-brake strategy, ultimately they won't be able to go as fast in the races because they'll be using more energy for the same lap time.

Posted: **30 Jul 2019, 01:37**

I think the next logical step for Formula E would be for it to have a feeder series. I'm not on about the Jaguar iPace eTrophy thing that exists, but a proper FE junior series with spec cars.

It could run at all the same circuits as the senior championship, but with the rule that every team must run at least one driver who is under the age of 25. 30-minute races with random grids (which sounds mad, but given how important overtaking is in the senior series, I don't think this would be especially counterproductive) that run between FE quali and the race. We can call it FuturE because marketing is fun.

Teams could be something like this:

HWA Racelab (staying on as a Merc junior team) - David Beckmann & Daniel Juncadella
Jaguar Racing Team Asia (pulled from the eTrophy) - Simon Evans & Mahaveer Raghunathan
Rahal Letterman Lannigan (pulled from the eTrophy) - Santiago Urrutia & Rinus van Kalmthout
TWR Techeetah (pulled from the eTrophy) - Stefan Rzadzinski & Guanyu Zhou
Except with twice as many teams and drivers, but I'm too sleepy to come up with the rest

Given that it's a very specific style of racing that doesn't really exist anywhere else, I think it would benefit young drivers to get the hang of the lift-and-coast driving, the elbows-out racing and stuff rather than having to learn on the job next to a psyched up Andre Lotterer. Slightly smaller grid sizes - say, sixteen cars? - wouldn't be the end of the world either given the

Posted: **30 Jul 2019, 18:45**

If there are going to be feeder series, I would like to see a British national series. Maybe call it British National FormulaE, or BNFe for short.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/British ... _Formulary

Sorry, medical joke there... :facepalm:

Posted: **31 Jul 2019, 03:40**

I actually do see a future (say 10 to 15 years from now) with a few national FE-related series.

Posted: **31 Jul 2019, 10:22**

If they had a crack at it now, how many of the first-gen cars are still serviceable?

And is anyone else tempted by the prospect of an electric Touring Car championship at any stage, even if it might be a Nissan Leaf walkover at the moment?

Posted: **31 Jul 2019, 14:21**

dinizintheoven wrote:If they had a crack at it now, how many of the first-gen cars are still serviceable?

That would be an excellent ready-made solution for a junior series.

They could potentially also use the junior series to test potential new ePrix venues, although part of the attraction of Formula E is that it can make the most garbage of venues turn out a decent race.

Posted: **31 Jul 2019, 17:11**

Aislabie wrote:
dinizintheoven wrote:If they had a crack at it now, how many of the first-gen cars are still serviceable?

That would be an excellent ready-made solution for a junior series.

They could potentially also use the junior series to test potential new ePrix venues, although part of the attraction of Formula E is that it can make the most garbage of venues turn out a decent race.

Basically taking the book from V8 Supercars's feeder series then

Posted: **11 Sep 2019, 14:40**

Mercedes confirm Vandoorne to continue for 2019-20, while he's getting joined by the most likelly 2019 F2 champion, Nyck de Vries.

Posted: **17 Sep 2019, 14:42**

Techeetah sign da Costa. Now things are interesting....

Posted: **24 Nov 2019, 09:23**

Formula E continues to innovate ways a race can be really weird.

Posted: **24 Nov 2019, 09:47**

UncreativeUsername37 wrote:Formula E continues to innovate ways a race can be really weird.

That is true.

Posted: **21 Jan 2020, 07:13**

So, no one's talking about the Santiago race? There was overtaking all the way through, the win was decided very late... it was a great race. And there were only about a dozen time penalties.

Posted: **21 Jan 2020, 11:26**

I agree, it was a bit quiet to begin with but all kicked off after the person leading (no spoliers) took his second Attack Mode. Happy with the eventual winner too.

Also I think Di Grassi made up about 15 places but hardly even got shown on TV that I can remember?

Posted: **15 Feb 2020, 22:24**

Snooker loopy, nuts are we,
But not when I want to watch Formula E!

STOP FANNYING ABOUT ON THE YELLOW, GET THIS MATCH OVER WITH AND THEN WE CAN GET TO MEXICO!

Posted: **15 Feb 2020, 23:38**

dinizintheoven wrote:Snooker loopy, nuts are we,
But not when I want to watch Formula E!

STOP FANNYING ABOUT ON THE YELLOW, GET THIS MATCH OVER WITH AND THEN WE CAN GET TO MEXICO!

There wasn't any snooker on BBC iPlayer! Although there was some yellow action (predictably) in the FE race...

By the way, anybody going to the FE races in either New York or London?

Grand Prix Rejects

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