Motorsport on Monday: 9/6/14
Why Formula E could turn out to be Formula Farce with the help of Twitter
No. The biggest and most significant discovery surrounded Formula E in the same week the drivers already scheduled to compete in the all-electric championship got their first taste of the cars at the championship's home, Donington Park.
Wonder if we can get @PaulGarlick involved?
You can take this piece as a rant, as it's sort of meant as one. But, as politicians say, let me be clear...
I like technology in motorsport and I'm all for the development of it to bring more manufacturers, fans and therefore money into the mix. If motorsport is more sustainable this way - and more efficient as a result - brilliant.
Without modern technology we wouldn't have 1,000hp sportscars and be looking at potentially one of the greatest races we'll ever see this weekend in the 2014 running of the 24 hours of Le Mans.
However, when race organisers start meddling with stuff to artificially 'enhance' the sport, I don't think that's right. And that's exactly what the FIA is doing with Formula E.
Example: during the races, the driver who gets the most '@' mentions on twitter will be given a third and final push-to-pass boost from his or her electric motor and battery system to be deployed on the final lap.
Renault to sell more Twizys due to Formula E?
It's great for fan involvement and that's something I'm all for, but I'm worried that this Twitter stuff will ruin any last lap excitement that's left in Formula racing. Will we not just see the teams with the best social media strategy or the man in second get a host of '@' mentions in order to obtain the boost and pass the leader down the back straight of a street circuit?
Will teams' mobile data bills be sky high in a bid to get their driver that 91hp boost one more time?
Sure, every pedaller gets two short bursts of extra juice throughout the race, so could save one to use as a last lap defence, but that's not the point.
Of all the places to find an electric car...
And to go with that, I think the FIA is wide of the mark on yet another issue. Regulations in both Formula 1 and the World Endurance Championship based on a set quantity of energy allowed for a set distance actually seem to be working well now, promoting how innovation can help cars go just as fast as before (pretty much) on a quite significantly reduced volume of fuel. That's technology improving efficiency.
Swapping cars during a race is not. That's right, the Formula E cars won't have enough range to complete the one hour races on one charge, so in its infinite wisdom the FIA has decided that by allowing two cars per driver - meaning two energy intensive battery packs to produce, an increased level of investment needed by each team and no doubt a big spike in overall carbon emissions to build the things - it's promoting the message of efficiency and sustainability in motorsport.
In fact, drivers might even have to swap cars once and then swap back again as the FIA has included in the rules "two mandatory pit stops to change cars" per race.
Sean's yet to be convinced, put it that way
Unlike some, noise (or lack of it) hasn't been a big problem for me in Formula 1 this year. As long as there's some of it, with a significant proportion of that released by exploding octane, then I'm happy. Besides, have you heard how loud Porsche's 919 Hybrid is compared to the new F1 cars?
However, when there's potential for almost no noise and the quality of those decibels we do hear could be pretty poor, I'm filled with trepidation.
For the first few races it'll be an undoubtedly eerie and fascinating thing to watch as tyre and transmission sounds dominate, but after the initial awe wears off, I think I'll feel like the second year Audi turned up with diesels. Bored.
The Spark-Renault SRT_01E car that'll be used exclusively this season I'm not too worried about. Even though it weighs 800kg and will be limited to 180hp during the race. It's that Formula E is trying to claim the 80dB - around 10 more than "an average petrol road car" - will be a good thing. Even though the scale is logarithmic, have you ever stood trackside and listened to a standard road car on a track day? You can hardly hear it. Apparently "by reducing excessive noise, fans of all ages will be able to enjoy a new experience in motorsport."
If that's the case I don't know if I want to enjoy a "new" experience. I want to enjoy the experience of a Judd GV4 4.0-litre V10 at over 10,000rpm ringing in my ears, thanks.
Right, I think I'll now go and don my flameproof suit...
k things up, if they wanted to make it more competitive. Just open up the rules and minimize the cornering speeds. I.E a Downforce Coefficient Limit. With regards to F1 for Engine development they should've limited the fuel flow to 100kg/hr and said any engine type you want after that as long as the fuel flow wasn't exceeded it doesn't matter. In this respect the most efficient engine will be the one that produce the most amount of power per kg of fuel. Hybrid part of it should be totally open if they want to promote development of green technologies.
Its pathetic really, artificially enhancing the racing has a terrible effect on sports it just sounds like a move towards a caricature of itself. Somewhat like a horrible parody of the stupidity in the movie Baseketball. Fake and wreaks of desperation.
F1 is getting less and less appealing with all the rule changes to make it more appealing, I dislike DRS, reduce the Cd and Cl if you want to make overtaking easier it would also reduce cornering speeds which is the major safety problem. Car's with different engine characteristics will provide more interesting racing without having to artificially create "chances"
Formula E is an entirely new Formula - is there not the argument that if they want to have rules which essentially add the online marketing department to the team, that's their business? Does anyone think its the case that these rules threaten those in the far more established formulas which we hold so close to our hearts?
To quote a certain recent McLaren review 'it's a new thing'...It might not be my kind of thing...It might not even turn out to be popular...and it might not even be 100% motorsport in the strictest sense. Or for that matter 'sport'!
Also is there going to be a burgeoning scene in on-car audio systems providing high volume soundtracks at the circuit for each car, linked to throttle response? I wouldn't mind that at all - who wants Team X to run a Viper soundtrack at this weekend's race?
Great! Why don't we start calling it "Driver's got Talent" and have 3 "experts" rate driver performance during the race.
Whenever said experts deem a driver not good enough, they can press a big red button to black flag the driver. Awesome!
And their solution to efficiency problems? Genius! Just swap cars! Now why didn't I think of that?
You know what would be _even_ better? If all other drivers stopped their cars whenever someone needs to swap, because well, it wouldn't be fair otherwise...
Or better yet, let's call it Sarcastaball!
Oh and 800kg & 180hp? Ehm, isn't that a bit.. you know, slow?
I dont mind all this hybrid s
t. Look at La Ferarri, P1, 918, i8. I think hybrids have created some really decent cars (and of course some horrid ones) and they definitely have their place in the world. But F1 is fked thanks to the new engines. Formula E?! Why the fk would I want to go to watch virtually silent cars drive round a track? Its like no one wants to make any f
king effort to make things entertaining anymore. Money is the key concern now. I guess it always was but at least the money was put to good use developing cars. BTCC is boring. DTM only has 3 manufacturers competing.
I think Le Mans, ALMS, GTPro class racing, Indy, Clio Cup, Aussie V8 racing like Bathurst and perhaps a few others are the only interesting forms of motorsport left now. Even they are getting f
ked.Time to take up fishing I think
Great! Why don't we start calling it "Driver's got Talent" and have 3 "experts" rate driver performance during the race.
Whenever said experts deem a driver not good enough, they can press a big red button to black flag the driver. Awesome!
And their solution to effiency problems? Genius! Just swap cars! Now why didn't I think of that?
You know what would be _even_ better?
You can buy thousands on ebay for a few quid.
There's no way of proving a team bought the fakes - they could do it via an unconnected Paypal account. And if you do identify they are fake @s and penalise teams for benefitting from them, then opposing fans can simply spam @s at teams they don't like and get them in trouble.
There I literally no way I can see this not being manipulated.
This will also improve driver safety as they will not actually have to race, and thus it will dovetail nicely into the energy and environmental policies of the FIA.
Gassing Station | General Motorsport | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff