Formula E dead and buried in the UK?

Formula E dead and buried in the UK?

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9.3

Original Poster:

1,133 posts

191 months

Monday 20th February 2017
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With a third consecutive win for Buemi over the weekend (in Argentina), and absolutely nil TV coverage on terrestrial or satellite, let alone print, can we assume that Formula E has lost is appeal in this country?
Was anyone even aware that there was a race this weekend?

rscott

14,690 posts

190 months

Monday 20th February 2017
quotequote all
9.3 said:
With a third consecutive win for Buemi over the weekend (in Argentina), and absolutely nil TV coverage on terrestrial or satellite, let alone print, can we assume that Formula E has lost is appeal in this country?
Was anyone even aware that there was a race this weekend?
Do you mean apart from the live coverage on Channel 5 ? http://www.channel5.com/show/fia-formula-e-live-bu...

Dawsey

67 posts

190 months

Monday 20th February 2017
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Watched live on Channel 5!!

All races to be shown live on 5!!

9.3

Original Poster:

1,133 posts

191 months

Monday 20th February 2017
quotequote all
Well bugger me, missed that completely - was looking through the tv channels to watch it live and didn't see it.
Cheers!

Eric Mc

121,779 posts

264 months

Monday 20th February 2017
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Yes watched it live.

I found it quite entertaining.

I'd love to see them on some "proper" circuits though. I was thinking it could be a "modern" series that would suit Goodwood - or Mallory Park.

AndrewEH1

4,917 posts

152 months

Monday 20th February 2017
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Do they still swap cars half way through?

markw996

309 posts

137 months

Monday 20th February 2017
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AndrewEH1 said:
Do they still swap cars half way through?
Yes they do. It's the first time I've watched it and I found it quite interesting.. particularly as I've just bought a used Nissan Leaf for my commute smile

MitchT

15,788 posts

208 months

Monday 20th February 2017
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Eric Mc said:
I'd love to see them on some "proper" circuits though.
I wouldn't! The huge runoff areas and lack of elevation make F1 cars looks slow. FE cars look slow on street circuits. They really need to sort the speed out before they head to conventional circuits or it'll be like watching a kiddie ride at a theme park!

Crafty_

13,248 posts

199 months

Monday 20th February 2017
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As pointed out above they don't go to proper circuits because they'd look dire.

They'd also struggle to do even a short race on most circuits because a lap is too long and they won't have the range.

IMHO it's a horrible little series that manufacturers are using as a way to reduce taxation.

FourWheelDrift

88,381 posts

283 months

Monday 20th February 2017
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markw996 said:
Yes they do. It's the first time I've watched it and I found it quite interesting.. particularly as I've just bought a used Nissan Leaf for my commute smile
You going to buy another one now, one for each way?

MyVTECGoesBwaaah

820 posts

141 months

Monday 20th February 2017
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Didn't have much else to do so watched qualifying on Spike (Had to look hard to find that channel laugh) and then the race on Channel 5. The qualifying coverage was odd as I think it was on a few minute delay as I was reading stuff on Twitter that hadn't happened yet. Overall though I enjoyed watching it and the super pole format.

The race was OK, not the best FE race I've seen. I do like to series though and try to watch them when I remember, the swapping from ITV4 to C5 hasn't helped. That said, this F1 Broadcasting article on viewing figures for the past race makes interesting reading:

https://f1broadcasting.co/2017/02/19/formula-e-jum...

Robscim

792 posts

255 months

Monday 20th February 2017
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They still swap cars but come season 5 (it's season 3 now) they will be using just the one car (they're developing the technology for this now).

Seems quite sensible to me as the battery range is quite important in road cars!

I enjoyed the race, which I thought was fascinating to watch, particularly qualifying, but I do have to declare a vested interest!!! Although sadly not driving!!! driving

Rob

FourWheelDrift

88,381 posts

283 months

Monday 20th February 2017
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And the cars will look quite different for 2018 too.




Jerry Can

4,424 posts

222 months

Monday 20th February 2017
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FourWheelDrift said:
And the cars will look quite different for 2018 too.



Yeah that's nice but really to be properly relevant and stimulating EV sales they need to be based on road cars

Altrezia

8,517 posts

210 months

Monday 20th February 2017
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I don't understand why they swap cars. Why not do two sprint races instead? So stupid seeing them swap cars imho

DE15 CAT

355 posts

160 months

Monday 20th February 2017
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As well as currently short range batteries. Desperate for as many crap gimmicks to enhance (Ha Ha) the USP. like the diabolical fan boost, The crap sound effect added to the soundtrack when they use fan boost, the crap music when showing a replay, crap music at the start of the race until the lights go out, what audience are they trying to attract exactly the 12 yr. old xbox player who has ADHA & will flit off to something else within 10 minutes. I try sometimes to watch if there really is no other racing at that time but usually wonder off in disgust feeling dirty for trying to watch such bilge (If they dropped the gimmicks It could be ok as a different type of motorsport to learn about).

AlexRS2782

8,023 posts

212 months

Monday 20th February 2017
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9.3 said:
With a third consecutive win for Buemi over the weekend (in Argentina), and absolutely nil TV coverage on terrestrial or satellite, let alone print, can we assume that Formula E has lost is appeal in this country?
Was anyone even aware that there was a race this weekend?
With regards to the part in bold, I'm sure a poster on a thread last year said that the UK was always the worst country from the start with regards to attendance, viewing, support, etc, whereas it has grown massively in nearly every other market abroad.

One big problem it had in this country was the exceptionally poor level of advertising it when it was in ITV's hands. If you didn't actually know what the race calendar was it was very unlikely you'd see an advert on their channels for it unless it was around the same time as another motorsport event like the BTCC, or the season ending UK races. C5 have improved this slightly for this season but not massively as I'd completely forgotten it was on this weekend and only discovered it when I flicked over to C5 to watch an old NCIS episode to kill time and found the FE was live.

I think the fact that the UK race(s) in Battersea are also no longer in existence due to complaints from some nearby landowners, disruption complaints from locals and a fairly large campaign to remove it from Battersea, saying it detracted from the Grade II listed park, pretty much killed it.

I know there is talk of them trying to get a new location for 2019 onwards but I'm not sure they'd get away with shutting down the parts of central London, that the FE owners want to use, for an entire weekend and the only other suggestion was using the former Olympic Park / roads around what is now West Ham United's stadium but that could be an issue as it seems WHU don't want that happening.

Crafty_

13,248 posts

199 months

Monday 20th February 2017
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I think the simpler reason is that in the UK there is a big (compared to many other countries anyway) fan base of motorsport enthusiasts and they've looked at FE and think its crap. They have no problem in hunting down motorsport coverage and/or events, I don't see that as an issue at all.



lucido grigio

44,044 posts

162 months

Monday 20th February 2017
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I've watched very little FE ,just can't get enthusiastic about it.

I'd rather watch F1.....hehe....or go for a walk.

corozin

2,680 posts

270 months

Wednesday 22nd February 2017
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lucido grigio said:
I've watched very little FE ,just can't get enthusiastic about it.

I'd rather watch F1.....hehe....or go for a walk.
I watched it a few times for a few minutes. Firstly they sounded like scalextrics, secondly the racing itself was pretty poor - all battery conservation and "super boost" gimics, and then when they got to the bit where the drivers had to change cars because the batteries don't last a full race I fell about laughing at the futility at it all, made even more amusing by the "serious" faces of great people like Alain Prost in the pits pretending that this junk really is the future of motor racing.

The future... my arse...

The other thing worth pointing out is that Formula E has so far all been on poxy street circuits, where the cars don't reach anything like the speeds that are possible at places like Spa or Silverstone. At those circuits they are barriered in so that it's almost impossible for any spectators to see the cars. As a spectator sport (!) it's a joke as well.

The future... my arse...