Motorsport on Monday: 15/9/14
When the flag drops the talking stops - so what is Formula E racing really like?
I'm sure the rules will morph and subtly change again over the year, just like they have on the run-up to the first race, but fundamentally, I thought the season opener was entertaining enough.
What everyone's debating; replay in the story
I couldn't quite bring myself to vote for my favourite driver through Fanboost - that's one area that still doesn't seem right to me, affecting a race's outcome purely due to popularity - but I did fully embrace the new electric era in motorsport by sitting down to watch the race in a shoe shop (and a dress shop, and the supermarket...) on my smartphone.
The Beijing street circuit wasn't the most challenging, with plenty of 90-degree bends and chicanes, but that's what Formula E was always going to be about. However, the layout did produce some brilliant racing.
Franck Montagny - ahem - charged through the field like a man on a mission, flirting with the walls, while pole sitter Nicolas Prost got away cleanly at the front.
Speeds weren't incredible, but with only 202hp in race trim, that's not surprising - it's the rubber that made things exciting. With just three sets of tyres to cover each driver's pair of Spark-Renault SRT_01Es, the low rolling resistance 18-inch Michelins made for plenty of loose, dancing cars through the chicanes as drivers chased the throttle harder and harder, earlier and earlier. It's refreshing to see a single-seater that visibly moves around everywhere on the race track.
Well what else would be the safety car?
Maybe it's because this aspect is integral to electric racing, with the series designed to accommodate it from the start? In F1 it's an engineered afterthought in my opinion.
Swapsies
It threw up some interesting strategy calls, too. Do you use your allotted energy aggressively in the first phase of the race to attain track position on the tight confines of a city-based circuit, then protect it for the remainder after the pit stop car swap? Or do you drive to a consistent pace and play it conservatively, hoping some drivers will have used more energy earlier on and will have to turn the wick down towards the end of the race?
Well-drilled teams made time on the swap, too. Heidfeld, for example, scooped up a couple of places thanks to slick pit work, even with a mandatory minimum 30-second car change.
Rejoice, single seaters with attitude!
And it was Heidfeld that was involved in the major incident in the race. Having made his way through from sixth on the grid - showing strong pace and an intelligent command of the energy available to him - he and leader Prost went into the last lap with broadly the same percentage of power left in their battery packs.
Heidfeld got a run going down the back straight and through the final flip-flop chicane. Carrying that speed through the fast turn 19, he closed up on Prost on the approach to the final corner of the race. Heidfeld went to the left, Prost checked his mirrors and, at the time, seemed to pull over right into the path of the German.
The clash broke Heidfeld's car's wishbones and sent him skittering down the inside and over the sausage kerb at the apex - which acted like a ramp and sent him airborne into the wall on the outside. A high-energy impact shown by the triple toe loop Heidfeld's car executed provided a first test for the SRT_01E that none of the drivers were hoping they'd have to go through.
On review, even commentator Dario Franchitti, reminded all too vividly of his own interaction with the catch fence, saw it as "Prost just swerved at him."
Simple circuit, great racing
Me? After more than 24 hours sitting on this fence, it's starting to become rather uncomfortable. Replay here to judge for yourself.
In Prost's defence, he was looking in his mirrors - potentially to defend the corner. He claims he was unsighted, but he seemed to move late relative to Heidfeld's attack and early relative to the apex.
Given Heidfeld and Prost actually race in the same LMP1 car for Rebellion in the WEC, it thankfully seems to have been smoothed over. Prost apologised and pleaded innocence, Heidfeld accepted.
Cicruit may be new but the lines aren't!
Back to the future
Race one was a success for Formula E in my book. Even the trackside microphones picked up just enough space age whooshing and whining from the drivetrains, sounding like a pack of gobbling turkeys on the overrun.
Whether it'll sustain interest remains to be seen, but on Goodwood Revival weekend showing how motorsport used to be done, that the future can still deliver entertainment is most definitely something to hold on to.
[Images: LAT]
Didn't watch it apart from the replays of the last corner incident on the ITV news. No doubt in my mind that young Prost swerved into Heidfeld.
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