Formula E 2021 race and season discussion

[EDLT]

skwdenyer said:

Sammo123 said:

Speed Badger said:

I dip into FE from time to time. Every single random time without fail I have watched a race there has always been:

A) Bumper car crashes at silly tight corners/chicanes.

B) Somebody getting a penalty for some bullst reason.

C) Someone running out of power.

D) Someone disqualified for some bullst reason.

Is there a reason why they can't just have a full battery charge then go as hard as they like and energy manage during the race, like fuel? No overboost nonsense, no too much power usage cobblers, just 100% battery at the start and go as you like.

Apparently the fans don’t like the drivers hammering the car from start to finish! They want them all pissing around, crashing into each other while they’re dawdling around trying to save enough battery to finish the race

Isn't the problem with such an approach that the fastest package just runs off into the distance? The strategic aspect introduces a number of additional variables.

It shouldn't be an issue in FE because their qualifying system hinders the top teams and benefits the slower ones so in theory there should be some racing on track... which can't happen because to pass other cars you need to use "too much" energy.

[Harrison Bergeron]

Will Monaco be the first time they've ran on a proper , no silly chicanes, circuit?

[ajprice]

Harrison Bergeron said:

Will Monaco be the first time they've ran on a proper , no silly chicanes, circuit?

They did a short version of Monaco in 2019, without the tunnel and mirabeau/hotel/casino end of the track.

[kiseca]

I've given this a try a couple of times in the past, and it didn't stick. I was one of those guys the op asked not to contribute in your opening post

I tried again this season and I'm getting in to it now. Plenty of overtaking action so far this season, a driver who's always the nearly man to give me an underdog with an outside chance to support (Bird), helped by the fact he's in a Jaguar, so there's a team I can support too. Gives me an interest in the result.

Watched every race so far this season. I thought the first two were the best, though the first Valencia race was a cracker until they turned off the lights in nearly all the cars just before the end, making the previous 35 minutes of action and effort completely pointless. To me that was a complete farce, but then Formula 1 has had its complete farces too. Hopefully the organisers learn from this and give more of the teams more of a chance next time, whether it's by giving them more data to make their planning better, or by changing their approach to avoid decisions that knock out nearly the whole field.

In the past, I'd watched just two races in the first six seasons.

The first time, there was background music playing through the whole event that I just didn't like. That, and the fan boost (still there), the sound of the cars, the fact that the cars looked too big for the circuit and couldn't overtake eachother without crashing all put me off, and then Prost punted his opponent off in a crazy move and.... it was all too much for me and I didn't watch another race for ages.

Then I gave it another go.....a year later, two years, not sure. It was the last race of the season and was the decider for the two drivers fighting for the title. By about lap 3 the one with the championship advantage has tried to punt his opponent into retirement with a classic Senna move and I'm thinking st here we go again, this is ridiculous (and I thought the same when Senna and then Schumacher did it). However, both drivers managed to keep going but with damage, needed pitstops for repairs. So both out of contention for a points finish, but the fastest lap point could decide the championship so the driver with the advantage, after trying to punt his opponent into a ditch, now hangs around in the pits waiting for his opponent's car to be ready so he can pull out right in front of him and then circulate slowly and block him so he can't post a fastest lap. Again it wasn't racing and disgusted with the driver (can't remember who it was) I didn't watch the series again for a few years.

This season, if the only race I had happened to watch was race 5 I'd have walked away again, but there is good entertainment in there and I actually thought the cars were pretty good to watch on a proper circuit. There was certainly a lot of overtaking in both races, but there's been a lot of action in all of them so far. Seeing a driver push so hard that he's on track for pole position, overcooks it coming out of the last corner and buckles his back suspension when he clips the barrier but still manages to stagger across the line to get third place...

It has its faults but I'm finding it entertaining so far.

[mmm-five]

I just don't like the tunnel vision view of all the camera shots due to the narrow layout and tall barriers/fences

Was really liking the Valencia layout (except for that stupid chicane)...right until the artificial power limits at the end. I understand why they did it, but doesn't mean I have to like it.

I'm not expecting Monaco to anywhere near as much fun as the Historic F1 was last weekend

[ajprice]

mmm-five said:

I just don't like the tunnel vision view of all the camera shots due to the narrow layout and tall barriers/fences.

Was really liking the Valencia layout (except for that stupid chicane)...right until the artificial power limits at the end. I understand it, but doesn't mean I have to like it.

At the artificial chicane where Lotterer mullered Buemi, that was always going to happen, it was way too tight.

[kiseca]

ajprice said:

mmm-five said:

I just don't like the tunnel vision view of all the camera shots due to the narrow layout and tall barriers/fences.

Was really liking the Valencia layout (except for that stupid chicane)...right until the artificial power limits at the end. I understand it, but doesn't mean I have to like it.

At the artificial chicane where Lotterer mullered Buemi, that was always going to happen, it was way too tight.

I agree, that chicane was just ridiculous, and I wasn't a fan of the one leading on to the start / finish straight either. I felt they could have just used the full circuit, even if it did mean they only did 10 laps or something, and it would have been better.

[poosemon]

I think they had to have some tighter corners for more braking to get some regen on the go otherwise would of just been rinsing the batteries being flat out the whole time.

[Teddy Lop]

poosemon said:

I think they had to have some tighter corners for more braking to get some regen on the go otherwise would of just been rinsing the batteries being flat out the whole time.

In the same way I can drink beer until I fall over because I'm thirsty.

[Mr_Thyroid]

Speed Badger said:

I dip into FE from time to time. Every single random time without fail I have watched a race there has always been:

...

C) Someone running out of power.

...

You're very unluck because that hardly every happens.

[JonChalk]

Apart from a very minor mod to the chicane coming out of the tunnel, it is the full GP circuit.

Looking good in practice.

P1 times around 1:35, low power, this compares with:

F1 ~ 1:14
F2 ~ 1:19
FR Eurocup ~ 1:40
Porsche Supercup ~ 1:35
FR 3.5 ~ 1:23

..so maybe close to 1:30/1:31 pole time?

[ajprice]

JonChalk said:

.

F1 ~ 1:14
F2 ~ 1:19
FR Eurocup ~ 1:40
Porsche Supercup ~ 1:35
FR 3.5 ~ 1:23

..so maybe close to 1:30/1:31 pole time?

Superpole laps In the 1:31s so far.

[Teddy Lop]

Pants for oil Rowland - f-e embarrassing itself again, before we've even got racing.

Tyres sound good on the circuit, lap from Mitch Evans looked awesome.

[JonChalk]

Teddy Lop said:

Tyres sound good on the circuit, lap from Mitch Evans looked awesome.

For all the ill-considered criticism (as well as the valid), there's nothing quite like watching racing where mechanical grip is more important than aero grip; seeing (and hearing) the cars drifting into Tabac, and hearing them hitting the kerbs and the barriers, coupled with the ability to have the camera shots close to the cars - all goes to make Monaco almost the ideal FE track (as opposed to one of the least ideal F1 tracks!).

Watching the entirety of Gunther's quali lap from helmet cam was really good as well.

[ajprice]

Last place is 55 seconds behind after 20 minutes. If there's no safety cars to bunch them up again, the tail end cars could get lapped by the end of the race.

Edit: ah well, safety car it is.

Edited by ajprice on Saturday 8th May 15:42

[ajprice]

Good race and no energy silliness. Nice one.

[JonChalk]

How good was Bird?

16th to 7th on a circuit you can't overtake on!

[HustleRussell]

I guarantee that was a much more exciting a race than the Grand Prix will be

[ch37]

Probably the best race of seen on the Monaco circuit full-stop, great stuff.

[kiseca]

JonChalk said:

How good was Bird?

16th to 7th on a circuit you can't overtake on!

Bird was great. I really want to see him do well this year, he always seems to be doing something interesting in the race.

But Evans was my driver of the day. His superpole lap wasn't the fastest, but was absolutely the best to watch, with him throwing his car around Monaco at 11/tenths. And then his overtake for the lead going up Beau Rivage. Balls of steel. I think he was on for the win if the safety car hadn't been needed. Great weekend from him.

The inevitable moment of official stupidity with Rowland's superpole but apart from that a great weekend and the cars seem well suited to the full Monaco circuit. As others have said, watching them drift the cars past the apex, squirming under power, hearing the tyres working overtime and hearing the cars clipping the barriers, even qualifying was good fun to watch.