Formula E

[Lineker]

Formula E begins this Saturday morning in Beijing, live on ITV4. Should definitely be worth watching.

 

Overview

• There will be 10 teams, 20 drivers, and 40 cars
• Each team will include 2 drivers and 4 cars
• e-Prix will be held in 10 cities across the world
• Racing circuits will be held in cities, and will be approximately 2.5 km to 3 km long
• Cars will accelerate from 0 km/h to 100 km/h in 3 seconds, with a maximum speed of 220 km/h
• Noise decibel levels will be approximately 80 dB(SPL) (ordinary car: 70 dB; bus: 90 dB; Formula One track 130 dB)

Events

• Early morning: free practice session, followed by qualifying
• Late morning: qualifying 1 lap time each driver with both cars A and B
• Afternoon: a 2-hour break to recharge the cars
• Evening: the race, with 2 stints and 1 pit stop
• Pit stop will involve a change of car: when the battery runs out a driver will make a planned pit stop and switch into a new fully charged car
• Races are planned to be 45 minutes in length.

Car

 

For the first season, all teams have been supplied an electric racing car built by Spark Racing Technology, called the Spark-Renault SRT 01E. The chassis has been designed by Dallara, with an electric motor developed by McLaren (and is the same as that used in its P1 supercar), a battery system created by Williams F1 and a Hewland five-speed gearbox. Michelin will be the official tyre supplier.

 

Teams and drivers

 

Virgin Racing

#2 Sam Bird

#3 Jaime Alguersuari

 

Mahindra Racing

#5 Karun Chandhok

#21 Bruno Senna

 

Dragon Racing

#6 Oriol Servià

#7 Jérôme d'Ambrosio

 

e.dams Renault

#8 Nicolas Prost

#9 Sébastien Buemi

 

Trulli GP

#10 Jarno Trulli

#18 Michela Cerruti

 

Audi Sport ABT

#11 Lucas di Grassi

#66 Daniel Abt

 

Venturi Grand Prix

#23 Nick Heidfeld

#30 Stéphane Sarrazin

 

Andretti Autosport

#27 Franck Montagny (Rounds 1-2) / Jean-Éric Vergne (Round 3)

#28 Charles Pic (Round 1) / Matthew Brabham (Rounds 2-3)

 

Amlin Aguri

#55 Takuma Sato (Round 1) / António Félix da Costa (Rounds 2-3)

#77 Katherine Legge (Rounds 1-2) / Salvador Durán (Round 3)

 

China Racing

#88 Ho-Pin Tung (Rounds 1-2) / Antonio García (Round 3)

#99 Nelson Piquet, Jr.

 

Calendar

 

13th September 2014

Round 1 - Beijing ePrix (Beijing Olympic Green Circuit, China)

 

22nd November 2014

Round 2 - Putrajaya ePrix (Putrajaya Street Circuit, Malaysia)

 

13th December 2014

Round 3 - Punta del Este ePrix (Punta del Este Street Circuit, Uruguay)

 

10th January 2015

Round 4 - Buenos Aires ePrix (Puerto Madero Street Circuit, Argentina)

 

14th March 2015

Round 5 - Miami ePrix (Biscayne Bay, FL, USA)

 

4th April 2015

Round 6 - Long Beach ePrix (Long Beach Street Circuit, CA, USA)

 

9th May 2015

Round 7 - Monte Carlo ePrix (Circuit de Monaco, Monaco)

 

30th May 2015

Round 8 - Berlin ePrix (Berlin Tempelhof Airport, Germany)

 

27th June 2015

Round 9 - London ePrix (Battersea Park, UK)

[FestiveJack]

Trulli!

Will probably watch this.

[EddieG]

This really couldn't go in the General Motorsports thread?

[METALMAN]

Does it even matter? :/

[Gazz]

This really couldn't go in the General Motorsports thread?

Sorry Mr. Mod.

Oh, wait...

I like that this is 'Formula drivers who couldn't get enough sponsorship to stay in F1'.

[Rich]

This really couldn't go in the General Motorsports thread?

Can you?

[Cymbols]

It's like a who's who of unsuccessful F1 drivers, it's the TNA of motorsports!

[Katsuya]

I was literally looking at the list and thinking "ooh, I bet (insert ex-F1 driver) will be in it...there they are!".

The fan vote thing sounds fucking retarded though. Three drivers will each get what's effectively a KERS boost to use in the race based on social media votes. I'm willing to bet that Heidfeld, Sato and Trulli all get it to begin with by virtue of being the three biggest names.

I think that it's a good idea, but in practice I can only see it ending up like A1GP, especially with such an overly long season so spread out.

[Noah]

It's like a who's who of unsuccessful F1 drivers, it's the TNA of motorsports!

So they should be looking for a new tv deal already?

[JasonM]

I was literally looking at the list and thinking "ooh, I bet (insert ex-F1 driver) will be in it...there they are!".

The fan vote thing sounds fucking retarded though. Three drivers will each get what's effectively a KERS boost to use in the race based on social media votes. I'm willing to bet that Heidfeld, Sato and Trulli all get it to begin with by virtue of being the three biggest names.

I think that it's a good idea, but in practice I can only see it ending up like A1GP, especially with such an overly long season so spread out.

Reddit are already looking to rig the voting to make sure the worst driver on the grid will get the boosts.

If they manage to do that, I would certainly enjoy seeing the last placed guy suddenly have a shot, rather than the actual top guys getting an even bigger advantage.

That being said, I'm interested in following this alongside F1. I'm just wondering if I can find myself a good quali/race stream, since the Dutch aren't gonna be broadcasting this.

[Twist]

A friend of mine has been working on the TrulliGP car (formerly Drayson racing) for the past few months and is now responsible for the safety car, etc. He's in China now for it. Been looking forward to this since I heard about it because of him.

[MJB]

We'll probably see Prost vs. Senna at some point which will be slightly surreal.

I'm actually looking forward to this, it's something different.

[JasonM]

We'll probably see Prost vs. Senna at some point which will be slightly surreal.

I'm actually looking forward to this, it's something different.

I'm certain they're gonna hype the everloving crap out of Prost/Senna 2.0

[Lineker]

At work (with my feet up and and a fry up ) watching. Let's go!

[Lineker]

di Grassi wins for Audi.

Prost was leading the whole race, Heidfeld went to overtake him on the final corner; Prost gave him no room, and Heidfeld was sent flying through the air. Super dramatic - will post a video when it appears online. Montagny was also superb.

Really entertaining stuff - you can tell that it will be even more exciting next year when every team can develop their own cars. The car changeovers during the pit stops were rather funny though.

The highlights air on ITV4 at 6pm this evening.

[Summers]

Trulli was my favourite driver for a good few years til Alonso burst onto the scene.

Gooo Trulli.

[Lineker]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0O3V8pJj0E

[JasonM]

Jesus christ that crash was insane. It's amazing that Heidfeld is ok because that was really really scary.

What the fuck was Prost thinking?! He literally just smashes himself into side of Heidfeld's car.

Man I really need to find a way to rewatch this back, because it looks like it was a pretty fun race aside from that last lap drama.

Anyone know of a way to find it?

[Lineker]

Prost said afterwards that Heidfeld hit him and he turned right to avoid him!

Not sure about how you can watch it back in its entirety, all I'm aware of is the ITV4 highlights tonight at 6.

[Katsuya]

What gypsy did Nick Heidfeld piss off so he'd never win an FIA race