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At the Track With Formula E, the First e-Racing Series
An anonymous reader writes Ars is running a story about the new all-electric racing car series and its first visit to the U.S.. "The pit lane we're standing in is unusual, and not only because it's a temporary setup placed in the shadow of American Airlines Arena (home of the NBA's Miami Heat). Garages are set up on both sides rather than being limited to one. A few things also appear to be missing. To start, a familiar smell from the usual mix of burning hydrocarbons is absent. And it's remarkably quiet. The occasional impact wrench bursts out in a mechanical staccato, generators drone here and there, but there are no V8s burbling, no V6s screaming....Welcome to Formula E, the world's first fully electric racing series. Miami is playing host to the first of two US rounds—the next being held in Long Beach, CA, on April 4—and it's the fifth race in this ePrix's inaugural season. Given we've got a bit of a thing about racing at Cars Technica, as well as an obvious interest in electric vehicles, we had to be on the ground in Miami to experience this for ourselves."
All the Formula E cars are charged using a single generator that uses glycerol as fuel.
Set your phasers on "funky"!
Ground effects cars were crazy though. I kinda think it is a good thing that the best driver in F1 doesn't simply correspond to who is the most suicidal. And something like the Williams FW15C was going to render the skill of the driver almost redundant if that seam of development had been allowed to continue.
On the other hand those cars and others (like bernie's fan car, and even the blow diffuser and f-duct) are part of the interesting narrative that is F1 and I do think the FIA has become so concerned with preventing another Lotus 79 or Williams FW15C that they are pre-emptively killing any chance for real technical innovation.
But they're just a bunch of businessmen now. Once Bernie goes I think it will sadly fall apart. The management, rights holders and teams will end up spending more time in court than out on the track. As much as I think Bernie is a dick, like an dodgy book keeper, I also think he maintains a careful balance of handouts and ego massaging that allows the various interests involved to generally get some cars out on track every weekend.
The battery is fully integrated into the vehicle and is part of the structure. It can't be easily removed. Not for lack of want, though. Swappable batteries are under development, but it will likely mean compromises in the chassis construction.
I'm more annoyed that there is a *minimum* pit time, meaning drivers have to wait and get penalized if they leave the pits too early.
=Smidge=
I've actually been watching the Formula E races, because I'm into Formula 1 and there are a bunch of B-list ex-F1 drivers in there.
As far as I can tell, there's a fairly strong emphasis on it being entertainment rather than sport. For example, drivers get a boost button they can use during the race if they're the "fan favourite" before the race. There are also some gimmicks like bonus points for fastest lap and pole position. In the pre-season trailers, one of the key talking points was the DJ that was going to be guesting for each race.
The races themselves are fairly laughable - short, with a fairly hilarious car swap when they run out of juice (the driver hops out of one car and does a little dash to the other car), and the cars themselves are fugly as hell and all the bits are wobbly (so... a bit like me I guess). The coverage is completely ghetto, minimum-budget stuff -- it's on ITV4 in the UK, which tells you everything you need to know.
However, it's a a new series, and the drivers at least are for real, so I'm giving it time to grow.