Lucas di Grassi wins first ePrix after spectacular crash wipes out leaders

No matter the intention behind a racing series, even if like Formula e it’s for the good of green technology, it’ll only survive on how good the racing is. And what a debut for these new all electric cars in; close racing throughout, spectacular last lap battle for the lead resulting in an unexpected winner. You can’t get a much better series open than that on the street track around the Bird’s Nest Olympic Stadium in Beijing, China.

Nicolas Prost provided the series with an instant dash of controversy. He’d been leading from pole position for the entire race, through the car changes he had even extended his lead up to three seconds after being run very closely by Lucas di Grassi during the first half of the race.

Nick Heidfeld made major gains coming up from 5^th on the grid to 4^th at the start before jumping to second during the change of car. The three second gap to Prost gradually began to come down, before with just 5 laps left he ate into the lead, taking chunks of time every before being right on the Frenchman’s tail with just two laps left.

Heidfeld obviously had more power left in his batteries and he was using it brilliantly, knowing exactly when to attack. On the final straight approaching the last corner of the last lap he pulled out of the slipstream and was on the inside when Prost inexplicably just barged straight into him sending him sideways and over a raised kerb which sent Heidfeld’s Venturi car into the air and almost head first into the catch fencing. It was a violent crash but he was thankfully unharmed.

Prost suspension was done and he too couldn’t make the final turn. It all left Lucas di Grassi in the lead to take the inaugural Formula e victory for Audi Sport Abt in a quite thrilling race. Afterwards Heidfeld remonstrated with Prost but amazingly Prost tried to blame Heidfeld. Take a look at the video below and decide who was at fault.

Behind di Grassi was Andretti Formula E’s Franck Montagny who is an exciting driver to watch. He made an aggressive move at the start that nearly put his team mate Charles Pic into the wall and then charged after several drivers all the while managing to conserve his battery power well. I think he’s going to be a winner in this series sooner rather than later.

On the road di Grassi’s team mate Daniel Abt was third but was dropped to tenth after he’d exceeded the amount of electrical usage allowed. This promoted the only British driver Sam Bird to third after starting 12^th and made some decent moves. Pic took fourth, with Karun Chandhok fifth after suffering battery problems which lost him 19 seconds and two places in the last two laps. A strong weekend for Chandhok.

Then came the Dragon Racing pair of Jerome d’Ambrosio and Oriol Servia, ahead of Nelson Piquet in eight who always seemed to be involved in some wheel to wheel action, while Stephane Sarrazin and Abt claimed the final points positions.

Bruno Senna looked fast in practice but suffered technical problems in qualifying meaning he didn’t set a time and then suffered suspension failure on the first lap thus not allowing him to use his fan boost. Katherine Legge also got voted a fan boost but suffered with problems throughout the day and could only finish 14^th while her team mate Takuma Sato set fastest lap before retiring.

The Trulli cars had problems too, with Jarno Trulli not even getting off the grid. Jaime Alguersuari of Virgin Racing looked to be running strongly at first but fell back and pre-season favourite Sebastien Buemi failed to deliver after crashing twice in practice for e.dams. He had been fastest in testing but the weekend fell apart for him, and it got worse when his rear wing failed during the race.

Formula e put on a good first show. The cars actually looked pretty spectacular through the corners, sliding all over the place although this was countered slightly by looking a bit slow down the longer straights. Still, the initial acceleration looked impressive.

When I say the racing was close, I mean literally, the aerodynamics of the cars seemed to allow them to stay tucked up behind the rear wing of the car in front fairly easily. The differing usage of the battery power meant that drivers were conserving their energy at different times which therefore meant that they were defending and attacking alternately depending on their situation which kept the racing interesting.

The car changes actually allowed the order to get mixed up a little half way through the race, although I did think it looked a little messy and it did break up a good fight for the lead but that all came back together by the end.

The television coverage was interesting, playing music during safety car periods and the car changes made it seem like a video game although I’m not sure that’ll be to everyone’s tastes. The direction was good, focusing on battles throughout the field. Obviously there is still room for improvement, I didn’t notice captions telling the audience that there were drivers being investigated for various incidents and it took a little too long to hear a reason for Abt’s penalty. I found it a bit disconcerting that over 25 laps of a track barely over 2 miles just how fast the energy levels fell, but it’s a new sport and the technology will develop.

Overall it was an exciting and thrilling race, there’s problems that need to be ironed out but it was a great start for this all electric race series and I think many will be looking forward to the next race in Malaysia which is sadly over two months away. But this has the makings of a brilliant championship.

all photos taken from autosport.com

Who will win the first ePrix?

It's impossible to predict what's going to happen at the first ePrix as Formula e begins its mission to convert the masses to electric racing. There are so many variables from what the racing is going to be like down to how people react to the racing.

There are obviously plusses and minuses to the current concept. Many of the minus points will be eradicated by the second season and many of the plus points can only continue to get stronger. Let's get the minus points out of the way first and we'll start with the noise. Now I don't actually think it's that bad and if you compare what's happened in Formula 1 they'll have nothing to worry about. 

So many people complained at the start of the year about the F1 noise but as the season has gone on the arguments about it have ironically quietened down because as good as an engine sound can be, what people want to see is racing, you provide enough good quality racing and the series will be fine. As it is Formula e sounds like radio controlled cars with added whoosh factor as they go by, admittedly about 70db down on a current F1 car. 

The speed could be an issue too. I read a comparison on Autosport today between a Formula Ford car and a Formula e car. The Formula e was only faster by half a second. They're also about 130hp down on a GP3 car, even more when the Formula e cars are turned down for the race.

This shouldn't be a problem as street tracks will make them look quick as they usually have lots of slow corners and the cars will be quick out of them as with a 0-60 of 3 seconds, they are certainly not slow on acceleration. 

The Formula e car produces 200kw maximum power for 270bhp in qualifying and 150kw in the race, equivalent to around 200bhp. I think they'll look plenty fast up against the walls of a street track. As I've written before I think the major concern is that the drivers will have to swap cars half way through a 45 minute race which doesn't give too much of a positive image for electric vehicles. The positive side to this is that teams are already working on wireless charging technology which should hopefully get rid of this annoying slight.

I also don't like the fan boost idea where three drivers get five seconds of added power in the race decided by the voting public. It's interesting, it's interactive but I think unnecessary. The sport is already doing very well on the social media front without this gimmick.

The positives are a mostly very strong driver line up which can only improve if the series proves a success. Ultra professional teams, city centre one day events, the green message and the advancement of green technology which if and when its advanced will get rid of a lot of the problems I've mentioned above are all reasons to get excited for the sport. Soon they'll be no car changes and the power will increase and electric cars will become a whole lot sexier.

So who will win?

It's obviously extremely difficult to judge who's going to win around the tight twisty confines of the track they've laid out around the Bird's Nest Olympic Stadium in Beijing, China. It's a brand new series which hasn't had a huge amount of testing but from the major test days they've had around Donnington Park it's Sebastien Buemi who has been the pace setter on four of them. Sometimes by quite a significant margin.

He has quite the pedigree being a Red Bull backed driver and will definitely be the one to look out for for inititial glory. Lucas di Grassi was the only other driver to be fastest at a test but many drivers have been up near the top of the times over the testing period. But Buemi did always seem to have a fairly significant gap and seems to have adapted to these cars the fastest.

But it' one thing driving on a proper race track like Donnington which is fast and flowing, it's entirely different when you're going around a street track, so in reality it's a completely clean sheet of paper and it'll be very difficult to predict anything accurately.

It starts tomorrow at 9am UK time on ITV4; an entirely new form of motor sport which has the seeds to grow into something wonderful but it's very concept relies on the racing being electrifying. Let's hope we enjoy a great introduction to electric car competition.

all photos taken from fiaformulae.com

A grid of high quality for Formula e

The new all electric powered series Formula e commences this Saturday in Beijing, China. Many drivers have tested the cars including a lot of ex-Formula 1 stars, many of whom in an ideal world would still be competing in it as they have the talent. There’s also many drivers who haven’t managed to rise to the top echelon but were capable of doing so. We also have Indycar racers, World Endurance drivers, drivers from junior formulae like GP2; this is a very talented driver pool indeed. So as racing is set to get underway around the Bird’s Nest Olympic Stadium let’s take a look at the final line up to compete when the lights go out.

Amlin Aguri – Takuma Sato & Katherine Legge

Amlin Aguri are formed from the remnants of former Formula 1 team Super Aguri run by Aguri Suzuki. Their official line up has Antonio Felix da Costa listed as one of their drivers but the Red Bull reserve driver has a clashing commitment with the DTM this weekend so up steps Takuma Sato.

Indycar race winner and former F1 charger who famously battled and beat Fernando Alonso with a great move in the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix. He’s a Japanese charger, perhaps liable to a rush of blood to the head but a hard racer who will be spectacular to watch.

Katherine Legge has experience in many forms of motor racing. She was the first woman to set a pole position lap in the British Formula Ford Championship, secured several Champcar top 10 finishes and has raced well in sports cars. She is fast.

Andretti Formula E – Franck Montagny & Charles Pic

Indycar champion and son of Formula 1 World Champion Mario, Michael Andretti runs the team that boasts many American racing titles. This is an ultra professional and competitive outfit who will be looking for title success.

Their all French driver line up has two ex-Formula 1 drivers. Montagny has been champion in junior formulae and has tested for several F1 teams and raced briefly for Super Aguri in 2006. He has several Le Mans 24 hour podiums, a versatile racer.

Pic is another successful driver in junior formulae and rose swiftly to Formula 1, first with Marussia and then with Caterham in 2012 & 2013 performing well but never with the machinery to really compete. Formula E is a good opportunity for the 24 year old.

Audi Sport ABT – Lucas di Grassi & Daniel Abt

Successful German race team particularly in the DTM with a strong driver line up. di Grassi is another former Formula 1 driver albeit with a poor car which didn’t allow him to shine. Several victories in GP2 as well as driving for Audi in the World Endurance Championship and main tester for the Formula E car mean he could be one to watch.

Abt is son of team owner Hans-Jurgen. Don’t think this is favouritism though, he’s quick, finishing second in GP3 and then competing in GP2 last year.

China Racing – Nelson Piquet & Ho-Pin Tung

China Racing have been operating for 10 years now and have experience of several racing categories.

Nelson  Piquet Jnr has had a varied and controversial career. His year and a half of Formula 1 with Renault came to an abrupt end after his involvement with the crash gate scandal. He has since competed in various NASCAR series but now is his chance to re-emerge on the international scene because before F1 he was a very promising talent.

Tung won German Formula 3 and has competed in IndyCar and tested in F1 for Williams and Renault. He’s another adaptable driver with a varied career, including Sports Car racing.

Dragon Racing – Jerome d’Ambrosio & Oriol Servia

The team is the second USA based outfit which has been competing in IndyCar since 2006. Formed by the son of Roger Penske, Jay Penske this is a team to be taken seriously.

d’Ambrosio had one season of F1 in 2011 with Marussia taking the team’s best finish of the year after having been a GP2 winner the year before. Since then has been Lotus’ reserve driver, racing in the 2012 Italian Grand Prix.

Servia has made a career out in the USA competing in IndyCar in all its various guises since 2000. Not been as successful as he’d have liked but his career longevity points to a decent driver.

e.dams-Renault – Nicolas Prost & Sebastien Buemi

A joint effort by 4 time Formula 1 champion Alain Prost and junior formula team Dams. Dams have collected numerous titles in their long history and many see them as the team to beat.

Son of Alain, Nicolas was a later-comer to motor racing, only starting to compete at 22. Now 33 he has been a successful Sports Car driver and is the test driver for Lotus in Formula 1. He carries his surname well though.

Buemi competed for Toro Rosso as part of the extremely competitive Red Bull young driver program for three seasons. Still Red Bull contracted as their reserve driver he has also finished on the podium at Le Mans. Top man in Formula E testing, at the moment he has to be the favourite.

Mahindra Racing – Bruno Senna & Karun Chandhok

The team from India already produces electric cars so could perhaps have a head start on using the technology. They also possess perhaps the most lively driver line up on the grid.

Senna has been successful in Formula 3 and was second in the GP2 series in 2008. Competed in Formula 1 over three years from 2010, he scored points in half the races for Williams in 2012. He deserved another go but has since raced in Sports Cars and he deserves another opportunity in a competitive single seater series.

Chandhok will be team mate to Senna again after their time in F1 in 2010. Never given a proper chance in Formula 1 but was a top racer before and can be again as he returns to single seaters after a time in Endurance Racing.

Trulli – Jarno Trulli & Michela Cerruti

Jarno Trulli set up this team after being inspired by the Formula E concept and is already preparing for the second season when it ceases to be a one make series with work on wireless charging technology.

Trulli himself is a winner of Monaco when he also took pole position in a perfect weekend. He took part in 256 Grand Prix from 1997 to 2011. It should be noted in 2004 he often out-qualified Fernando Alonso and was beating the Spaniard on points until an acrimonious departure.

Cerruti has had a varied career racing in all kinds of disciplines and will be looking to learn a lot from Trulli in regards to single seater driving. She has already said her target is to end up beating him.

Venturi – Nick Heidfeld & Stephane Sarrazin

Venturi have a head star as their co-founder Gildo Pallanca Pastor also helped build Venturi Automobiles which produces high performance electric cars. They currently hold the land speed record for an electric car at 307mph. They’re also notable for their other co-founder being Leonardo DiCaprio and having a very strong driver line up.

Nick Heidfeld was unlucky not to win a race in his long Formula 1 career but he took several podiums and was highly rated by the teams he drove for. He’ll be a great asset for this superstar team.

Sarrazin drove briefly in Formula 1 and was a test driver for a long time but his real success has come in the top category LMP1 of the World Endurance Championship, he is a top rated WEC driver. Another to make a late return to single seaters.

Virgin Racing – Jame Alguersuari & Sam Bird

I think this Richard Branson owned team could be a fan favourite. They were inspired by the pioneering technology that Formula E promises which correlates well with their ideals.

Alguersuari should never been ejected from Formula 1, but the Red Bull young driver program is harsh and he was another to suffer from it. There were no seats at the time but he’s still very young so might make his way back. Drove some outstanding races for Toro Rosso and will be one to watch in Formula E.

Sam Bird was fantastic in GP2 last year, coming so close to winning the title, a title he probably deserved to win. Highly regarded, he is the test and reserve driver for Formula 1 leaders Mercedes and should be competing for wins sooner rather than later.

So that’s the line-up for the 2014/15 season with many of these drivers have top international careers, the pedigree on the grid is high. The inaugural season starts this Saturday in China. 

all photos taken from autosport.com & fiaformulae.com

Formula e to electrify motor sport?

There’s one motor sport series which is embracing modern technology and attempting to push the boundaries of how we go racing. The competitive edge will help to drive technology forward that will drip feed down in to the automotive industry, therefore making it a relevant and pioneering series.

It has embraced social media, reaching out to the tech savvy and younger generations and even made the sport interactive, while it has constantly been running demonstrations and encompassing a more even approach with the teams all working (for the time being) on a similar level. This is Formula e, the newest form of motor sport to divert fully from the combustion engine to electrical power.

It’s a modern 21^st century world championship that encompasses the aforementioned power systems, one day events in which practice sessions, qualifying and the race all take place in city centres emphasising its green credentials further by making it easily accessible by public transport. It’s being healthily promoted through the means of social media, there have been many video updates and test days have been promoted for the public to attend as an event to see what this new venture is all about.

It’s core ethos is about ‘energy, environment andentertainment’ representing ‘a vision of the motor industry over the coming decades, serving as a framework for R&D around the electric vehicle, accelerating general interest in these cars and promoting sustainability.’

The power produced is 270bhp in qualifying trim down to 200bhp when racing. That doesn’t sound much at the moment but I’m sure if this series proves to be a success then the that power output will steadily increase. The sound is very futuristic, with a pretty compelling whooshing noise that sort of turns into a scream. The cars look fairly good and are infused with technology by McLaren, Williams and Renault with rubber by Michelin.

The cars this year are all the same but from the second year of this project all 10 teams will be allowed to design and build their own cars to use that to advance the technology quicker in the competitive environment. The teams are mostly well established in the motor racing world and include names such as Audi, Andretti, Dams and Virgin while the calendar includes two races in the USA (something Formula 1 bosses are no doubt jealous of) as well as events in Monaco, Germany and the UK. 

The driving standard is pretty high with a lot of ex-formula 1 drivers participating including the likes of Bruno Senna, Nick Heidfeld, Jarno Trulli and Jaime Alguersuari. It also includes two female drivers, Katherine Legge and Michela Cerruti.

It really seems to me that a lot of thought has been put into this championship and it is doing what motor racing was initially for, to advance technology for the motor industry while having a lot of exciting on-track action (which admittedly remains to be seen).

There are a few causes for concern, they have allowed a rather silly (in my opinion) gimmick of a ‘fan boost’ where the likes of you and me can vote for our favourite driver to receive a power boost during the race. That smacks of artificial nonsense, it could well end up with the same driver getting the boost at every round, although it has made many of the drivers turn to twitter to appeal for votes which I guess helps with driver/audience interaction.

The other thing I find a little off-putting is that during the course of the one hour races the drivers will have to change cars to make it to the end as the battery life will not last long enough to complete the distance. This is something I’m sure will be dropped in the future as the technology advances, but I think the general perception is that with a few exceptions, electric cars don’t go very fast and not for very long, so to see the drivers having to hop out mid-race to get a new car kind of solidifies that point of view, especially when you realise that a GP3 car, two rungs down from Formula 1 produces over 100bhp more.

But I think these will be minor quibbles and as all the races will be on street tracks, they’ll look plenty fast. The noise is a concern as has been seen in F1 this year, but this series is starting off with their unique sound, so I don’t see it being a problem. As I’ve said it sounds rather futuristic, which is their whole philosophy anyway.

It makes me wonder how Formula 1’s bosses will react to this series if it proves to be a success. They have a decent first calendar, professional outfits and good driver names, many of which should probably be in Formula 1 if it weren’t for some teams need for drivers with a budget and their inclusion of social media is surely a must for any national or international sport these days to connect with the fans who will at the end of the day, fund the sport. There is a danger that e could make 1 look a bit like a dinosaur. In a way it’s great that the hybrid power trains F1 now uses have come into effect in terms of relevance.

It’s still going to be hard for Formula e, Formula 1 spent a long time being a sport nobody watched until it became the global behemoth it is today. Formula e lacks the cache, the bigger names, the glamour and even in this age, the noise of a world motor sport series that F1 has. But I think if you compared the two sports as they stand right now you’d say Formula e has a clear direction, while F1 seems to be in a state of permanent conflict where no one can agree with anything and they constantly talk themselves down despite the racing being absolutely superb this year.

It of course remains to be seen how this championship will be received by the wider public or whether it’ll be a niche series that like other global motor sports gets swallowed by the general publics perception that F1 is motor racing. I don’t think this series can overtake F1 as the standard bearer of motor racing, to be fair it’s CEO Alejandro Agag has never claimed to be a direct rival to Formula 1, but I do think it can be a success. Find out what it’s like for yourself, the first round is on the 13^th September 2014 in China with the finale in London on 27^th June next year. 

all photos taken from autosport.com & fiaformulae.com

Paul English Formula E

Formula E promises to be an exciting new kind of motor racing which will deliver competitive events in some of the best cities in the world, all in the space of a day. And there won’t be a co2 emission in sight, well at least not from the cars.

When I heard about Formula E it immediately piqued my interest. I love motor sport in general, I’ve been a fan of Formula 1 since I can remember, have attended many BTCC races, followed the World Rally Championship, Moto GP, make an annual date to see how long I can stay awake through the night while following Le Mans.

Basically motor sport is some of the most thrilling and competitive sport around and quite frankly I find the skills needed to harness a car and make it dance on a ribbon of tarmac amazing.

Which is why Formula E has got me rather excited about a new adventure in motor sport. It’s fully electric with technology supplied by Renault, McLaren and Williams. It’s completely professional with teams from all over the world and some wonderful drivers many with Formula 1 experience.

They’re all the same car for now, but next year the teams will be allowed to create and construct their own cars. This competitive push will speed up the development of electric car technology and therefore make it a world leader in how we end up transporting ourselves.

It’s no secret at the moment that electric cars have an image of being slow and not lasting for very long. This series has plans on changing that perception and that is an exciting prospect as it'll help push how fast this technology can be developed.

I’ll go into a little more detail about the Formula in general in a future blog. When I say a future blog, I mean most likely tomorrow as the first race takes place this weekend. Well on Saturday, they’re only one day events. Everything, practice, qualifying and the race take place in one day to reduce disruption and environmental impact. This series really has been thought about a great deal in its concept and its values

A lot of new world motor sport events get swallowed up by the saturated coverage of Formula 1. Certainly in national press most other motor racing doesn’t get a look in. The BTCC attracts crowds of 40,000 but barely gets a column in most newspapers.

In the motor racing press Formula 1 will always be the lead story. However, I think Formula E can certainly make a little dent especially if it provides close racing. No doubt the events this year will be fuelled by intrigue about the concept so there will already be pressure to present an exciting show.

I do believe it can thrive though, it’s a wholly new concept and is leading the way for a sustainable future where we still travel in our automobiles but in a clean way. If they can sex up the image too, all the better. I think Formula E has great potential which is why I thought I’d write about it.

This blog will look at each event and generally I hope continue to offer comment and discussion about what’s going on in the Formula E world over its first season, I’ve a feeling it’s going to be electrifying (sorry, couldn’t resist).

all photos taken from autosport.com