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As title really, sat here in Saudi at the mo covering the first 2 races of Season 7 of the Formula E series, you'd think being in the desert that the weather would be nice, we had 2 days of rain and some hail when we got here, still, suns out now...
Last FE event I did was in Mexico last year, cars sound wrong..
Can't take FE seriously.
Mickey mouse tracks, fan boost, attack mode....
Can't they just do races on normal race tracks without the gimmicks??
Electric racing? Not really. I did dabble with te ones about 12 inches long a few yeas back if that counts. ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by [GSV]Trig
As for deserts, I remember visiting Las Vegas several yeas running, in November. First 3 or 4 years in was high 80s/low 90s (F) so, next time, as I was flying in from Florida and that was in the 80s, I thought .... yup, shorts and t-shirt.
So, on approach, the Captain comes over the speaker announcing our descent and informed us it was a "chilly" 46F.
I nearly passed out.
It was emphatically brass monkeys, because my jeans, etc, were in my bag .... in the hold.
Following day .... back in the 80s. Figures.
Deserts? Highly unpredictable, IMHO. And often go from sweltering during the day to nearly freezing at night.
I forgot this existed! But have now watched the highlights of a race on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46MRzyv0_RwQuote:
Originally Posted by [GSV]Trig
Looks alright. Regarding the way they sound, I assume this is the way F1 cars will sound when they go full electric in the future.
Also, the "Attack Mode" sounds very vidya games... I approve....
If there was a way for me to watch it, I would. Don't care for BBC, and youtube only seem to have highlights. Oh well.
As one of the few motorsports on free-to-air, I do watch it. But I agree that the tracks are ridiculous and don't allow for much of what I'd normally call racing. I'd love to see them on real tracks, though then they'd probably look as slow as they really are. But that would be fine with me - stick them on small club circuits around the UK that aren't safe enough to race anything faster, and stop with the go-faster gimmicks.
Tracks need to be proper width tracks, no idea what the narrow stuff is about, limits overtaking and increases chances of bumps..
We did have a missile attack yesterday though so that was fun, apparently, we've had 4 in the last few days, only heard about the one last night because the crown prince dude was there so it was in the news a bit more..
There's plenty of places to watch it, according to the FE page on LinkedIn they're got TV deals everywhere, as have the Extreme-E guys so you might see me crop up on that as well as I might be back in Saudi for the first Ex-E race.
https://www.fiaformulae.com/en/watch...297f2ac3763b23
I was just up the track from where Sam Bird and one of the Mahindra drivers had a bit of an incident, he came into the pits for a nose swap, the pit guys couldn't lock the right front side of the nose in properly so it was pretty clear the car was a touch out of line, he did a few laps, came in for tyres, then back in a few laps later to retire, backed into the garage, jumped out of his car and stormed up to the Mahindra garage, not sure if it ended up on TV but as he stormed up the pit lane a few camera crews all charged up after him to capture the action lol..
Also had my hand in stopping a possible issue at the start, one of the teams left a wheel chock on the grid when they set off for the formation lap, told a marshal and that was promptly removed..
Managed to get a few bits of footage from both days but missed the big chunk of bodywork that came off, flew into the air, bounced off of the track and then back into the air and over the barrier, could have been interesting if anyone hit it..
Next race is meant to be Rome, but we'll see how that goes with The Rona' cases in the area, Rome could be shifted to later and the next race somewhere else, or I might end up at Alula with Extreme-E in a month or so instead...
Nice to get back out and about again though, packed up and ready to come home, RT-PCR sorted, just have to see how flights go as some guys that left yesterday are still sat at the airport apparently...
We are hearing about the missiles here, hope you're safe.
We didn't see Bird storm to Mahindra (Alex Lynn) - seemed clear Alex moved twice on him though.
Did you see the Mortara move on Evans and Wehrlein?! I think that's going to be the overtake of not just this season, but all seasons up till now.
We heard a few explosions just before the fireworks started, and thought they were fireworks elsewhere tbh it was only about half an hour later that we heard there had been a patriot intercept.
I managed to get his tyre change on video but wasn't expecting him to come back in that soon so only managed to get 2 snaps as the car backed into the garage, I was trying to get stuff up on periscope but my wifi signal back to RC kept dropping out so some bits made it and some were just local videos, I might stick them up on YT at some point but will see when I get home, I think the missus has other plans for me as I've been away for 2 weeks, looks like the flights still a go though as some of the guys we know made it back today and its not saying anything about the flight tomorrow being cancelled..
My son and I have a battered old Tamiya Grasshopper.... does this count?
It has the Tamiya Sport tuned motor in it .. so is all the speeds
I've wanted to as an Ex-F1 fan (thanks Sky :whip:) but I've never have the time with youngish kids. Its definitely something I'm keen on getting into ever since I drove an electric car as a courteous car. Burning hydrocarbons just seems a little like a steam train. Sure its not without its fun but I'm always keen on moving forward to the latest and greatest (And that instant torque is rather nice).
I watched a bit of Formula E the other day for the first time. My first impressions was it is a bit like watching RC cars. They didn't seem to be fast enough and on the limits like F1 cars, so I guess it was more like watching kart racing. I haven't even watched much of a full race I would imagine that it will be could become like the tour de France because of battery conservation and they follow each other trying to minimise drag. I suppose they have a similar thing in F1 with being able to turn up and down engine power and that doesn't seem to be an issue though.
I think I would find it more interesting if they were AI controlled rather than human and perhaps when AI isn't terrible have it mixed and see what happens.
I want to follow it as F1 is now so boring. Won't even watch it anymore. So I watch AMA supercross.
Will wait till Jenson really gets into it then will start watching.
Next race might be on a proper track..
failing that, there's EV buggy things in the desert soon, I'm down for that one, certainly interesting from a tech POV for us..
Once they move to proper tracks I'm in. F1 is now so boring
Yeah proper tracks would be good, not sure if its just down to the street track thing or not..
I've seen where the ExE race is going to be though, one of our guys was out there before coming down to Riyahd for the FE event, I've got a 5Gb 15-minute long video of him driving about out there, should be interesting...
So, I might have overstepped it when I said interesting, so far its been hot and dusty, Al'ula is nothing like Riyadh, its like a really big long beach where you cant see the sea, and there's no bar...
Not sure if anyone has been looking at the Extreme-E stuff at all but the race formats changing due to dust etc on-site so having all the cars on the track at the same time is going to be hell unless you're at the front so that's all changing...
Race after this one is Senegal, so more sand....
Oh, and on the FE thing, apparently at Monaco (if it goes ahead) they're doing the full circuit, so that should be a lot better, although the cars arent as fast..
Marrakesh cancelled, Rome and Valencia double headers, not sure about the rest of the season..
Anyone watching any of this, been a few bumps so far, Ganassi had a small issue yesterday but the guys worked through the night and managed to get the car back up and running today, however Sara P did lose power steering part way round which couldn't have been fun..
Cate M did near on half a lap with a busted tyre, not that it seemed to slower her down much...
Claudia H managed to get near on 5 mid air rotations as her front end dug in and pinged the car through the air, mechs are in the garage at the mo stripping it down, be interesting to see how far they get and how much in the way of spares the Spark guys are carrying around...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSSIseRR3F4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbkFulGoNQo
So, the 'final' race grid position to decide the winner in Extreame E is decided by fans votes.... Teams that don't make the final, can pass on thier fans votes to another team...
Is this a race or a popularity contest?
I really don't understand why these electric races go with such gimmicks. It's like they're actively trying to put off traditional motorsport fans.
Yeah I know what you mean, teams could use that to tactically vote teams that are not in with a chance into a portion to block teams that could challenge them in the rankings..
It's been a pretty hot week tbf, made even hotter when we're packing up and the local power guys turn off the power, for the air con, 31oC today so that bit was fun, it was actually cooler outside in the breeze than in the blow up tents..
Next race will likely be a bit different as well as there's not as much dust, but still sand, in Senegal..
I've watched a few Formula E races and they seem interesting.
The Extreme E offroad... what a joke.
The plans changed at the last minute on that one due to the dust, I suspect every race will be slightly different given the 5 racing locations.
Next month is Senegal which is sand, but on a beach with dunes and the likes, then there's Greenland, Brazil and Argentina..
I'm hoping it will change for the better and they iron out the kinks and the ridiculous penalties.
Why have a super strict speed limit in the pit lane when pit lane is 40 meters wide and empty ? :)
Well with 5 races a season, and with each having their own issues, I cant see it being a quick fix..
Switch zone wasn't empty when that marshal stood in front of one of the cars, that didn't go down well lol
I've just watched the Monaco E-Prix, and that's more like it. Proper track, proper sized cars - decent racing!
Speed difference between the F1 and FE cars is really apparent on a real track though eh..
Thought Evans was going to lose his place due to his driving as he ran out of power, was under investigation but then nothing...
I managed to make it onto the telly apparently while I was doing the grid walk, haven't seen it yet tho
Shame everything in Monaco was shut tho so we didn't get to do anything while we were out there..
Yeah, but F1 cars at Monaco look like someone is fast forwarding a recording :p And they're so big it's proper follow my leader - FE could get two, even three cars abreast at times and there were some amazing moves as a result.Quote:
Originally Posted by [GSV]Trig
Evan's investigation was for cutting the second part of the new new chicane as Jack N put it, but he backed off before the line and gave the position back (though likely because he would have run out of energy otherwise) so since no advantage gained they took no further action.