Formula E

[theantmeister]

Anyone watching this? They showed the first race (Beijing) on ITV4 this morning. It was pretty dramatic, especially the last corner of the last lap

The driver lineup is a really good mixture of young and old. Some fairly well known names from F1/GP2/all over really.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-29188869

[markopoloman]

I thought it was a bloody good race. Prost should be thrown out of the sport for that last corner incident! Lucky Heidfeld is alive Shocking stuff.

ITV4 coverage was absolutely diabolical though. Good there were no adverts in the race but cutting back to that annoying wonky mouthed woman in the studio before the trophy for 3rd went to Sam Bird was annoying. The 2 other guys in the studio were a bit green around the gills but ok.

Will be interesting to see what punishment Prost gets - Heidfeld was amazing by not going up to him and punching his face off

[necronom]

I didn't know it was on, but the highlights are on at 6pm, so I'll give it a go.

[necronom]

I can't say I was impressed. It started off really badly by saying that it's a popularity contest and the most popular person gets a speed boost! Sorry, what!? After that I wasn't taking it seriously, as they also mentioned that music was a big part of it and showed people dancing! Is it supposed to be a proper race or more like the X-Factor? Then a wonky mouth woman comes on, adverts every 3 minutes, a woman in the pits with a strange 'head movement thing' going on, then in the studio there's the young guy who I think was the winner of a Playstation racing game (though he has obviously gone on to bigger things, unless I'm confusing him with someone else).
<deep breath>
The cars sounded stupid, they looked like they were going 50 MPH, though I have no idea how fast they went as they had the speeds in some foreign language. The drivers changed cars mid race (which was bizarre). The on-screen captions looked terrible (white on light blue, really?), and there weren't any flags next to the drivers (apart from once or twice when only showing one driver), so I didn't know who half of them were, or who to shout for (I only know Sam Bird is ours, and a lot of ex-F1 drivers I knew).

The last corner was exciting, though scary and shocking.

I might watch one more to see if it improves, but then again, I might just watch the British one at the end.

[Bub&Bob]

I thought it was alright.

Yes, the cars sounded terrible and the vote for speed boost thing wasn't great but I liked the action, Dario (legend) and the music.

The whole thing looked and felt more like IndyCar which is generally much more exciting than F1. Prost should be banned for life for that move though!

[markopoloman]

I can't say I was impressed. It started off really badly by saying that it's a popularity contest and the most popular person gets a speed boost! Sorry, what!? After that I wasn't taking it seriously, as they also mentioned that music was a big part of it and showed people dancing! Is it supposed to be a proper race or more like the X-Factor? Then a wonky mouth woman comes on, adverts every 3 minutes, a woman in the pits with a strange 'head movement thing' going on, then in the studio there's the young guy who I think was the winner of a Playstation racing game (though he has obviously gone on to bigger things, unless I'm confusing him with someone else).
<deep breath>
The cars sounded stupid, they looked like they were going 50 MPH, though I have no idea how fast they went as they had the speeds in some foreign language. The drivers changed cars mid race (which was bizarre). The on-screen captions looked terrible (white on light blue, really?), and there weren't any flags next to the drivers (apart from once or twice when only showing one driver), so I didn't know who half of them were, or who to shout for (I only know Sam Bird is ours, and a lot of ex-F1 drivers I knew).

The last corner was exciting, though scary and shocking.

I might watch one more to see if it improves, but then again, I might just watch the British one at the end.

Someone else I spoke to today said they watched the highlights and that they had ads all the way through. The actual race had no adverts, so maybe it was the highlights that threw them in?
As for the sound of the cars - what exactly could you expect from fully electric powered cars? I personally thought they sounded quite cool and louder than I expected. Sounded like Tron light cycles!
The Boost thing was a complete non-event. I can't see this heading into future seasons. The music thing was just odd... The commentators talked all the way through, but there was this quiet techno shat in the background all the time - I assume that was the music stuff they were on about?! As for the cars doing 50mph, they can do upto 140mph, although in that race I think the max speed was 104mph....

Like I said, I thought it was a good race - it wasn't excellent but really has some great potential if the coverage is sorted and as the race series settles, Im sure there will be changes to improve those areas lacking.

[markopoloman]

Well, Prost has a 10 place grid penalty for the next race!!!!!! That is all he gets for causing an accident that could have killed his 'friend' Unbelievable.

[theantmeister]

Well, Prost has a 10 place grid penalty for the next race!!!!!! That is all he gets for causing an accident that could have killed his 'friend' Unbelievable.

Yeah, it was a deliberate swerve... if drivers get away with that sort of thing where does that leave racing as a sport

[Megamixer]

Not interested in watching this formula at all but I was following this incident with interest. Strange that the final penalty was so lax for such a serious coming-together when I'm assuming the promoters want this to be taken seriously (not that I can take it seriously when the drivers have to change physical cars because the batteries can't take a race distance!).

The crash was like a flippin' demolition derby! Unlike F1 incidents from the past, there were no corners or racing lines to debate about either!

Has Alain Prost made any comment on this?

[markopoloman]

I'd assume he thought 'Thank God that wasn't Bruno Senna'....

[Timothy Lumsden]

I didn't know this was on TV and literally caught only the last lap - which seemed 'exciting'. Heidfeld could easily have gotten very very badly hurt.

It looks quite fun overall to be honest - but did they say next race in Nov?? That will kill the interest.