FIA Formula E Championship 2014-15

[pirenzo]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/119937

The big news is Paris will be added to the schedule. That promises to be a great event. I'm glad Punta Del Este will remain on the calendar, I thought that was one of the better events this season and it had been in some doubt.

[Burp]

Punta Del Este was one of the best races and tracks i thought

[NaBUru38]

The TBC race will clash the 12 Hours of Sebring. That's a very stupid decision by FIA.

Originally Posted by Burp

Punta Del Este was one of the best races and tracks i thought

Thanks! I hope to attend this year.

[sceptic]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

The TBC race will clash the 12 Hours of Sebring. That's a very stupid decision by FIA.


Thanks! I hope to attend this year.

That's only an issue if it were to be held in Florida.

[NaBUru38]

I don't think that Mexican race promoters will be happy to see their coverage getting bumped by the 12 Hours of Sebring around the world.

Both are shown on Fox Sports in the Americas and other countries.

[Juntos]

Can they move Mexico City race to Sunday?

[pirenzo]

Maybe they think they can draw more viewers than Sebring? Or maybe it isn't going to be in Mexico at all...

[AoB Special Stage]

They already got bumped by the NAEC/USCC once before.

[pirenzo]

Originally Posted by AoB Special Stage

They already got bumped by the NAEC/USCC once before.

Strike my first suggestion then. So it's either not Mexico or they just don't care if they do get bumped. Mind you, it would be sensible to avoid the clash. Perhaps this is one of the reason's the event is still TBC.

[AoB Special Stage]

I just found something out. We all know the Monaco layout was unpopular, but the Monaco GP layout wouldn't be the longest circuit on the calendar if thy were to use it. I guess they didn't think they could regenerate enough energy using that layout or something.

[courageous]

Same as Long Beach - they wanted to avoid direct lap time comparisons with other formula

[pirenzo]

Well, I'm not sure that really matters. They tested at Donington pre-season and let everyone see the cars were slower than F4 for example...

They definitely intended to have quite short laps at all the circuits. I would think the situation at Monaco had more to do with keeping the streets around the casino open than the length of the circuit.

[p-matt]

Didn't they add chicanes to Donington though? Makes me think their intention was to mask the speed of the cars

[pirenzo]

They did for the first test but I think they abandoned them for the others.

I don't disagree that it would be best to avoid unfavorable comparisons, but if you base your enjoyment of FE on whether they compare well to F1 or not, then you probably aren't FE's target audience.

Since the cars are quite slow, it makes sense to have short laps, so the spectators see the cars come past more often, and so that it becomes possible to save a lap's worth of battery for strategic purposes.

[NaBUru38]

Actually, I'm surprised that the Punta del Este circuit had a very long north section, whereas they could have put the hairpin much closer.

[AoB Special Stage]

Season 2 powertrains are homologated, but BMW says it will not enter until car swaps are eliminated.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/120214

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/120146

[AoB Special Stage]

The Swedes are coming,

http://www.electricautosport.com/201...rmula-e-entry/

Williams improved the batteries,

http://current-e.com/features/batteries-refreshed/

but the posts keep moving for them.

http://current-e.com/features/power-play/

Meanwhile, Trulli-Motomatica sounds optimistic,

http://current-e.com/chatter/380kw-a...es-for-trulli/

and Venturi looks to bring on a former World Champ.

http://current-e.com/chatter/villene...lace-heidfeld/

Mahindra's car also sounds very weird. Wonder what they've cooked up.

[p-matt]

Villeneuve replacing Heidfeld? If I were Venturi I know who I'd rather have. Didn't Nick beat Jacques when they were teammates in F1 in 06?

[AoB Special Stage]

Originally Posted by p-matt

Villeneuve replacing Heidfeld? If I were Venturi I know who I'd rather have. Didn't Nick beat Jacques when they were teammates in F1 in 06?

4-2 in races where both finished. But Heidfeld has earned more penalties than McLaren-Honda, so there is that.

[NaBUru38]

Originally Posted by AoB Special Stage

The Swedes are coming,

http://www.electricautosport.com/201...rmula-e-entry/

Volvo is owned by Geely. They are developing electric cars.

But Volvo should do DTM or WTCC.

[AoB Special Stage]

Tell that to the man who says that LMP1 only gets attention once a year.

[pirenzo]

Thanks for the news round-up AoB

The article about the batteries is especially interesting. It seems the Williams battery was already running well above its design envelope, and there might not be that much more to give.

The article also gives some insight into the strategies the teams were using in season 1, with the two race cars being set up in "endurance" and "sprint" modes - cruising with the endurance car to gain an extra lap, and then going all out with the sprint car. Given the two cars are limited to the same 150kW, this is probably more to do with re-gen than power usage.

[p-matt]

Confirmed today that we won't be seeing Chandhok or Alguersuari next year.

But apparently Adam Carroll has tested for both Nextev and Mahindra, and has been impressive for both. He is so overdue a break like this.

[pirenzo]

I agree, it would be great to see Adam Carroll in Formula E. Campos Racing are now running both NextEv and Mahindra they are essentially the same team. Didn't Carroll do some GP2 races for Campos?

[AoB Special Stage]

http://current-e.com/chatter/vergne-...guersuari-out/

Virgin is after the French Andretti driver,

http://current-e.com/chatter/coming-...he-exclusives/

and let's stop pretending, we all know it's Renault.