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17 Oct 2015, 07:47 (Ref:3583517) | #1 | |
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2015-16 Formula E season
I think we need a thread for this, otherwise the original FE thread will become massive.
And it'll be this time next weekend that we'll all be sitting down in front of the TV watching the season opening Beijing ePrix (as I doubt many of us are going to China to watch it - have fun if you are!) Of course, the season starting in China, but here's the calendar as of typing: Rd1 - Beijing ePrix (China) - 24 October Rd2 - Putrajaya ePrix (Malaysia) - 7 November Rd3 - Punta del Este ePrix (Uruguay) - 19 December Rd4 - Buenos Aires ePrix (Argentina) - 6 February Rd5 - TBA (Mexico City rumoured) - 12 March Rd6 - Long Beach ePrix (USA) - 2 April Rd7 - Paris ePrix (France) - 23 April Rd8 - Berlin ePrix (Germany) - 21 May Rd9 - Moscow ePrix (Russia) - 4 June Rd10, 11 - London ePrix (UK) - 2, 3 July Also in the rumour mill is a potential Swiss round. The Swiss do have the most wins of any nation in Formula E history - Sebastien Buemi's 3 wins last season makes sure of that! A change this season sees the teams developing their own drivetrain, with only Amlin Andretti and Team Aguri opting for last seasons, encountering difficulties in pre-season testing with their own. Maximum power outage has also been increased by 20kW to 170kW for the races. Of course, at the end of the season, the chassis will again be open for development. With all of that out of the way, lets see who the drivers are for which teams. Renault e.dams - Nicolas Prost (FRA), Sebastien Buemi (SUI) Dragon Racing - Loic Duval (FRA), Jerome d'Ambrosio (BEL) ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport - Lucas di Grassi (BRA), Daniel Abt (GER) NEXTEV TCR - Nelson Piquet Jr (BRA), Oliver Turvey (GBR) DS Virgin Racing - Sam Bird (GBR), Jean-Eric Vergne (FRA) Amlin Andretti - Robin Frijns (NED), Simona de Silvestro (SUI) Team Aguri - Antonio Felix da Costa (POR), Nathanael Berthon (FRA) Mahindra Racing - Bruno Senna (BRA), Nick Heidfeld (GER) Venturi - Jacques Villeneuve (CAN), Stephane Sarrazin (FRA) Trulli - Vitantonio Liuzzi (ITA), Salvador Duran (MEX) Reigning champion Nelson Piquet Jr remains at the NEXTEV TCR team that he won last seasons' title with. Runner-up Buemi remains at 2014-15 team's champions Renault e.dams, alongside Prost in an unchanged line-up. Jean-Eric Vergne's move from Andretti to DS Virgin Racing is probably the most high profile move. Frijns, Berthon and Villeneuve will all be in their first ever Formula E races when the lights go out in China. That's all I have time for as a season preview, let the 2015-16 Formula E season begin! |
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17 Oct 2015, 10:11 (Ref:3583527) | #2 | ||
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Nicely introduced, thanks for doing that.
I think e.DAMS and Abt will still be the teams to beat, barring catastrophe. Both teams had their calamitous moments last season (I'm thinking particularly of e.DAMS holding their cars 10 seconds too long in Moscow and Abt's costly disqualifications in Bejing and Berlin). I don't think NEXTEV's offering is quite in the same league as the others. DS Virgin seem to be well placed behind the front two and it will be interesting to see how Mahindra improve now they've changed their driver line up and dropped Carlin. |
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18 Oct 2015, 14:53 (Ref:3583908) | #3 | ||
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I'll try to attend the Punta del Este race and take some photos for Wikipedia.
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Nitropteron - Fly fast or get crushed! by NaBUrean Prodooktionz naburu38.itch.io |
19 Oct 2015, 17:43 (Ref:3584147) | #4 | |
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Another announcement has been made. As well as maximum power outage increasing, the race distance for FE has increased - by 1 lap! However this could, considering the batteries have as much life as they did last season, have some major implications on reliability. It looks like the focus will be very much on driving fast whilst saving power. A certain Mr Piquet Jr was quite handy at that last season.
But we'll have to wait and see - 5 days isn't much of a wait though! |
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19 Oct 2015, 19:15 (Ref:3584161) | #5 | |||
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Quote:
Making the race a lap longer simply prevents teams from attempting that strategy, unless the gains they make in efficiency are enough to keep it an option at some tracks. |
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21 Oct 2015, 13:54 (Ref:3584584) | #6 | ||
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I think that energy saving is a boring show. I want drivers drive fast.
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Nitropteron - Fly fast or get crushed! by NaBUrean Prodooktionz naburu38.itch.io |
21 Oct 2015, 18:27 (Ref:3584629) | #7 | |
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Thanks for the FE preview Biscuit. I enjoyed the show last season
and will keep up with it this year. Here's hoping for multiple winners like the inaugural season. |
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CanAmMan |
23 Oct 2015, 09:10 (Ref:3584953) | #8 | ||
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e.dams Renault to dominate?
http://fiaformulae.com/en/news/2015/...ck-record.aspx
Well that's rather ominous. The two e.DAMS drivers were two seconds clear of the rest in the shakedown this morning. Perhaps they were the only ones to use the 200kW? It's only single-lap pace of course. Here's hoping the race is a different matter. |
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23 Oct 2015, 12:59 (Ref:3584979) | #9 | ||
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I had lost track of the schedule and had no idea it was starting now! Thank you BiaRB for posting this nice lead-in summary.
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23 Oct 2015, 13:01 (Ref:3584980) | #10 | ||
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Trulli have withdrawn - no word on why or if it is just for this round
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There's an old F1 adage, 'If you want to finish first, first you have to be a duplicitous little moaning git' |
23 Oct 2015, 13:55 (Ref:3584989) | #11 | ||
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Freight problems according to Autosport, which could see them miss round two as well. They shipped the motors themselves so they would have more time to work on them but it looks as though it's backfired on them.
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23 Oct 2015, 14:15 (Ref:3584993) | #12 | |
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Freight problems? Really? I suspect they still have got their major problems with the Motomatica. It's brave of them to continue with it, with Andretti having jumped ship.
Today's session was a one-off practice so it's very unlikely Imo that those times representative for the whole field, but I wouldn't be surprised if Renault get the front row locked out. The race poses totally different issues and strains on the car, powertrain, etc, however, so who knows how representative even qualifying could be! |
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23 Oct 2015, 17:21 (Ref:3585023) | #13 | ||
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Trulli team statement.
Apparently the motors and inverters have been at Beijing customs since 8th October. It's almost as if they've ended up in lost property or something else daft. |
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23 Oct 2015, 20:32 (Ref:3585065) | #14 | |
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8th october? with the greatest of respect, that raises a lot of questions, none of which do them any favours at all.
if beijing are anything like shanghai airport they are very very particular about documents, but that can be easily fixed if you have someone who knows what they're doing looking after the paperwork, and a good local agent. mind you, if there was someone who knew what they were doing looking after it it wouldn't have been stuck in customs since 8th october. honestly, it's not hard. it can be a monster ball ache but it's not hard... |
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23 Oct 2015, 21:41 (Ref:3585079) | #15 | ||
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What I don't understand is how they weren't aware that the crate hadn't cleared customs all that time. Wouldn't the courier notify them of a problem? It's all very odd. An unclaimed package sitting at airport customs for two weeks is bound to require a lot of hassle to release.
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23 Oct 2015, 23:03 (Ref:3585095) | #16 | |
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yep, the agents remind you pretty constantly, at least for the first week or so. and to be fair, if you've say, forgotten you've just shipped your drivetrain (quite important when you're running a racing car) and don't answer correspondence about it you've probably got a staffing issue at some level...
i don't buy any level of that explanation. why would you be desperate for extra time to work on it, and then ship it so far in advance of the actual race? did they tell the organisers that they were going to be shipping it separately so they could make sure they had the customs paperwork for it? is that even allowed in the championship regs? it's a bit different to f1, you're not allowed to touch the freight cases until a set time on a set day and you have to use specific seals. so many questions, so much mindless speculation to be done |
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24 Oct 2015, 00:33 (Ref:3585104) | #17 | ||
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I think the others were shipped together by FormulaE themselves at the start of September. So Team Trulli had an extra month or so. I guess the plan will have been for it to go from the airport to wherever the other cars were being held. Perhaps Trulli assumed the promoter would handle it from the airport?
Anyway, I was hoping to watch a little bit of practice, but it seems Formula E have decided to exclude the UK from the live streaming service. The race will be shown live on ITV4, but there will be no coverage of practice or qualifying in the UK. |
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24 Oct 2015, 07:28 (Ref:3585167) | #18 | |
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And boom, Renault do lock out the front row. Was not expecting Heidfeld up there!
Piquet starts 18th, 0.9s slower than Turvey! Now we'll see how the cars and drivers fare in race trim... |
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24 Oct 2015, 08:40 (Ref:3585182) | #19 | ||
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Well Buemi is clearing up isn't he? 24 seconds ahead after 15 laps, including two FCY's.
Dragon look like they have the best energy efficiency, DS Virgin the worst. And it appears that Andretti and Aguri can be fairly competitive in race trim. |
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24 Oct 2015, 08:45 (Ref:3585184) | #20 | |
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Well, da Costa can be competitive! Berthon is only 8th because of luck, same with Turvey in 7th. Very surprised NEXTEV are so far from the pace. Dragon do look handy though. Maybe not a win, but podiums look likely.
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24 Oct 2015, 08:49 (Ref:3585185) | #21 | |||
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Quote:
Either that or they're just for show anyway. |
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24 Oct 2015, 08:59 (Ref:3585189) | #22 | |
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Very good race, but Buemi... ...wow...
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6 Nov 2015, 17:30 (Ref:3588606) | #23 | |
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According to Autosport, Duran's left Trulli and is replaced by Trulli. The cars aren't impounded any longer, but they failed scrutineering, so they're still not allowed to race. I love a good farce
The race seems to be being broadcast live in the UK (crack of dawn) with no repeats at all. ITV have 4 channels and nothing to show on any of them, so this isn't exactly good publicity, especially since most of ITV4's schedule is taken up by the BTCC which ended several weeks ago. |
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6 Nov 2015, 18:33 (Ref:3588609) | #24 | ||||
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Quote:
Quote:
EDIT: according to the Formula E website, ITV1 has highlights at 09:25 on Sunday morning |
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7 Nov 2015, 13:48 (Ref:3588796) | #25 | |
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That has to be the most chaotic race!!!!!
Robin Frijns is my hero for that drive... |
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