The Lucas di Grassi Formula E Thread

dinizintheoven · Post by **dinizintheoven** » 16 Feb 2020, 13:18

What usually happens is, I find the Actual Red Button to be a bit capricious and watch the race on Virgin Media's BBC Red Button channel (991) instead. Not this time - they were showing the Welsh Open snooker, even though FE was scheduled. I was greeted with "And on BBC2 Wales, we'll be staying with this match until the conclusion." Except, I wasn't watching BBC2 Wales, and said fannying about on the yellow happened when Shaun Murphy was leading Yan Bingtao 4-2, with Yan trying not to fall further behind. Eventually, Murphy won 6-5, and it was probably well after [REDACTED] took the chequered flag in Mexco City...

Still, using the Actual Red Button worked well enough this time so I haven't lost my 100% viewing record. Excellent win for [REDACTED], but I'll bet [ALSO REDACTED] and [ALSO ALSO REDACTED] will still be fuming even now...

(Watch the race to find out who the deleted names are!)

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 16 Feb 2020, 15:53

SPOILER ALERT!!!

I find it staggering that Evans won the FE race in Mexico City and Evans won the WRC Rally Sweden, both on the same weekend. What are the chances of that!

UncreativeUsername37 · Post by **UncreativeUsername37** » 21 Feb 2020, 22:20

So yesterday I finally caved, or rather crawled out of a cave shielded from motorsport, since it was almost the next weekend and FE hadn't put it up yet and even Eurosport is better than nothing. Thank Odin there was a safety car. All told it was a pretty good race, but the "MOST EXCITING RACE EVER?*" on the YouTube channel is pretty ridiculous when the previous race at the same venue was better.

*I wanted to link this to a YouTube video that's since disappeared

Barbazza · Post by **Barbazza** » 28 Feb 2020, 16:59

JEV is out of Free Practice due to 'illness'. Let's hope he hasn't been to China or North Italy recently.....

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 28 Feb 2020, 18:58

Barbazza wrote:JEV is out of Free Practice due to 'illness'. Let's hope he hasn't been to China or North Italy recently.....

"Headaches" are not a symptom of the COVID19 coronavirus. The symptoms would be a cough, a high temperature and shortness of breath, according to the NHS.

UncreativeUsername37 · Post by **UncreativeUsername37** » 02 Mar 2020, 00:34

Close battling the whole race and no one got disqualified? Nice.

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 02 Mar 2020, 15:05

UncreativeUsername37 wrote:Close battling the whole race and no one got disqualified? Nice.

AND no retirements until the last lap!

dinizintheoven · Post by **dinizintheoven** » 03 Mar 2020, 16:13

And the BBC didn't spoil the result when I went to watch the race circa dinner time rather than wait until late evening!

Oh, wait. They did. Twonks.

And to think that when I've posted about recent races I've taken the time to mention how [REDACTED] won, so everyone who's already seen the race knows who [REDACTED] is, and everyone who still wants to watch the race can do so without knowing the result because, let's face it, FE is the complete opposite of F1 when it comes to mind-numbing inevitability and - hopefully not sounding like a Buzzfeed "journalist" here - that's a good thing.

The one hint I'll drop is... nine different winners in the last nine races? F1 can only dream of that, now and probably for ever. When was the last time there were nine different winners in a full F1 season? Has it ever happened? 1982, maybe?

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 03 Mar 2020, 17:14

dinizintheoven wrote:
The one hint I'll drop is... nine different winners in the last nine races? F1 can only dream of that, now and probably for ever. When was the last time there were nine different winners in a full F1 season? Has it ever happened? 1982, maybe?

Seven winners in the first seven races at the start of 2012. I don't know if that increases with the final races of 2011?

Barbazza · Post by **Barbazza** » 03 Mar 2020, 17:15

1982 had 11! Certainly no season has come close to that since.

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 03 Mar 2020, 19:37

Barbazza wrote:1982 had 11! Certainly no season has come close to that since.

Was that in consecutive races though?

UncreativeUsername37 · Post by **UncreativeUsername37** » 04 Mar 2020, 02:09

https://www.statsf1.com/it/statistiques ... annee.aspx
https://www.statsf1.com/it/statistiques ... cutif.aspx

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 04 Mar 2020, 09:13

UncreativeUsername37 wrote:https://www.statsf1.com/it/statistiques ... cutif.aspx

3. Germany 1982 to France 1983
4. Austria 1982 to San Marino 1983
6. Italy 1982 to Monaco 1983

These cannot all be records for most consecutive victories all at the same time. Can they?

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 06 Mar 2020, 17:28

Rome ePrix has joined Sayna ePrix on the suspended/indefinitely postponed/cancelled list of races for the current season due to the COVID-19 Coronavirus.

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 18 May 2020, 18:37

The Jaguar ipace etrophy will not go into a third season. It has so far been FE's only support series. I would have followed it more if it had been easier to do so.

dinizintheoven · Post by **dinizintheoven** » 18 May 2020, 18:54

I'd like to see a proper Electric Touring Car Championship - and that's something the Jaguar iPace series was not. "Lifestyle SUVs" they may be, or however it is the advertising bods refer to them, but they didn't half look ungainly - more so than the BTCC's Volvo 850 estate ever did.

So, let's see: Nissan Leaf versus Volkswagen ID.3 and... anything else? There must be some manufacturers out there still making regular cars, rather than SUVs...

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 18 May 2020, 22:26

dinizintheoven wrote:I'd like to see a proper Electric Touring Car Championship - and that's something the Jaguar iPace series was not. "Lifestyle SUVs" they may be, or however it is the advertising bods refer to them, but they didn't half look ungainly - more so than the BTCC's Volvo 850 estate ever did.

So, let's see: Nissan Leaf versus Volkswagen ID.3 and... anything else? There must be some manufacturers out there still making regular cars, rather than SUVs...

Renault Twizy? Vauxhall Ampera? BMW i3? Toyota Mirai?

Enforcer · Post by **Enforcer** » 24 May 2020, 19:04

Daniel Abt hit with a €10k fine for trying to cheat at the Formula E 'Race at Home Challenge' by getting an eSports driver to drive instead of him:

https://www.motorsport.com/gaming/news/ ... k/4796102/

That's a big fine for what he did.

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 24 May 2020, 20:02

Enforcer wrote:Daniel Abt hit with a €10k fine for trying to cheat at the Formula E 'Race at Home Challenge' by getting an eSports driver to drive instead of him:

https://www.motorsport.com/gaming/news/ ... k/4796102/

That's a big fine for what he did.

If I remember correctly, in the 2003/4 Michael Vaillant movie, you had one driver in one of the Le Mans cars assumed to be another, but has it ever happened in a real life, physical race? Has anyone tried it? (Obviously it was actually Coulthard in the McLaren in the 1996 Monaco Grand Prix and not Michael Schumacher. )

Enforcer · Post by **Enforcer** » 24 May 2020, 22:07

I doubt it's happened in any top level motorsport this side of 1970, but it's probably happened somewhere, either a long time ago or at a regional level. Or both.

Also, I just remembered that Lando Norris was kicked out of a private league in iRacing for mysteriously being able to race in the league at the same time as he was doing Formula Renault at Monza. In mitigation though, he was probably only 16/17 at the time.

Enforcer · Post by **Enforcer** » 26 May 2020, 13:35

Well, this escalated quickly.

Audi have suspended him.

Barbazza · Post by **Barbazza** » 26 May 2020, 15:22

This seems like a massive over-reaction. Fine and slap on the wrist, yes. But, honestly, does anyone REALLY care enough about this?!

Enforcer · Post by **Enforcer** » 26 May 2020, 18:12

I suppose he's taken the piss out of what is essentially a charity event, and Audi and other sponsors must feel that's sufficiently damaging to their brand image to justify this penalty.

It seems excessive to me, cos let's face it, no one outside motorsport nerds and sim racing nerds are going to remember this in a month, charity event or not.

I mean I consider deliberately wrecking someone on a race that was on TV, and then lying about it afterwards, a more serious misdemeanour than getting in a ringer, but Simon Pagenaud still has his job.

Maybe there have been problems behind the scenes and this is the proverbial last straw.

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 26 May 2020, 18:29

Daniel Abt is one of only four drivers to have competed in every race, and the Abt team have had the same two drivers in every race of the series. At least the team can prove that there is no nepotism within the team (not that there was much accusation anyway)?

Klon · Post by **Klon** » 27 May 2020, 09:33

dr-baker wrote:Daniel Abt is one of only four drivers to have competed in every race, and the Abt team have had the same two drivers in every race of the series. At least the team can prove that there is no nepotism within the team (not that there was much accusation anyway)?

Mostly because the nepotism is fairly open. Abt is arguably one of the weakest drivers in the field, if he wasn't part of his family, he would've lost his job quite some time ago. In fact, it makes you wonder whether Audi are glad to have a chance to get rid of him without causing unnecessary friction with Abt Sportsline.

dinizintheoven · Post by **dinizintheoven** » 27 May 2020, 11:03

Enforcer wrote:Well, this escalated quickly. Audi have suspended him.

Upgrade that...

Place your bets now! Who will take a suddenly-free seat at the sharp end of the grid? And is there any chance for a driver who isn't German?

I'll have a fiver on... René Rast. He's the current DTM champion, but that championship is looking moribund as all the German manufacturers are falling over themselves to throw their eggs into the Electric Über Alles basket, for which Formula E offers the only realistic opportunity for them all to compete with each other. And as Rast drives for Audi, presumably he has a good relationship with them already, and he isn't a total novice for Formula E, even if his one-off start was in the first season with identical cars.

Barbazza · Post by **Barbazza** » 27 May 2020, 16:35

Klon wrote:Mostly because the nepotism is fairly open. Abt is arguably one of the weakest drivers in the field, if he wasn't part of his family, he would've lost his job quite some time ago. In fact, it makes you wonder whether Audi are glad to have a chance to get rid of him without causing unnecessary friction with Abt Sportsline.

He's improved and won races though, which is more than you can say for the likes of Ma and Lopez (just off the top of my head) and when me and drbaker went to get driver autographs, he was one of just 2 who actually seemed happy to meet the public, so for that reason alone I've always liked him.

This all smacks a bit of 'we have a good driver lined up, if only we could find an excuse to get rid of Abt!' to me...

Barbazza · Post by **Barbazza** » 27 May 2020, 16:36

Another thought - maybe they have Vettel lined up? Stranger things have happened, and they could always get someone else in to see the season out in the meantime (Heidfeld maybe?)

dinizintheoven · Post by **dinizintheoven** » 27 May 2020, 19:28

I was going to say Nick Heidfeld, but he's 43 now and (according to DriverDB at least) hasn't raced since the 2017-18 FE season. A comeback might be a bit of a stretch...

Vettel in FE would be... interesting, at least, if only to see how a really successful F1 driver fares, when none of F1's previous winners have done anything of note. Jacques Villeneuve, the only F1 World Champion, was arguably the worst of the lot, Felipe Massa has one podium to his name, and Jarno Trulli managed a pole position in the slowest car in the field...

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 03 Jun 2020, 22:06

Has anyone watched "Formula E: And We Go Green" on Channel 4 yet? (Not sure if it's being shown outside of the UK). I've just downloaded it to watch tomorrow.

madmark1974 · Post by **madmark1974** » 08 Jun 2020, 07:58

dr-baker wrote:Has anyone watched "Formula E: And We Go Green" on Channel 4 yet? (Not sure if it's being shown outside of the UK). I've just downloaded it to watch tomorrow.

Just wanted to say thanks for the heads-up on this, caught up with it on All 4 over the weekend. A very good documentary, although definitely not one to watch with the children.

I wonder how much footage they had for this, or if they were just very lucky that they followed the Techeetah team for the season? Lotterer came out of it very well I thought. There was coverage of most of the top teams and drivers, but quite surprising there was nothing of eDams and Buemi - perhaps they denied access?

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 08 Jun 2020, 20:27

Wherlein has quit Mahindra with immediate effect, according to Autosport, which cites a social media post. So that means both Mahindra and Audi Abt are looking for a new driver each.

madmark1974 · Post by **madmark1974** » 17 Jun 2020, 11:12

Formula E to conclude season with six races in Berlin:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/motorsport/53072570

Formula E will conclude its delayed 2019-2020 season with six races across nine days.

The three double-header races will take place on 5-6, 8-9 and 12-13 August at the Berlin Tempelhof circuit in Germany.

Each pair of the six races will be held on differing track configurations at the historic airfield on the outskirts of the German capital, to promote varied race strategies for the teams.

I suppose as the track is just in a big empty space they have plenty of scope to come up with different track layouts, but still seems an odd move ...

Barbazza · Post by **Barbazza** » 17 Jun 2020, 17:26

I guess they just wanted to go to a country with a safe attitude to coronavirus (so that's the UK out straight away...) where they could be based in one place with - I assume - good facilities nearby. At least they can reconfigure the track, though I'm not sure why they want to get all 6 races done in such a hurry, I must admit.

dinizintheoven · Post by **dinizintheoven** » 19 Jun 2020, 13:31

dinizintheoven wrote:Place your bets now! Who will take a suddenly-free seat at the sharp end of the grid? And is there any chance for a driver who isn't German?

I'll have a fiver on... René Rast.

AND I WIN!

Pity that wasn't for real money, I could have genuinely had a free lunch with that.

Post by **Frogfoot9013** » 30 Jan 2021, 12:22

Looks like Formula E will be on a permanent circuit for a round for the first time in the upcoming season to make up for cancelled races, unsurprisingly, at familiar grounds in Valencia

https://www.speedcafe.com/2021/01/29/fo ... t-circuit/

Jan Magnussen · Post by **Rob Dylan** » 30 Jan 2021, 18:53

I was gutted that Paris got cancelled. I mean, living here it was obvious that it would happen, but it's still sad to miss out on a possible motorsport event literally down the road from where I live.

madmark1974 · Post by **madmark1974** » 26 Feb 2021, 16:37

It's race day everyone!

And Mercedes on pole by a considerable margin ...

UncreativeUsername37 · Post by **UncreativeUsername37** » 28 Feb 2021, 04:30

The races were eventful and close, but the shortish distance (well, time) of them combined with the closeness of the field makes it feel like the results are mostly being decided by the group qualifying pseudo reverse grid. Blegh.

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 28 Feb 2021, 11:17

Hoping that Lynn makes a quick recovery from his crash that ended the second race. No idea how his machine ended up upside down, but probably hit the back of someone as they were all backing up because of the other incident that was televised.