TheGreenCarWebsite.co.uk: Robert Llewellyn: Formula E gears up to change motor racing for good
It’s far to early to tell if Formula E will work.
By that I mean we don’t know if it will survive for more than one season, will get sufficient long term financial backing (they're fine for this year), will be exciting to watch or will attract widespread attention.
But after spending a day with the teams recently, I’d suggest it was a fairly safe bet.
The official press launch for the teams, drivers and cars was held at Donington Park circuit, a legendary British racetrack where many agree, Ayrton Senna achieved his ultimate lap at the British Grand Prix in 1993.
Having grown up near Silverstone Circuit, motor racing should be in my blood. I learned to drive a go-kart when I was 11 years old. I was fairly obsessed with cars, engines, noise, speed and the aesthetics of bodywork and tyres as a young boy.
It wore off.
I came to see cars as at best an annoying necessity and at worse a positive blight on the world.
Game-changing
I've always been torn between the obvious thrill of a loud and powerful car and the dated crudity of the machinery that achieves this along with the reliance on a finite fuel to make them work.
So something was released from me when my eyes fell upon the ten brand new 100 per cent electric formula E cars displayed in front of the brand new FIA Formula E headquarters.
I was exhilarated. I was excited, I felt inspired.
These cars and the people behind them represent the biggest step change in transportation and technology since the dawn of the steam age.
I will accept nothing less.
To the uninitiated (me) they look very like Formula One cars.
Single seat racing cars with big wide tyres, bizarre nose shapes and wing things at the back. They are constructed out of carbon fibre and they do make a noise. Not anything like the noise from the old Formula One V8’s with short exhaust pipes when Ayrton Senna was driving, but they are definitely not silent.
They are of course very fast and as I get to spend more time with the teams and indeed the cars, I will be able to report on the technical specifics, the range, the speed, the acceleration and all the other questions I’ve already been asked.
At present, no one really knows.
Another very major difference between this year’s Formula E season and other motor racing groups is that all the cars are identical. This is only the case for the first season, the idea is that for the second season (starting September 2015), the teams will build their own cars.
It’s far to early to tell if Formula E will work.
By that I mean we don’t know if it will survive for more than one season, will get sufficient long term financial backing (they're fine for this year), will be exciting to watch or will attract widespread attention.
But after spending a day with the teams recently, I’d suggest it was a fairly safe bet.
The official press launch for the teams, drivers and cars was held at Donington Park circuit, a legendary British racetrack where many agree, Ayrton Senna achieved his ultimate lap at the British Grand Prix in 1993.
Having grown up near Silverstone Circuit, motor racing should be in my blood. I learned to drive a go-kart when I was 11 years old. I was fairly obsessed with cars, engines, noise, speed and the aesthetics of bodywork and tyres as a young boy.
It wore off.
I came to see cars as at best an annoying necessity and at worse a positive blight on the world.
Game-changing
I've always been torn between the obvious thrill of a loud and powerful car and the dated crudity of the machinery that achieves this along with the reliance on a finite fuel to make them work.
So something was released from me when my eyes fell upon the ten brand new 100 per cent electric formula E cars displayed in front of the brand new FIA Formula E headquarters.
I was exhilarated. I was excited, I felt inspired.
These cars and the people behind them represent the biggest step change in transportation and technology since the dawn of the steam age.
I will accept nothing less.
To the uninitiated (me) they look very like Formula One cars.
Single seat racing cars with big wide tyres, bizarre nose shapes and wing things at the back. They are constructed out of carbon fibre and they do make a noise. Not anything like the noise from the old Formula One V8’s with short exhaust pipes when Ayrton Senna was driving, but they are definitely not silent.
They are of course very fast and as I get to spend more time with the teams and indeed the cars, I will be able to report on the technical specifics, the range, the speed, the acceleration and all the other questions I’ve already been asked.
At present, no one really knows.
Another very major difference between this year’s Formula E season and other motor racing groups is that all the cars are identical. This is only the case for the first season, the idea is that for the second season (starting September 2015), the teams will build their own cars.
The Spark-Renault SRT-01E (rolls off the toungue doesn’t it?) is built by Spark Racing Technology in France.
Dallara, an Italian company built the monocoque carbon fibre chassis, the motor has been built by McLaren in the UK along with the batteries built by Williams Advanced Engineering.
This is all being overseen by Renault and it makes for some very intriguing racing possibilities. Will winning be down to the car or the driver?
When I spoke to engineers from the teams yesterday I got the impression that the car could still have something to do with the final outcome.
Their first job was to strip the cars down to their individual bits. Literally the whole thing will be broken down, carefully checked and re-assembled. They will make infinitely small adjustments to the car, within the strictly enforced rules, which could mean one car can complete a lap in 0.0013 second faster than another.
Great unknown
The teams have another problem to contend with.
Dallara, an Italian company built the monocoque carbon fibre chassis, the motor has been built by McLaren in the UK along with the batteries built by Williams Advanced Engineering.
This is all being overseen by Renault and it makes for some very intriguing racing possibilities. Will winning be down to the car or the driver?
When I spoke to engineers from the teams yesterday I got the impression that the car could still have something to do with the final outcome.
Their first job was to strip the cars down to their individual bits. Literally the whole thing will be broken down, carefully checked and re-assembled. They will make infinitely small adjustments to the car, within the strictly enforced rules, which could mean one car can complete a lap in 0.0013 second faster than another.
Great unknown
The teams have another problem to contend with.
Currently a Formula One team heading for say, the Australian Grand Prix, have truck loads of data on the circuit from previous years.
The Formula E teams will be racing on city streets. There is no data, it's never been done before.
Pot holes, loose manhole covers, deep drainage gullies at the side of the road are all unknown.
At each race they will have limited time to explore the track, the team manager and the driver will walk around it looking for problems but, as one jocular engineer explained to me it’s a bit ‘suck it and see.’
The whole Formula E season is a bit suck it and see, but I’m very happy to have a suck, and in September this year, broadcast on ITV4, live from Beijing during the 1st race of the international Formula E season; we will be able to see too.
The Formula E teams will be racing on city streets. There is no data, it's never been done before.
Pot holes, loose manhole covers, deep drainage gullies at the side of the road are all unknown.
At each race they will have limited time to explore the track, the team manager and the driver will walk around it looking for problems but, as one jocular engineer explained to me it’s a bit ‘suck it and see.’
The whole Formula E season is a bit suck it and see, but I’m very happy to have a suck, and in September this year, broadcast on ITV4, live from Beijing during the 1st race of the international Formula E season; we will be able to see too.
