Formula E (Electric Dreams)

[Penfold]

I can see why they've introduced the speed zones (boost zones? I don't know the official name) now that FE is a pit stop-free environment - inject some strategy into the affair with these two compulsory four-minute bites of extra power.  It's not an approach I love, but I wouldn't say it detracted from proceedings as much as DRS does in F1.  With an essentially evenly paced field in FE, if a rival does use their 25 kW boost to zip past there is every opportunity to repay the favour; with DRS in F1 it's normally so hard to stay within one second of someone that anyone who can trigger DRS has a fundamentally much faster car/newer tyres and simply eases away after the overtake.

[Matt]

It's not so much that the field is evenly paced, but rather that the cars still don't go fast enough (and don't have enough grip) for aero wash to be a huge issue. But it's time to get rid of FanBoost, because there's just too many boosts going on. Not that FanBoost ever should have existed to begin with.

[Penfold]

FanBoost... so dire it almost makes F1's DRS passes seem like a pure form of racing.

[Penfold]

A fairly entertaining race last Saturday.  The Da Costa/Sims incident was quite hilarious....

[Penfold]

Electrified racing presses on with the launch of an F4 series: https://www.racefans.net/2020/01/21/electric-racing-academy-series-launched-at-zolder/

[Penfold]

The 2020 Rome EPrix has been cancelled.  I think we all saw that one coming down the road: https://www.racefans.net/2020/03/06/coronavirus-causes-first-major-race-cancellation-in-europe-as-formula-e-scraps-rome-eprix/

[Penfold]

Indonesia race also off: https://www.racefans.net/2020/03/11/third-formula-e-race-cancelled-due-to-coronavirus/

[Chrill]

At what point will they just cancel the season? Only Chile, Mexico, and Morocco are in countries reasonably unaffected.

[Penfold]

Yeah, and they've already held those rounds!  Next races are Paris, Seoul, and Berlin, all meant to take place before the end of June.  Sure they will.

Talking of the Coronavirus... I see the U.K. continues to slip down the World leaderboard of reported cases: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html

Just a couple of weeks back we were safely within the top ten, but now we find ourselves in a rather lowly 15th (I'm ignoring the Cruise Ship entry) having been overtaken by a raft of countries, all of which bar the U.S. have considerably smaller populations than Britain.  I think our position has at least stabilised, for a while there I feared we'd drop behind Belgium (can you imagine!), and so hopefully we can build from this base as we try and chase down Sweden, the Netherlands, and Denmark.

[Penfold]

Formula E season suspended until further notice: https://www.racefans.net/2020/03/13/opening-f2-and-f3-race-dates-cancelled-as-formula-e-suspends-season/

[Penfold]

How to make Formula E even less interesting to watch: hold six races in Berlin - https://www.racefans.net/2020/06/17/formula-e-to-hold-six-races-in-eight-days-to-end-2019-20-season/

[Chrill]

We're concerned over how the 2nd race in a double header will feel, but the SIXTH in a sextuple-header? That's just impressive.

[Penfold]

Yeah, but it's three different configurations of the entirely charmless Templehof airport venue, so that should keep everyone enthralled....

[Chrill]

Ah yes, the airpot they abandoned 10-15 years ago for the new Brandenburg Airport (which hasn't opened yet).

If you're bored, and haven't heard of the Berlin Brandenburg Airport, go find a video on YouTube or read an article. It's an absolute hoot, such a failure.

[Penfold]

I did see a piece about it a couple of years back, but I just went and refreshed my memory and, well, what a fuck up.  I see it's slated to open this October, and after looking at some shots of the interior, I do find it rather humorous that they'll have a brand new state-of-the-art airport that already looks ten years old!