Formula E (Electric Dreams)

[Chrill]

Or, considering it's lack of wear and tear, a ten-year old airport that looks brand new.

[Matt]

According to Wikipedia, that new Berlin airport will indeed be opening this November.

While they're actually quite different, it reminds me of MidAmerica Airport in St. Louis. It was built to alleviate traffic at the main St. Louis airport, but it was questionable at the time it was built (it is sometimes considered a "pork barrel" project--essentially, a personal political gift that brings money to a specific representative's district) and only became more questionable soon thereafter. St. Louis used to be a hub for TWA, which meant it was quite a busy and growing airport... until TWA merged with American in 2001, and American dropped St. Louis as a hub. Now the main St. Louis airport (which has also since expanded by adding another runway) doesn't even have that much traffic. MidAmerica served 303,000 passengers last year, compared to the main airport, Lambert, which served 15,878,527 passengers. Lambert is also right in the middle of the city, whereas MidAmerica is 20 miles away.

Anyway, as for Formula E... honestly, I can barely tell the tracks apart anyway. I'm glad they'll get the season finished and I'll still watch them all.

[Penfold]

I shall probably watch two or three of them, possibly more in the unlikely event that they rustle up some interesting layouts round the airport.  Actually, quite a lot of the venues do blend together in my head, the German one stands out because it is such a soulless setting!

From next year Formula E will be a proper FIA-sanctioned World Championship with a nice, compact calendar: https://www.fiaformulae.com/en/news/2020/june/2021-race-calendar

[Matt]

Racing on a bunch of street circuits all over the world starting in January still seems very optimistic. It's a bit different when you're racing on actual tracks.

[Penfold]

BMW follows Audi out of the Formula E door: https://www.racefans.net/2020/12/02/bmw-follow-audi-in-pulling-out-of-formula-e/

Lack of freedom to innovate probably killed their enthusiasm for the series.

[Penfold]

Time to wake the thread from deep hibernation. New season soon with rejigged cars and a calendar that's all in the same year, what an idea!

1 Mexico City - Mexico - 14 January
2 Diriyah 1 - Saudi Arabia - 27 January
3 Diriyah 2 - Saudi Arabia - 28 January
4 Hyderabad - India - 11 February
5 Cape Town - South Africa - 25 February
6 Sao Paulo - Brazil - 25 March
7 Berlin 1 - Germany - 22 April
8 Berlin 2 - Germany - 23 April
9 Monaco - Monaco! - 06 May
10 Jakarta 1 - Indonesia - 03 June
11 Jakarta 2 - Indonesia - 04 June
12 Portland - United States - 24 June
13 Rome 1 - Italy   15 July
14 Rome 2 - Still in Italy - 16 July
15 London 1 - United Kingdom - 29 July
16 London 2 - United Kingdom - 30 July

[Chrill]

I'm impressed to see Rome wasn't rebuilt (outside Italy) in a day.

[Penfold]

It is famously a two-day job....

Here be the new cars in all their angular splendour:





Front wing not the most pleasing but otherwise I rather like them

[Chrill]

I don't like seeing them from above. So... fat. Bulky. Awkward.

Honestly, Gen 1 and Gen 2 both looked pretty sweet at least after seeing them for a while. Maybe Gen 1 with the "newer" front wings were my favourites. I'll probably warm up to this one also.