Formula E Hong Kong ePrix

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Not my cup of cake
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In case you missed it, the Formula E season kicks off this weekend in Hong Kong. This is another new circuit for the series and runs round the streets of the former British colony. The circuit length is 1.86km which means an Olympic 1500 metre runner could get round it in about 4 minutes. I hope the electric racing cars will be a tad faster.

Here's a link to the official HK e-Prix site: HK Formula E

For those watching in the UK Channel 5 have coverage this year and the race is on at 8:30 on Sunday morning: FIA Formula E Live: Hong Kong - Channel 5

Here are the teams and drivers:

DS Virgin - Sam Bird & Jose Maria Lopez
NextEV NIO - Nelson Piquet jnr & Oliver Turvey
Venturi Formula E - Stephane Sarrazin & Maro Engel
Faraday Future Dragon Racing - Loic Duval & Jerome d'Ambrosio
Renault e-DAMS - Nicolas Prost & Sebastien Buemi
ABT Schaeffler Motor Sport - Daniel Abt & Lucas di Grassi
Mahindra Racing Formula E Team - Felix Rosenqvist & Nick Heidfeld
Panasonic Jaguar Racing - Mitch Evans & Adam Carroll
Techeetah - Jean Eric Vergne & Ma Qing Hua
MS Amlin Andretti - Robin Frijns & Antonio Felix da Costa

So some new teams, well team names anyway, and some new drivers and drivers switching teams. Sebastien Buemi is defending his title. I'm sure Lucas di Grassi will be looking for some revenge for last season and Nelson Piquet jnr will be hoping not to revisit the nightmare that was the 2015-16 season after winning the title first time out.

Next race isn't until November 12th in Marrakesh so sit back, turn up the volume and listen the the WHINE!
 
As I work for Jaguar Land Rover and I have 4 apprentices who work in electrification research I can honestly say this is where vehicle makers see the future (at the moment). It's been funny seeing Formula E information stations going up around our various plants. At these stations it just so happens you can also place a fan boost vote for your favourite driver.

I think Jaguar have teamed up with Williams to produce the car so they will definitely get my backing this season. I've just got to remember to watch it now.
 
eDAMS and ABT have looked the strongest teams across the first two years of Formula E (notwithstanding nepotistically selected poor drivers). DS looked like they were growing in speed towards the end of the season, but they did suffer from Sam Bird's lack of concentration at key times. It will also be interesting to see what Techeetah (née Amlin) will do with the Renault powertrain.

Jaguar have to compete, however. They can't afford a repeat of their Formula One fiasco of the early 2000s. I suspect that Mitch Evans is an astute acquisition for a Formula E team; one of the best of Formula E's GP2 crop.
 
Looking forward to this, can get some great racing. Channel5 are already doing it on cheap worringly. Buemi the deserved champ but probably disappointed he didnt get title secured earlier because he was dominant car credit to di grassi because last yr he took advantage of all buemis mistakes. If Alain Prost hadnt been the boss. Highly doubt nico prost would still be at Edams (if you take away 2 london races last season as its not fair comparison) as Buemi been on the podium 11 times Prost 3 times

Jaguar have kept expectations low say if they won on its Formula E debut in Hong Kong it would mean something is wrong with the series considering that most teams have a year's experience with their powertrains. But as teabag as said it cant possibly be as bad f1 car crash
 
To be fair to Jags dismal time in F1, Ford should shoulder much of the blame but used the Jag brand to shield themselves from criticism. A theme very much continued by their successors Red Bull and their relationship or lack of, with Renault.

With the Electric car, there is a great deal of effort industry wide being spent on this technology. I'm somewhat surprised that Tesla haven't taken up the Formula E challenge as they are currently considered by many as the industry leaders. Jaguar, like BMW, Audi etc are undertaking a great deal of work in electrification to meet ever tightening emissions regs.

In terms of Powertrain development this will be very much a Jaguar project.
 
Here's a thought, and a bit off topic, if (as some have suggested) we all move to electric cars in the next 20 years there won't be sufficient power generation to meet demand so we will have to choose between sitting in the dark or driving our cars and virtually every western government will be broke as they take huge tax revenues from all points in the oil supply chain.

I'm surprised Elon Musk hasn't met a sudden end in the same way Rudolf Diesel did.
 
Here's a thought, and a bit off topic, if (as some have suggested) we all move to electric cars in the next 20 years there won't be sufficient power generation to meet demand so we will have to choose between sitting in the dark or driving our cars and virtually every western government will be broke as they take huge tax revenues from all points in the oil supply chain.

I'm surprised Elon Musk hasn't met a sudden end in the same way Rudolf Diesel did.

Without wanting to go off top topic. as great as this is electric tech has become. Its not the future & never has been. It's always been hydrogen, as that fits in well with the fill up & go culture with no emissions (as apparently you can drink the water from the exhaust pipe although I'll pass) whereas top gear proved when you run out on electric its 8/9hrs or 3 hrs fast charging but that knackers the battery which is £5,000 replacement you cant do long range journeys as how do you go London on a upto 155 mile range
 
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I had a similar conversation with an engineer at work a while ago. He said to me that he couldn't see the point of electrification because if everyone in our college rushed out and purchased a battery powered car and drove it in, there isn't enough capacity in the local network to charge them. (Exactly what FB has just written).

The trouble with Hydrogen fuel cells is that you need a convincing safety record to ensure people trust using it.

The next tech coming over the car horizon is automatically driven cars and that's another thing all together.
 
Indeed but people have spent their whole lives around petrol where as when you think of hydrogen you think of either a bomb or the Hindenburg disaster.

Perception is a difficult thing to change.
 
Again not going off topic but one of the areas they are pushing forward tech wise in this series is the amount of charging time and power needed to charge. From what I've been told the current Formula E cars only use as much energy as your mobile phone to charge.

Anyways on to the series. I'm looking forward to year 3 and whilst I still think it will be Audi and Renault out the front, after seeing testing, Mahindra and Virgin look like they might be in with a shout.

Mahindra gave out free T-shirts during the pit walk at testing and Heidfeld and Rosenquist sat and signed everyone's. Whilst he was signing mine I ask Heidfeld if he was going to get a bit better luck this year. He said "probably not"
 
I get that but storing hydrogen is just as dangerous as petrol. Both are flammable
Flammable is a relative concept. Hydrogen, LPG, petrol, and diesel are all flammable. However, LPG and Hydrogen are much more flammable than petrol, which is much more flammable than diesel. (Diesel is surprisingly hard to ignite, if you have a puddle of diesel outside, you can probably chuck a lit match in without much effect. TRY AT YOUR OWN RISK.)
 
An interesting race with a high number of risks being taken by teams. The track was a bit mickey mouse but there were overtaking opportunities. Most of the cars were stationary for a point as they all tried to feed through the first corner hairpin on lap one.

The coverage remains fairly dull. Though Channel 5 had the decency to show the whole race ad free, they were in such a rush to get to the ads after the winner crossed the finish line we never had a chance to see the rest of the field finish.
 
Watched the E for the first time this morning. Promising, although they do look and sound like toys. Maybe I'll get over that. Agreed the Hong Kong course was too small, one minute laps. Managed about 15 laps before Suzuka's early start made me pass out and get booted upstairs.
 
eDams and Abt once again understanding the strategy of a Formula E race perfectly, although there might have been a bit more threat had Bird's car actually started from the pit.

I laughed when they noted that Lopez's crash had given the lead to his team-mate. I think Piquet might just be at the very bottom of the queue of people who could get too upset about that...
 
Well that was fun. Bodes well for the rest of the season.
I enjoyed some of the sideways actoin on the steep corners. I can't help thinking if the tyres were just a little skinnier it could be even more fun. that and make the cars a little more resilient too. Do the aero appendages actually serve much function at the speeds they typically travel at?
 
I really enjoyed that, more than the GP. Couldn't help but smile when NPj had his problems, bad luck for birdie and great run through the field from di Grassi. Looks like there could be multiple race winners this season even with all the different tech being used to push the cars along.
 
I set my recorder for the intro and the race, it didn't record either. Have they found some way of preventing recording. So I went on the Channel 5 website which put me onto Youtube, apparently being in the UK I am not allowed to watch the content. This is conformed elsewhere, no replays in the UK.

What a great way to enthuse wouldbe fans.
 
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