Formula E Zurich E-Prix

RasputinLives

No passing through my dirty air please
Contributor
The hills are alive with the sound of gentle electric motors! Yes this weekend Switzerland pops out of neutral, lifts it's ban on Motorsport and puts on a (Nazi) gold standard event with its first E-Prix. The locals will have plenty to ring their cow bells and shake their toblerones at too with home boy Sebastian Buemi in the mix. After a Frenchman winning in Paris and a German winning in Berlin, you almost feel like it needs to be a Swissite winning in Zurich. Unfortunately Renault have really forgotten to care about Formula E this year as they are dropping out to hand over to Nissan. It all seems very going through the motions. So much so I wouldn't be surprised in Nico Prost was still doing laps of Berlin airport because they couldn't be bother to tell him to pit.

Speaking of the race in Berlin - it was really dull wasn't it? Let's hope Zurich is better. With just three races left it really does look like Vergne is steadily edging towards that title and only some mammoth form from Bird can stop him. Needs to start here and now though as that 40 point lead is huge. Man to watch for me though is the much maligned Danny Abt. He finds himself in form and in the best car. Mathematically he could still win the title but Vergne would have to score nothing whilst he scored everything. I could see a couple of wins though. How lucky we are we Audi had so many issues at begining of the year or things would have been dull dull dull.

I'm expecting to see a lot of VIPs at this event. Mainly because it's not very often they can go check on their secret tax avoidance slush fund and write it off as a business expense. You can join them all through the magic of your TV screen by watching then on CH5 at 16:30 BST (yes on the main channel again). If you're not in the UK it is probably on your local channels or its streamed live on the Formula E website.
 
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Odd track, looks like key you would use to open a safety deposit box

zurich-layou-t01.jpg


Image from here: Formula E: Final Zurich ePrix track layout revealed
 
So just me that thought it looked like womens entertainment tool

Speaking of the race in Berlin - it was really dull wasn't it?

With royal wedding, fa cup final, play offs & biggest weekend. I never got around to watching it on planner. So just deleted it as i thought 2 weeks. Seemed i made correct decision
 
I love 90 degree corners, I love 90 degree corners,I love 90 degree corners,I love 90 degree corners,I love 90 degree corners,I love 90 degree corners,......

No, I cannot, however hard I try.
 
Seems like a sensible pit lane for a European Formula E race! Means the finish line won't be halfway round a corner for Andre Lotterer to cause a crash in...
 
If the race is as good as qualifying we are in for a snorter. Another thing to ponder on, the main straight goes up and down like a whores draws and the pit lane is cobbled. I can imagine F1 refusing to race in these sort of "medieval" conditions!
 
Who wouldve thought after start to di grassi season when he didn't score for 4 rds. he would be 3rd in championship & also all them drive through penalties for a moment where almost a disaster for bird. Because yes he would be 5th > 2nd. But his championship rival was very nearly 7th > 3rd
 
I chose to watch F1 on Sunday night and catch up with Formula E to night. What an error. This was fantastically entertaining.

Great drive through the field by Di Grassi then he hit the front and all his rivals got drive throughs! He must have been like "where did everyone go?". Vergne was up the field, down the field, up the field and down again like a yo yo. Bird faded but somehow got a hell of result. D'ambrosio has been nowhere all year and then suddenly got a podium. Crazy stuff. Really enjoyable motor race.

It still amazes me how close these guys can follow. That 5 car train for 2nd early on was just immense. They were all literally under each others wings.
 
Yes it was a bit odd. Mitch Evans had a radio message cut off midway (because of swearing) where he seemed to suggest that he'd not received the delta data to drive too.
 
it was strange because for was it 5 or 6 drivers to all do it, means something mustve been wrong. but drivers will always be pushing that delta as close to the limit as possible & i remember Dario franchitii thought something was up. when he saw quite a few drivers locking up at the final hairpin, assuming trying to get back under the delta
 
Just to follow up on the original point that Bill Boddy made. It appears the experienced drivers do not understand it either.

Formula E drivers baffled by 'huge crime' Zurich yellow penalties

"Maybe we're all a bunch of idiots" suggests Vergne. More likely there was a fault with the tech. Three on slowing down and two on speeding up would suggest there was

The tin foil hat cynical side of me would suggest it meant a nice hatful of points for Bird and a championship show down in New York but I'm not sure I really believe that at the moment.
 
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