Formula e to electrify motor sport?

There’s one motor racing series which is embracing modern technology and attempting to push the boundaries of how we go motor racing. The competitive edge will help to drive technology forward that will drip feed down in to the automotive industry, therefore making it a relevant and pioneering series.

It has embraced social media reaching out to the tech savvy and younger generations and even made the sport interactive, while it has constantly been running demonstrations and encompassing a more even approach with the teams all working (for the time being) on a similar level. Of course this isn’t Formula 1, the sports bosses wouldn’t want to waste time finding out what fans want, this is the FIA sanctioned Formula e, the newest form of motor sport to divert fully from the combustion engine to electrical power due for the off in September.

It’s a modern 21^st century world championship that encompasses the aforementioned power systems, one day events in which practice sessions, qualifying and the race all take place in city centres emphasising its green credentials further by making it easily accessible by public transport. It’s being healthily promoted through the means of social media, there have been many video updates and test days have been promoted for the public to attend as an event to see what this new venture is all about.

As it's website says it’s core ethos is about ‘energy, environment andentertainment’ representing ‘a vision of the motor industry over the coming decades, serving as a framework for R&D around the electric vehicle, accelerating general interest in these cars and promoting sustainability.’

The power produced is 270bhp in qualifying trim down to 200bhp when racing. That doesn’t sound much at the moment but I’m sure if this series proves to be a success then the that power output will steadily increase. The sound is very futuristic, with a pretty compelling whooshing noise that sort of turns into a scream. The cars look fairly good and are infused with technology by McLaren, Williams and Renault. There’s no stupid looking noses, and added to that the series doesn’t get a double points round at the end to undermine the previous rounds of the championship.

The cars this year are all the same but from the second year of this project all 10 teams will be allowed to design and build their own cars to use that to advance the technology quicker in the competitive environment. The teams are mostly well established in the motor racing world and include names such as Audi, Andretti, Dams and Virgin while the calendar includes two races in the USA as well as events in Monaco, Germany and the UK.  

The driving standard is pretty high with a lot of ex-formula 1 drivers participating including the likes of Bruno Senna, Nick Heidfeld, Jarno Trulli and Jaime Alguersuari. It also includes two female drivers, Katherine Legge and Michela Cerruti who have both shown their speed in other series.

It really seems to me that a lot of thought has been put into this championship and it is doing what motor racing is often for, to advance technology for the motor industry while having a lot of exciting on-track action (which admittedly remains to be seen).

There are a few causes for concern, they have allowed a rather stupid gimmick of a ‘fan boost’ where the likes of you and me can vote for our favourite driver to receive a power boost during the race. That smacks of artificial nonsense, it could well end up with the same driver getting the boost at every round, although it has made many of the drivers turn to twitter to appeal for votes which I guess helps with driver/audience interaction.

The other thing I find a little off-putting is that during the course of the one hour races the drivers will have to change cars to make it to the end as the battery life will not last long enough to complete the distance. This is something I’m sure will be dropped in the future as the technology advances and the batteries last longer, but I think the general perception is that with a few exceptions, electric cars don’t go very fast and not for very long, so to see the drivers having to hop out mid-race to get a new car kind of solidifies that point of view, especially when you realise that a GP3 car, two rungs down from Formula 1 produces over 100bhp more. I possibly would have reduced the race distance until they didn't need to do that.

But I think these will be minor quibbles and as all the races will be on street tracks, they’ll look plenty fast. The noise is a concern as has been seen in F1 this year, but this series is starting off with their unique sound, so I don’t see it being a problem. As I’ve said it sounds rather futuristic, which is their whole philosophy anyway.

It makes me wonder how Formula 1’s bosses will react to this series if it proves to be a success. They have a decent first calendar, professional outfits and good driver names, many of which should probably be in Formula 1 if it weren’t for some teams need for drivers with a budget.Their inclusion of social media is surely a must for any national or international sport these days to connect with the fans who will at the end of the day, fund the sport. There is a danger that e could make 1 look a bit like a dinosaur. In a way it’s great that the hybrid power trains F1 now uses have come into effect in terms of relevance.

It’s still going to be hard for Formula e, Formula 1 spent a long time being a sport nobody watched until it became the global behemoth it is today. Formula e lacks the cache, the names, the glamour and even in this age, the noise of a world motor sport series that F1 has. However, I think if you compared the two sports as they stand right now you’d say Formula e has a clear direction, it has an electrical charge of modernity, it feels fresh while F1 seems to be in a state of permanent conflict where no one can agree with anything and they constantly talk themselves down despite the racing being absolutely superb this year.

It of course remains to be seen how this championship will be received by the wider public or whether it’ll be a niche series that like other global motor sports gets swallowed by the general public's perception that F1 is motor racing. I don’t think this series can overtake F1 as the standard bearer of motor racing, to be fair it’s CEO Alejandro Agag has never claimed to be a direct rival to Formula 1, but I do think it can be a success. Find out what it’s like for yourself, the first round is on the 13^th September 2014 in China with the finale in London on 27^th June next year. 

all photo's taken from autosport.com

Alonso carries Ferrari to victory against brilliant Perez

What a race and what a fantastically unexpected win for Fernando Alonso and Ferrari. The even more unexpected Sauber of Sergio Perez was second and pole position holder Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren completed the podium in a race which saw a deluge, a red flag, a grid of gazebo’s, safety car restart and some quite thrilling action.

Perez was phenomenal today, at times his pace and relentless pursuit of Alonso was spellbinding. Perhaps he should have won? In fact he should have because he was in the perfect zone, comfortable in all conditions and his car seemed easy to drive and kind on its tyres.

But that surely promotes the point that here today we witnessed a victory by a car which is not even quicker than a Sauber (as good as it is this year, it generally isn’t quicker than a McLaren or a Red Bull) and a driver who will never ever give up.

Fernando Alonso was simply awesome in the rains and heat of Malaysia. He dragged it into the top 10 in qualifying and from the very start in the wet conditions he was there mixing it towards the front. Pit stops worked his way, and he took advantage of that as well as a decisive move to pass Perez.

When the going was good, he exploited it to the maximum. He was amazingly careful with his tyres, making sure not to take too much from them, so he could at least put up a fight against the charging Perez.

He knows that the Ferrari at the moment doesn’t stand a chance in normal conditions, so when a door of opportunity opens you can count on the Spaniard to step right through it and slam it in the face of his pursuers.

Ferrari still hope to challenge for the title as the season goes on and had wanted just to be able to hang on to the leaders during the opening races while they try to develop the car, so to be leading the drivers championship is a real fillip.

The other Ferrari driver Felipe Massa ended up in a poor 15^th from 12^th on the grid. Little wonder then, especially after this fantastic performance by Perez why there are persistent rumours of his imminent replacement by the Mexican. Massa just isn’t the same driver who was so brilliant in 2008/09.

Sergio Perez should have won in what would have been a remarkable victory for him and his Sauber team. I know this team are not exactly podium regulars and so they should be very satisfied with their second place which judging by the reaction after the race they are fairly ecstatic about it but you can’t help but feel they should be a little disappointed and not just about Kamui Kobayashi retiring.

Apart from a couple of slight off track moments Perez was almost perfect and for a large portion of the race he was the quickest man out there in what is supposedly a midfield car.

As the race started there was a constant drizzle of rain ensuring that the entire field apart from the HRT’s started on intermediate tyres. The rain increased and Perez in conjunction with his team decided to take a gamble.

In for the full extreme wet tyres, he started lapping three seconds quicker than anyone so that when all the leaders had to pit he had floated up to third behind the two McLarens. The rain made the track what Jenson Button described as a ‘lake’ and the safety car was duly deployed on lap six and the red flag came a few laps later followed by the grid of gazebo’s and umbrellas.

This didn’t ruffle Perez though, at the restart everyone was on full wets, but the track was soon ready for inters. During the pit stops Perez emerged in the lead, but Alonso had pitted a lap earlier and with tyres already up to temperature passed him quickly and pulled away.

However as the track dried, the Sauber driver started catching by over a second a lap at times, taking huge chunks out of the seven second lead Alonso had built up. By the time it was ready for slicks Perez was about to make a move, but waiting a lap longer than Alonso to pit meant he was back to a seven second gap.

This was their first mistake, as mentioned in the Sky commentary perhaps they should have been looking for a win and grasping their opportunity rather than protecting a decent result. It had become obvious that slicks were the way forward as Daniel Ricciardo who stopped first for dry tyres was lapping several seconds quicker than anyone else. The experience of Ferrari showed here, as this was also their chance and they grasped with hands and feet.

But the Mexican remained unflustered and calmly set a scorching pace to catch the Ferrari back up, and here’s where I believe they made their second mistake. With six laps to go the team radioed Perez to remind him not to take too many chances and that this was a very good result. This of course prompted him to go off which surely is no coincidence, although it's to be expected he'd deny it caused him to lose concentration. 

Drivers are here to race and to win, valuable though those points are to the team, and perhaps it would be more understandable if it was when he was running third as second is just another spot on the podium, but this was a chance to win.

I think his mind set was thrown off slightly, his heroic pursuit of Alonso was now not the priority and there the lack of concentration came, any conspiracy theories of Sauber backing off to protect their Ferrari engine partners victory have been denied and are just silly. Fantastic result tinged with what could have been.

Bruno Senna was another one to star finishing 6^th after tripping over his Williams team mate Pastor Maldonado and being last after the first lap. At times he was one of the fastest out there and made some great overtakes. Scored the result Maldonado should have had in Australia, but also proved that Williams have got themselves a decent car this year in all conditions, already beating their points total from 2011.

The top teams had a mixed day. McLaren had secured their second successive front row lock out, and Hamilton was leading fairly convincingly. But after the restart, a botched tyre stop left him behind Alonso and Perez and he was never able to get back on terms with them,  again the speed didn’t seem with him. Still he had a more genuine smile about him after the race.

Of course that wouldn’t be because his team mate Jenson Button failed to score a point after breaking his nose against the innocent HRT of Narain Karthikeyan, then having tyre temperature issues resulting in 14^th. Not a good day in conditions he’d usually excel in.

Red Bull had a similar story. They got solid points from Mark Webber in fourth but the damage limitation run to second in Australia was not to be repeated by Sebastian Vettel in Malaysia. Although he had worked himself up to fourth place from fifth, he suffered a puncture while lapping Karthikeyan, pulling in front of him too soon and slicing his tyre on the HRT front wing.

His arm waving from cockpit indicated Vettel was not a happy man. Still it’s just the start and although they were strangely nowhere while the track was wet the dry pace still looks like it will win them some races.

Lotus had another good race from Kimi Raikkonen who charged up from his 5 place grid penalty of tenth, to finish 5^th. He says all he is now craving is a normal straight forward weekend so he can discover where the team really stand. Romain Grosjean threw it in the gravel.

Force India recovered from a poor qualifying to get Paul di Resta up to 7^th and Nico Hulkenberg to 9^th and score his first points of the year. They were split by Jean-Eric Vergne in the Toro Rosso, making up for his last lap disappointment in Australia.

Pastor Maldonado would have been at least 10^th if his engine had survived to the end, but this handed the final point to Michael Schumacher. The Mercedes driver deserves more for the form he is currently showing as the silver arrows flatter to deceive again.

Schumacher had qualified 3^rd, but a sluggish start and Grosjean’s Lotus hitting him on the first lap left him down the field. Despite his Mercedes also chewing the tyres, he was able to manage them for one less pit stop than team mate Nico Rosberg, and completed a decent recovery drive, but Merc’s race pace is nowhere near their qualifying speed. Nico was 13^th and has disappointed so far this year but both drivers will have expected more from the first two races.

And one more mention for Narain Karthikeyan, whose HRT started on wets so that when the red flag came out he was lying tenth. That was one team who were hoping the race wouldn’t be restarted!

The opening races are done and now there’s a three week gap until China, so what have we learned so far? It’s closer than ever at the top and in the midfield. McLaren are very quick, but perhaps not as quick as first thought. Red Bull has problems in qualifying, Sergio Perez is a star, Mercedes should be doing better and Ferrari is being carried on the shoulders of a magical Spaniard called Fernando Alonso.

all photo's taken from autosport.com

Senna signs for Williams, Barrichello and Sutil left in the cold

Williams announced Bruno Senna as their choice to partner Pastor Maldonado for the 2012 season. The team have admitted that they have some financial concerns, especially after losing title sponsor AT&T, so they’ll welcome the sponsors that Senna has brought with him.

However, let us not be fooled into thinking Senna is a pay driver, his fitness, technical ability and driving were thoroughly assessed, and it was decided that he has the potential to succeed with the team as they build themselves back up from a dismal 2011 season.

I think it’s a sound decision from the team. From a marketing point of view, the linking of the Senna name with Williams brings up the associations with Ayrton Senna, who’s career with the team was so tragically short. But it conjures up a romantic image of Bruno picking up the baton from Ayrton.

To add to that, whenever he was interviewed on the BBC last year he came across as a really nice guy and very open and concise with what he’s saying, and that can only be a good thing for the team.

Obviously the main point is that he’s a good driver too. He couldn’t show much in the way of speed while with HRT in 2010, in fact it’s probably best to forget that season apart from the experience of the circuits it gained him.

It was his arrival with Renault at last years Belgium Grand Prix that truly impressed. Coming in over half way through the season replacing Nick Heidfeld was always going to be a huge mountain to climb, especially with no testing, but he dealt with the situation well qualifying seventh. Ok, the start wasn’t great, crashing into Jaime Alguersuari, but he plugged away and his pace was good.

He was generally quicker than his team mate Vitaly Petrov, and picked up a couple of points along the way in his eight races. He made some beginner mistakes, but he’s definitely done enough to deserve a place on the grid, let’s hope his untapped potential is released, as this is probably make or break year.

Barrichello and Sutil left with few options

Williams are in the process of massive restructuring throughout the team, technical director Sam Michael having left late last season, replaced by Mike Coughlan of spy-gate fame being the major name announcements. Renault are also now supplying engines, so with this upheaval it might have been thought an experienced driver would have been useful such as the one they had in Rubens Barrichello.

The engineers were apparently keen, the top brass apparently not so keen, so of course this does mean it’s potentially the end for Rubens’ Formula 1 career. In a way it’s just the natural order of things, the old make way for the new to have opportunities. Rubens has been in Formula 1 for nineteen seasons though, and sentimentally, it would have been nice to have made it twenty.

I can’t see him wanting to go to HRT just to make up the numbers without any real hope of challenging beyond 20^th place, so this could be the end which is a shame for many reasons, not least another nice Brazilian (he already tweeted congratulations to Senna) despite occasional whines, but also because he didn’t really get to say goodbye.

But if any other teams have a driver issue, then I’m sure Rubens will be first on the list, with his experience, technical astuteness and speed it would be foolish not to. I hope Williams don’t feel that half way through the year.

Adrian Sutil, formally of Force India, was another driver in the frame for the Williams seat. I thought he would be the favourite; he has proven speed, and had a storming end to 2011 after a difficult start, and like my other favourite of last year Jaime Alguersuari, has been left high and dry.

I do wonder how much the announcement that he is to be charged with grievous bodily harm against Renault F1 owner Eric Lux affected Williams’ choice, but from what I have been reading in the F1 press, it seems Senna stole a march a few weeks back.

Like Rubens, I can’t see Sutil wanting the offer of an HRT drive, it would be a significant step back and he’s certainly not at the age or stage of his career to be considering a back of the grid drive, especially with a team with improving, but still limited infrastructure. Hopefully he’ll end up with a third driver role as I think he still deserves an opportunity.

Ultimately though, I think Williams have made the right choice for their race seat. We know about Rubens, we know what he has to offer. He still has speed and technical ability, but he is 40 this year, he doesn't have many years left to race and this is a team wanting to look forward and away from their downward spiral, something Rubens has unfortunately been a part of.

Sutil on the otherhand might well have been a good fit, but again he's shown speed, but has he shown world beating pace? I think despite his strong showing last season, he has been outshined a few too many times in his F1 career to be considered truly top drawer.

Which brings us back to Senna who's a raw mix of still just about youthfulness, speed and untapped potential and of course that name and the history associated with it.

There are many reasons why they might have picked another driver but Williams are in a state of change. They're a team wanting to move move back up the grid and perhaps with the signing of Senna they're showing that they're back at the table and ready to take a gamble again.

Who wants to race in Formula 1?

Which actually leaves me with the question who actually will take the last remaining seat in Formula 1? HRT, although considered the worst of the three new teams, have actually finished ahead of Virgin, now Marussia in both the years they’ve competed, so they’re not all bad but Alguersuari has already reportedly turned them down and I see no other names being linked to them in the F1 press.

Current incumbent Vitantonio Liuzzi says he has a contract, but he has not been officially announced, at the moment it almost looks like the seat will be his on the basis that no one else wants it, although that is ridiculous. A drive in Formula 1 is a precious thing, but so far it’s anyone’s guess who’ll actually get it.