Well, I gotta admit this. I was rather enthusiastic over this inaugural
Formula E (FE) race that happened earlier today in China. I have no idea where I got the enthusiasm from. I did not follow FE right from the beginning when the teams and drivers were announced or the cars were revealed. I did not even catch up on the pre-season testings to assess who has what it takes to be a potential Formula E star.
I voted for my favourite driver in the fan boost two weeks ago only to find out that he, António Félix da Costa, won't be racing this weekend. I then went ahead to vote for Sébastien Buemi (go Red Bull family!) only to watch him retire from the race because he lost one part of his car's bodywork...
As we all know, the FE takes place in a single day. We have a total of two practices, a qualifying and a race to watch on Saturday. That is the reason why it starts super early, affecting many viewers' sleep.
FE stands out partly because of how it operates and the formation of the circuits. All the cars are of the same model Spark-Renault SRT_01E working on a Williams F1 lithium-ion battery pack that lasts for a maximum of 30 minutes of hard driving. As such, drivers are required to make a mandatory pitstop to swap cars when the battery runs out. The policy of using the same car will, however, only be for its first season. All FE circuits are built around city-centre venues on the streets, making overtakings a challenge.
I gave the practices and qualifying a miss for cellular data reasons. I tuned in earlier to watch the pre-race build up, catching up on what I had missed and finding out the winners of the fan boost: Bruno Senna, Lucas di Grassi and Katherine Legge. Before the formation lap started, I managed to make my final decision upon choosing Audi Sport ABT as my favoured FE team to win both championships. My pick certainly did not fail to impress me at all throughout the race today (yay Audi!).
When the lights went green to signify the start of the formation lap, my eyes were on my tiny laptop screen. It was the first FE race, it was meant to be a special event that should never be missed. Alas, the beginning deflated my hopes. It was like watching a slow-mo movie. Everything was moving so slowly. I refreshed my page several times just to check if the the site was lagging but the achingly slow speed pursues. I did expect FE to be way slower than F1 but not to this extent. I think even Turbo, the snail from Dreamworks, could have done several laps in that one lap the FE cars covered. That formation lap really put me off. The sounds from the engines were so off, it felt like being in a pigsty, listening to pigs squeal. This made me appreciate F1's V6s more than ever. haha.
The first lap had a different atmosphere as to the formation lap. Yes, the cars were a tad faster but I was genuinely surprised to see a flurry of activity all of a sudden. This was the lap in which we see Bruno Senna involved in a crash (just when I thought I was able to see a reenactment of the Senna-Prost battle) and see three drivers retire from the race in the process.
There were some exceptional defences and overtakings here and there but otherwise the race went on pretty much the same. Well, the pitstop was an entertaining sight though. I am sure this doesn't just appeal to me. It is odd to see drivers swapping cars in mid race. We normally watch races whereby the pitstop crew would change parts of the car. In FE, we see the crew actually helping the drivers get out the car and fit them into another. It seemed like driver speed matters more than the pitstop crew in this context.
Son of four time F1 world champion Nico Prost was the leader in most parts of the race. FE is all about conserving energy. The last two laps gave Nick Heidfeld an advantage. He was left with more energy in his battery pack as to Prost. So it began, all eyes were on those two in the final lap. Heidfeld gained speed and his car was eventually beside Prost's. Unfortunately for the German, both of their wheels made contact and it sent him flipping towards tyre barrier. It was a nasty crash, a terrifying sight which looked like he might need serious hospital treatment for. Thankfully he was able to crawl out of the car by himself unscathed and run towards Prost to confront him regarding the accident. Despite their on track duel, they cleared the air through their exchanges in tweets. I admire this form of sportsmanship. I hope we get to see more of this in all other motorsports.
This unexpected ending gave former Virgin F1 racing driver Lucas di Grassi the first spot to win the very first FE race. His teammate Daniel Abt was meant to complete a full Audi podium only to be handed a time penalty for exceeding the battery consumption. His third spot was claimed by Sam Bird who had proven to us that he is the king of overtakes.
It is pretty ironic to see that none of the legend's son/nephew managed to finish their debut race. Definitely not a pleasant start to have on the record.
The next race will be on 22nd November, which coincidentally falls on the same week as the final F1 race! FE is definitely a good fill-in once the F1 season is over. Thank you for having such an unusual schedule! :D
Beijing ePrix Race:
Race results | |||||||||||
| POS | NO | DRIVER | TEAM | LAPS | TIME | GAP | INT | KPH | BEST | ON LAP | |
| 01 | 11 |  | Lucas di Grassi | Audi Sport ABT | 25 | 52:23.413 | 127.5 | 1:46.718 | 19 | ||
| 02 | 27 |  | Franck Montagny | Andretti Autosport | 25 | 52:26.280 | 2.867 | 127.4 | 1:46.640 | 24 | |
| 03 | 2 |  | Sam Bird | Virgin Racing | 25 | 52:29.972 | 6.559 | 3.692 | 127.2 | 1:46.563 | 21 |
| 04 | 28 |  | Charles Pic | Andretti Autosport | 25 | 52:42.714 | 19.301 | 12.742 | 126.7 | 1:46.730 | 23 |
| 05 | 5 |  | Karun Chandhok | Mahindra Racing | 25 | 52:47.365 | 23.952 | 4.651 | 126.5 | 1:45.892 | 20 |
| 06 | 7 |  | Jerome d'Ambrosio | Dragon Racing | 25 | 52:55.077 | 31.664 | 7.712 | 126.2 | 1:47.313 | 24 |
| 07 | 6 |  | Oriol Servia | Dragon Racing | 25 | 53:05.381 | 41.968 | 10.304 | 125.8 | 1:47.361 | 21 |
| 08 | 99 |  | Nelson Piquet | China Racing | 25 | 53:07.309 | 43.896 | 1.928 | 125.7 | 1:47.819 | 18 |
| 09 | 30 |  | Stephane Sarrazin | Venturi | 25 | 53:07.388 | 43.975 | 0.079 | 125.7 | 1:47.832 | 17 |
| 10 | 66 |  | Daniel Abt | Audi Sport ABT | 25 | 53:25.920 | 1:02.507 | 125.0 | 1:46.551 | 17 | |
| 11 | 3 |  | Jaime Alguersuari | Virgin Racing | 25 | 54:24.026 | 2:00.613 | 122.8 | 1:47.914 | 7 | |
| 12 | 8 |  | Nicolas Prost (P) | e.dams-Renault | 24 | 50:31.252 | 1 Lap | 126.9 | 1:46.227 | 24 | |
| 13 | 23 |  | Nick Heidfeld | Venturi | 24 | 50:31.881 | 1 Lap | 126.9 | 1:46.214 | 24 | |
| 14 | 18 |  | Michela Cerruti | Trulli | 24 | 52:41.375 | 1 Lap | 121.7 | 1:49.469 | 15 | |
| 15 | 77 |  | Katherine Legge | Amlin Aguri | 24 | 53:24.538 | 1 Lap | 120.1 | 1:48.753 | 21 | |
| 16 | 88 |  | Ho-Pin Tung | China Racing | 23 | 53:58.750 | 2 Laps | 113.8 | 1:48.793 | 16 | |
| 17 | 55 |  | Takuma Sato (FL) | Amlin Aguri | 21 | 50:52.279 | 1:45.101 | 21 | |||
| 18 | 9 |  | Sébastien Buemi | e.dams-Renault | 14 | 37:24.671 | 1:45.874 | 13 | |||
| 19 | 10 |  | Jarno Trulli | Trulli | 2 | 41:22.799 | 1:52.596 | 2 | |||
| 20 | 21 |  | Bruno Senna | Mahindra Racing | |||||||
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