Proper racing doesn't attract new fans. It's why F1 had to introduce DRS, it's why WRC is screwing around with formats etc... it's why everyone is running around liek headless chickens quite frankly.

Formula E know they aren't going to attract a large chunk of oldskool fans because it's electric. They also know 'pure' racing isn't particularly engaging for fans. The gimmicks are a necessary evil. They have a bit more licence to try things because they are new and have a different target market,

I suppose. I can't really put myself in that position as I've been a motorsport junkie since Gilles Villeneuve did the three wheel trick at Zandvoort.

Quote from Intrepid :

Proper racing doesn't attract new fans.

I'd argue that V8 Supercars is a series which still provides 'proper racing' and has been growing in popularity over the last few years. There are a wide variety of race formats (100km sprint races with 1 mandatory pit stop, 200km races with 2 mandatory pit stops, 250km, 500km and 1000km). All of the cars share quite a large number of common components (the engine and bodywork are different between the 5 manufacturers but things like brakes, transmission, suspension etc are either control items or heavily restricted), which is a decent attempt at a cost cap and means the field is generally very tight (it's not uncommon to have 20+ cars within less than a second in qualifying). There aren't too many gimmicks involved; for the most part it's proper racing with a pretty good level of driving talent and good, hard racing that isn't dirty. Track attendance for many of the events is 100k+ for a 3 day event and 200k+ for the larger endurance events. Many of the events feature large-scale concerts and other attractions at the venue, which attract people who wouldn't ordinarily have gone for just a motor racing event. The series is also shown within Australia (and possibly some surrounding countries) on free-to-air TV live. The quality of the TV production is excellent.

Quote from amp88 :

I'd argue that V8 Supercars is a series which still provides 'proper racing' and has been growing in popularity over the last few years. There are a wide variety of race formats (100km sprint races with 1 mandatory pit stop, 200km races with 2 mandatory pit stops, 250km, 500km and 1000km). All of the cars share quite a large number of common components (the engine and bodywork are different between the 5 manufacturers but things like brakes, transmission, suspension etc are either control items or heavily restricted), which is a decent attempt at a cost cap and means the field is generally very tight (it's not uncommon to have 20+ cars within less than a second in qualifying). There aren't too many gimmicks involved; for the most part it's proper racing with a pretty good level of driving talent and good, hard racing that isn't dirty. Track attendance for many of the events is 100k+ for a 3 day event and 200k+ for the larger endurance events. Many of the events feature large-scale concerts and other attractions at the venue, which attract people who wouldn't ordinarily have gone for just a motor racing event. The series is also shown within Australia (and possibly some surrounding countries) on free-to-air TV live. The quality of the TV production is excellent.

TV Viewing figures are down in V8 Supercars. They were suggestions last year anyway. Formula E doesn't have V8s singing either. They are at a natural disadvantage.

To launch a new race series with cars that look and sound terrible is hard enough. For me the gimmicks make sense, I don't LIKE them, but they make sense.

Guys you all miss one thing.

This serie isn't make to attract motorsport fan in particular, but to bring new people in a new sort of motorsport. It's not about attracting new fans, just having different fans.

This is racing, yes but in the main this is a marketing thing especially in the first few years.

The cars can't have as much downforce as a WSR car simply because it is electrical. The track, the car and everything around is made in order to keep quite a lightweight single seater that can do 20 minutes of racing on a city track. Spark, renault, Williams, McLaren could have probably done something electric that could have lapped as fast as an LMP1 car around Donington but nothing that could have done 20minutes stints.

Plus the serie got other constraint such as having the same tyres for dry & wet conditions + 18" wheels which is new in single seaters. By the way this car have less technical troubles than half the F1 grid this year and the technology it has is really impressive. Nowadays you don't have any race car that have so many patterns on board. This car is also a work in progress laboratory for factories, which is one of the last excuses motorsport addict find to promote a costly motorsport marketing program to its finance department.

By the way these cars are faster than Formula Renault 2.0 which was the target at the begining of the project. One more thing, that's the only area of motorsport which isn't suffuring from lack of sponsors...

Quote from MoMo92i :

Guys you all miss one thing.

This serie isn't make to attract motorsport fan in particular, but to bring new people in a new sort of motorsport. It's not about attracting new fans, just having different fans.

This is racing, yes but in the main this is a marketing thing especially in the first few years.

You seem to be contradicting yourself a bit here.

I realise that part of the point of Formula E is to attract people who aren't necessarily 'traditional' motorsport fans (hence my use of the term 'casuals'). My point was that casuals are more likely to stay engaged and return if the cars look spectacular on track. With the equivalent of 180bhp in the races, weighing around 800kg and not generating a lot of tyre or aero grip I'm not sure they will be.

Quote from MoMo92i :

The cars can't have as much downforce as a WSR car simply because it is electrical. The track, the car and everything around is made in order to keep quite a lightweight single seater that can do 20 minutes of racing on a city track. Spark, renault, Williams, McLaren could have probably done something electric that could have lapped as fast as an LMP1 car around Donington but nothing that could have done 20minutes stints.

Without proper competition we don't know what could have been possible in the first season. When things become more open we'll hopefully find out...

Quote from MoMo92i :

Plus the serie got other constraint such as having the same tyres for dry & wet conditions + 18" wheels which is new in single seaters. By the way this car have less technical troubles than half the F1 grid this year and the technology it has is really impressive. Nowadays you don't have any race car that have so many patterns on board. This car is also a work in progress laboratory for factories, which is one of the last excuses motorsport addict find to promote a costly motorsport marketing program to its finance department.

We'll see about the technical problems. There have been some already (e.g. overheating of the electrical system and wishbone failures) and they haven't properly tested in the sort of environments they'll be racing in yet (e.g. hot, humid enclosed spaces which they're likely to encounter in city centres).

Quote from MoMo92i :

By the way these cars are faster than Formula Renault 2.0 which was the target at the begining of the project.

Source?

Quote from MoMo92i :

One more thing, that's the only area of motorsport which isn't suffuring from lack of sponsors...

NASCAR (which is practically the antithesis of Formula E) doesn't seem to be struggling for sponsors...

Quote from PMD9409 :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXV24en7emE

Not bad...I guess this is in qualifying mode.

Quote from Intrepid :

TV Viewing figures are down in V8 Supercars. They were suggestions last year anyway. Formula E doesn't have V8s singing either. They are at a natural disadvantage.

To launch a new race series with cars that look and sound terrible is hard enough. For me the gimmicks make sense, I don't LIKE them, but they make sense.

That would be mostly due to the poor Coverage of Channel 7, next year its all changing, besides thats just domestic, internationally its expanding faster then ever.

Are those fans 'new' to motorsport? I doubt it. V8 is very attractive to the current motorsport fan, not so much the 16-25yr market.

Amp Nascar is now struggling to have 43 entries...

The formula E development car made a lot of testings this winter without any troubles and made similar laptimes as FR2.0. You would be surprise by how few teams are working

Btw well spotted I'm made a typo casual motorsport fan is indeed a lot more relevant.

Quote from MoMo92i :

The formula E development car made a lot of testings this winter without any troubles and made similar laptimes as FR2.0.

I just find that hard to believe, given the specs. Even in qualifying mode (~270bhp equivalent) the power-to-weight ratio of the Formula E car is just about the same as the FR2.0. Then you factor in the tyre+aero grip and weight and the FR2.0 seems like it should be significantly quicker. The only thing the Formula E has in its favour is a greater amount of immediate torque, but I'm not sure how significant that is when you factor in the weight of the FR2.0 car. With the Formula E car in race mode (~180bhp equivalent) things are obviously well in the favour of the FR2.0 car.

Calender:
http://www.fiaformulae.com/en/calendar.aspx

Some track layouts I found:
http://msn.foxsports.com/speed ... layout-for-series-opener/
(lol track?)

http://msn.foxsports.com/speed ... aled-for-putrajaya-eprix/

http://msn.foxsports.com/speed ... to-reveal-circuit-layout/

Long Beach with shorter config:
http://www.autoweek.com/articl ... la-e-race-long-beach-2015

Berlin on "Tempelhof", old airport areal, did not find excact layout.

The calendar does look interesting. Basically it is going to run from september to june which is completely different than almost any other motorsport series that basically start in march and end in november. Formula E is planning to race in december and january. It may actually work out for them because there is literally nothing else to watch...

Quote from amp88 :

I just find that hard to believe, given the specs. Even in qualifying mode (~270bhp equivalent) the power-to-weight ratio of the Formula E car is just about the same as the FR2.0. Then you factor in the tyre+aero grip and weight and the FR2.0 seems like it should be significantly quicker. The only thing the Formula E has in its favour is a greater amount of immediate torque, but I'm not sure how significant that is when you factor in the weight of the FR2.0 car. With the Formula E car in race mode (~180bhp equivalent) things are obviously well in the favour of the FR2.0 car.

Actually that really depend on the track, if you look at Donington laptimes they are similar to british F4 and 2s off what GTE cars were doing in ELMS 2012 (usually GTE are sort of same pace as FR 2.0). In a track with shorter straight and slower corners like La Ferté Gaucher Formula E torque advantage become more useful. That's really a car made for small tracks.

Quote from fanboost.fiaformulae.com :

FanBoost - How do I vote?

What is FanBoost?

Fans can give their favourite driver an extra speed boost by voting for them prior to the race.

Who gets the FanBoost?

The three drivers with the most votes will each receive one 2.5-second ‘power boost’, temporarily increasing their car’s power from 133kw (180bhp) to 200kw (270bhp).

How do I vote?

Votes can be cast online at www.fiaformulae.com as well as the Official Formula E Facebook, Twitter and Sina Weibo pages from July 1 and via the official Formula E app, which launches on September 1.

How many votes do I get?

Those voting online and via social media will be able to select just one driver, while those using the app will get five.

Can I change my vote?

A vote can be changed at anytime up until the vote closes, the final registered vote is the only one that counts.

Can the vote be shared?

Every time a person votes and changes their vote, whether that’s through the app, social media or the website, it can be shared into their Facebook timeline, as a hashtag in their Twitter timeline and on their Sina Weibo timeline.

When does the vote close?

The vote closes on the day of the race.

When is FanBoost announced?

The FanBoost recipients are revealed 20mins before the race starts.

How is the vote protected?

We are a working with our Service Providers to review the vote collection and counting procedure.

I still dislike it, but well...

First race in 22 days around the bird's nest.

aside from the fanboost thing, I'm excited about formula E. at least it's only 2.5 seconds of bullshit.

You could argue it's a season of bullshit.

Also, the fan boost thing - the energy has to come from somewhere, and the cars can't race flat out for the whole half race without regenerative braking. So if a driver uses his boost, he has to regenerate more elsewhere.

I think it's the silly two-cars-per-race thing that makes it stupid. Why not two half hour races? Why are they determined to highlight the shortcomings of electric cars (range and recharge time)?

Takuma Sato is a nice guy though. Very intelligent, very good English, and knows what he wants from a seat (particularly around his groin!!).

Quote from tristancliffe :

I think it's the silly two-cars-per-race thing that makes it stupid. Why not two half hour races? Why are they determined to highlight the shortcomings of electric cars (range and recharge time)?

Exactly. It's like having yacht races with hulls made of Swiss cheese and every 5 minutes you stop to switch to another Swiss cheese hull yacht because it's full of water, and at the same time you are telling everyone how great it is to have a hull made from Swiss cheese.

The TV coverage will have a ridiculous flashy intro sequence to build it up, and if they address the car swapping thing at all, they'll quickly gloss over it because it so obviously conflicts with the purpose (presumably) of raising acceptance of alternatives to fossil fuel cars, and so it casts the entire series in a bad light.

The car swapping thing really defeats the object. Probably would have made more sense to prep a fleet of Tesla Model Ss (or maybe BMW i3s) and race them (the Model S is the right size and shape for Superstars, come to think of it). They could even do battery swaps. Of course, that wouldn't be single seaters ...

Or they could use V12 engines and everybody would be instantly interested.

Quote from Hyperactive :

Or they could use V12 engines and everybody would be instantly interested.

Worked well for Superleague Formula

Quote from tristancliffe :

Also, the fan boost thing - the energy has to come from somewhere, and the cars can't race flat out for the whole half race without regenerative braking. So if a driver uses his boost, he has to regenerate more elsewhere.

I imagine the boost would work different than that because it would indeed make no sense.
Either the fan-boosted driver is allowed to charge the battery more or gets an extra battery-cell (others get ballast), something like that. Or easiest just controll it via software.

Mr Sato was telling me that's how it works. Battery backs (which are stressed items, like the engines they replace) can hold a certain charge. You can't "overcharge" them, or add an extra cell. So if yo use fanboost (say, to make an overtake), you have to save a bit more later in the race. It still might be strategically beneficial to use it, but you don't get it for nothing - which is sort of a saving grace. Allowing fans to vote on which driver(s) have an actual advantage would be crazy.

Ok, that sounds bit more sensible then.

Quote from JackDaMaster :

Worked well for Superleague Formula

Well everything else didn't.