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What we Learned from the Beijing ePrix

Saturday’s Beijing ePrix race proved to be an instant hit. With incredibly close and competitive racing on a tight and twisty street circuit the inaugural fully-electric event proved to go down well with motorsport fans. However, there are things which perhaps Formula E, the FIA and its organisers could improve on between now and the ten week gap until the next race in Malaysia, as well as there being some things which although highly sceptical and criticised by many didn’t prove to be as bad as expected:

Hugely competitive teams and drivers

Many expected just the ABT and e.dams teams to be the frontrunners from the word go in Formula E. While these two teams did feature at the front, they weren’t the only ones to get in on the action, as Andretti (who leads the teams’ championship), Venturi (who should have won the race), Virgin and Mahindra all showed that they could convincingly run towards the front with the two teams that everybody expected to be the stars of the show. Furthermore, we saw Takuma Sato’s Aguri snatch the fastest lap points from the e.dams team. I don’t think we saw the full potential of Jarno Trulli or Jay Penske’s Dragon Racing team in the first race too, so this championship full of fantastic teams and drivers could prove to be hugely competitive this year as a single-spec series. And thankfully the cars at least look decent, unlike the majority of this year’s Formula One cars.

The SRT_01E is a fantastic racing car

Looking at the layout of the Beijing Olympic Green Circuit – very tight, four chicanes, very narrow, it didn’t immediately scream out as one which will provide a lot of overtaking, however, that was shunned as we saw overtakes right from the green flag until the chequered flag, we saw cars able to run side by side, cars able to slipstream one another and we saw generally really clean racing, bar the Andretti drivers getting very close at the start and at the end, where Rebellion Racing team mates Nico Prost and Nick Heidfeld caused this mighty shunt. The car is also clearly pretty robust, which is good. Although the car isn’t the fastest in the world, it’s barely quicker than a Formula Ford car, it produced good racing, especially in the hands of Franck Montagny, which is the key thing at the end of the day; we can only imagine what it could produce on a more open circuit. I was impressed with the reliability, just four cars were not classified, and one of those was due to a collision.

Fanboost and pit stops not as farcical as some believed

Two of the more interesting ideas in this series included the concepts of drivers having to switch cars mid-race and the idea of fans being able to vote for their favourite drivers to have extra power. Whilst a fanboost-equipped car won the race, we didn’t see this extra boost necessarily having a direct result on the race, as Lucas di Grassi generally struggled for pace compared to Prost and Heidfeld, even with his extra 40bhp for five seconds per car. Although the idea of a minimum pitstop time is good for safety, it probably could do with a bit of work, as it was silly watching cars just sit there dormant for multiple seconds in the middle of a race, so reducing this minimum time or getting the okay from a FIA delegate could be a much better option. Another thing which many noticed was that the website crashed. While obviously this was a headache for those wishing to vote for their favourite driver, it was ultimately a positive, as it showed that there was clearly a higher following for the very first Formula E race than perhaps anticipated by organisers.

The ‘Formula EJ’ is a bit weird…

One thing that was absolutely daft however, was the DJ playing music in the background – called the Formula EJ, which sounds like a dodgy racing series set up by Eddie Jordan, and this could be heard throughout the whole race. With a pretty terrible playlist which sounded far worse than what I experienced in a dodgy nightclub in the middle of a week whilst at university, it could be heard over the commentary team and would put me off the on-track action if I was at the event. While I think that during, for example, the formation and cool-down laps to build up or release tension would be a better option, as well as maybe during a safety car period perhaps. There is no need for this music to be played during a race, when all eyes should be focused on the cars and drivers. This is definitely one thing that should either be worked on massively or scrapped entirely.

On-screen graphics were poor

What frustrated me most during the inaugural fully-electric race was the on-screen graphics. Although some of the ideas were good, with speed, battery usage and so on, the colours, font and font size were awful. I could barely see them on a decent-sized television, so I highly doubt that anybody would have been able to read the graphics on a small television or on a laptop. In addition to this, whenever I could read a graphic, it usually displayed irrelevant or inconsistent information. So this needs a major rethink and soon.

After all of the hype surrounding the Formula E race, I doubt that many could argue that is was a disappointment, I thoroughly enjoyed the very clean racing that was decided on the final corner of the final lap anyhow. It somewhat reminded me of an IndyCar race on a street course, but without Will Power and Simon Pagenaud hitting each other or the constant caution periods. I’m massively looking forward to the second ePrix, but it would be nice if we saw some clear improvements in the world show and coverage for that race, because the on-track action is already fantastic.

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