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It's probably going electric eventually anyway.
"In addition, spectators will be able to interact with the cars using social media. The talk is of allowing them to award drivers extra goes on their “push-to-pass” boost buttons" Well, that sounds wide open for abuse. Also, I am not sure how the bookies would deal with something like that when calculating the odds. "Well, this driver is better, but the other one has a huge following on twitter, so the odds are in th…
"In addition, spectators will be able to interact with the cars using social media. The talk is of allowing them to award drivers extra goes on their “push-to-pass” boost buttons" That's the most stupid thing I've heard all week. No matter how it's implemented it's silly. Fans shouldn't be able to influence the result of a race.
But if you're going to let the audience VOTE on the outcome I might as well go watching survivor. Maybe they'll let us vote asshole drivers off the island?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"In addition, spectators will be able to interact with the cars using social media. The talk is of allowing them to award drivers extra goes on their “push-to-pass” boost buttons" That's the most stupid thing I've heard all week. No matter how it's implemented it's silly. Fans shouldn't be able to influence the result of a race.
Oh God .. what a dumb idea. Until I got to that bit it sounded great. Whether it's FIA or someone else, if it can get a following then the innovation the teams will develop will be massive for electric cars. And that it IS FIA that's organising it, it's got a good chance of being at least very interesting. But if you're going to let the audience VOTE on the outcome I might as well go watching survivor. Maybe they'll…
F1 is special in that it is the most fervently followed spectator motor sport. It is not just about the cars and the tracks and the action.
No.
Leaving aside the massive world wide following and it's deep history and legends...
What will continue to happen is that F1 will get more and more electric over time. The new regs for 2014 are for a smaller engine, supplemented by larger KERS, pushing for fuel efficiency. Long term, I see that trend continuing. Burning up shed loads of fossil fuels to merely race will get more and more difficult while normal car drivers and manufacturers have to deal with efficiency. F1 will evolve in the electric direction.
That is not to even begin to suggests FE is a waste of time or anything like that. I'm massively looking forward to it, might even allow the word "excited". Much of it will run in the F1 off season. It can run in any major world city resulting in potentially fantastic visuals. I really like that you can hear the tyres working. All you hear now is engine, and that actually doesn't tell you much about the driver. Hearing the tyres tells us a lot more. For me FE is a fascinating supplement to F1 which could or should help F1 get more electric. Both technology wise, and in the PR battle with olde skool F1 fans. It can prove electric racing works.
Equally, there are parts of FE that I don't like, but mostly they are things that will evolve and be solved over time, like the car swap thing, or PR type things like the social media voting for boosts nonsense. But the basic idea of trying to create an electric open wheel racing series is fundamentally right. I really hope it can gain enough traction to keep going.
Actually, a final thought. I might be completely wrong...
There is a chance that FE, if run and marketed right could be made to appeal to the Need for Speed generation. Run races at night. Bright lights ever where; scenery, under-lighting on the cars and all that glitz. Lots of music, and off track entertainment. Get game/software developers, ICE manufacturers, and the likes of Red Bull involved. Make it all look like a Fast and Furious race night, or X games events. Go heavy youth, apps, social media, and so on. Make sure it's on free TV with cool youth friendly presenters hyping it all up. If it gains a following from the ground up, it could become incredibly popular.
So, essentially forget F1 and F1 fans. In fact, I wonder if the mistake is the open wheel F1 look a like thing, which draws unhelpful comparisons. Maybe they'd be better off racing electric cars that at least resemble the kind of cars you can buy? Electric chassis with light bodies resembling current road cars?
Dunno. But whatever the case, Im in. I'll probably always watch F1 (not to mention many other racing series) for better or worse, but FE is very much a welcome addition for me.
F1 is special in that it is the most fervently followed spectator motor sport. It is not just about the cars and the tracks and the action.
I'm not sure what fervor means here, but in 2009 F1 events had a total attendance of about 2.8 million. Whereas NASCAR had a total attendance of about 3.8 million.
F1 is special in that it is the most fervently followed spectator motor sport. It is not just about the cars and the tracks and the action.
I'm not sure what fervor means here, but in 2009 F1 events had a total attendance of about 2.8 million. Whereas NASCAR had a total attendance of about 3.8 million.
In 2009 F1 breached 600 million. (First figure I found)
NASCAR? I couldn't find a number to quote.
Also, how many F1 races? How many NASCAR races? Im not sure attendance compares.
F1 is as much about the drama and the personalities as it is about the cars and the technology. If they can attract some big name drivers, there'll be an immediate audience.
Im not sure though how F1 people would react if FE started actually did start to or look like potentially rivaling it.
Personally, I don't want to compare the two, even though it is tempting. Ideally, I want FE to find it's own niche and be successful, then hopefully grow in to its own big thing. Hopefully it will attract its own new sponsors, fans, heros, etc, and not be seen as a rival.
Rival? No. Leaving aside the massive world wide following and it's deep history and legends... What will continue to happen is that F1 will get more and more electric over time. The new regs for 2014 are for a smaller engine, supplemented by larger KERS, pushing for fuel efficiency. Long term, I see that trend continuing. Burning up shed loads of fossil fuels to merely race will get more and more difficult while norm…
I'd go for this. It could be a bit like car rallies.