nibnob21
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Registered: 16th May 10
Location: South Derbyshire
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I went to the last day of preseason testing at Donington today.
Didn't really get to see the cars going flat out as I think they're only allowed two runs during the day at full power.
Overheard a member of the Mahindra team talking to someone that their testing has gone very well and they're quietly confident for the season ahead. I'll be backing Virgin though, as they're the only British team and have the only British driver in Sam Bird.
The main rule changes are that they're phasing in development over the seasons. So for season 2 the teams are now allowed to develop their own powertrains - incorporating the e-motor, inverter and transmission and cooling system. Fairly sure the chassis and batteries will remain the same throughout the grid though.
Got to do a grid walk and meet some of the drivers. Saw Robin Frijns, Jerome D'Ambrosio, Loic Duval, Vitantonio Liuzzi, Salvador Duran and Nico Prost. On top of that I met Daniel Abt (who's scared of wasps and runs away like a little girl), Jean-Eric Vergne (who kind of looked like he would rather be elsewhere than having to meet fans) and Sam Bird (who seems like a really down to earth friendly bloke). Wasn't interested in photos or autographs as I'm too cool for that; just shook their hands and wished them luck.
A few photos so this post is more interesting:
The season kicks off in Beijing on the 17th of October.
MX5 Project Thread
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spencer88
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Registered: 6th Oct 08
Location: cornwall
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I quite like Formula E. Think it could be quite an interesting sport with a bit more exposure and development.
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Kyle T
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Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
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quote:
Originally posted by nibnob21
Sam Bird (who seems like a really down to earth friendly bloke).
 I HATE the phrase "down to earth", WTF does it even mean. Seems nobody knows, but 16 year old girls on american TV programmes say it alot about their friends.
Other than that, good pics. Where FE can gain popularity is with fan access, F1 sucks at that hard compared to BTCC, WEC, Indycar, NASCAR, (pretty much everything else) so if they're going to start signing up more and more ex-F1 drivers they could steal some fans that way. (I'd suck a 40 year old Lewis off in a FE pitlane)
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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Dave
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Registered: 26th Feb 01
Location: Lancs
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That's ok but the racing is dreadful. They run around sounding like those kids toy jeeps and nothing happens until the last lap when they suddenly go all banzai and crash into each other.
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Ben G
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Registered: 12th Jan 07
Location: Essex
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The street circuit layout does tend to cause a lot of 1 by 1 racing, but it can also cause spectacular crashes such as heidfield last year in Beijing iirc.
It's the whole swapping cars with a 1 minute minimum pit time I have a problem with. It's stupid and shows how far behind current technology the electric racing cars are.
I do enjoy watching it though and for now, it's free to watch, until skysports get their hands on it.
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nibnob21
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Registered: 16th May 10
Location: South Derbyshire
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quote:
Originally posted by Kyle T
quote:
Originally posted by nibnob21
Sam Bird (who seems like a really down to earth friendly bloke).
I HATE the phrase "down to earth", WTF does it even mean. Seems nobody knows, but 16 year old girls on american TV programmes say it alot about their friends.
Other than that, good pics. Where FE can gain popularity is with fan access, F1 sucks at that hard compared to BTCC, WEC, Indycar, NASCAR, (pretty much everything else) so if they're going to start signing up more and more ex-F1 drivers they could steal some fans that way. (I'd suck a 40 year old Lewis off in a FE pitlane)
 I have been likened to a 16 year old American teenage girl before and my name is Destiny, so I guess that's why I used a common phrase.
Let me clarify, so that you can lower your blood pressure levels. What I meant by it was that he was very laidback, chatty and friendly with the fans. He came across as a completely normal guy that was genuinely happy to interact with fans. JEV on the other hand you could tell was just doing it to fulfill his obligations. I don't hold that against him at all as I'm sure it can get a bit tedious, plus some drivers didn't show their faces at all. There was just an obvious difference in their attitudes.
And I completely agree with you with regards to fan access. It was made all the more clearer after arriving home one day from Spa and going to this the next.
Ben - they're phasing in free development of different parts of the cars over a series of seasons, and the aim is to have just one car fairly soon. I can't remember where I read the details but I think there's an approximate plan in place leading up to free development of the whole car by around season 5.
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