wesley123 wrote:Andres125sx wrote:
I think it will be just the opposite, if it survive first seasson/s it could easlily overcome F1
It also couldn't, hard to say. Formula 1 has it's market dominance, Formula E has to fight against a well developed market, and it definitely will have a hard time doing so.
I don´t think so, you will never see Shell or Petronas sponsoring FE, but we could see Panasonic, A123, Sanyo... also Tesla or any other electric car manufacturer
Sponsors look for media impact, if a new electric competition suceed and people watch it, it wil be so diferent to any other competition only this will make it attractive for sponsors
wesley123 wrote:Which is weird since they are around for quite some time now. Longer than people realize. Formula E's hype seems to be around the wish to have clean energy, and currently electric is the way people go for some reason. Once that clean energy hype dies down one could assume that so does Formula E's
For some reason?
Today, when a big part of the electricity comes from coal plants, electricity is cleaner than petrol, only taking electricity from coal plants wich are the most polluting way to produce electricity. Not by a huge margin, but cleaner.
At least if you consider the pollution produced by petrol
before burning it too. If you´re including the pollution produced by electricity at the power plants, you have to include the pollution produced by oil wells, refineries, oil tankers and oil trucks that supply petrol stations
So only considering electricity from coal plants it´s still cleaner than petrol, but once you take the average including nuclear plants, hydroelectric plants, wind mills, etc. electricity is cleaner than petrol by a really huge margin. And that´s today with many coal plants.
I´m not sure what´s the scenario in other countries, but here in Spain when I was at the university I saw a graph where renewable energies where a mere line, it was not even a 5% of the total (around 1995)
Today it´s a solid 25-30%, and some months it´s even been over 50%, so sometimes we have used more clean electricity than polluting one. That´s reality, not any hype.
What I mean is electricity is cleaner each year, and if you do a quick search for new renewable energies you will see how many new projects are being developed to produce clean energy from waves, sea currents, solar heat... so the percentage of clean energy will continue raising for many years, what means any electric car today is cleaner than any ICE car, but the difference will be even higher each year.
I agree with the demand of full electric cars it will be neccessary a lot of energy that can´t be accomplished just with renewable energies, but even if the percentage don´t raise anymore, they´re cleaner. I´m sure that percentage will continue raising tough
And even if the total pollution would be the same (what is false), the pollution wouldn´t be concentrated into the cities, only that is a huge benefit
wesley123 wrote: Having the street races in those big cities seems a good idea to have quite some exposure. But then there is an other issue, it shoves it down of people's throats. Having those cars zooming through your streets can be quite forceful and annoying.
Or something really mindblowing, watching a race hearing the tires, how each driver brake and take the corners, hearing the aerodinamical sounds, and being able to comment the race with your friends.... I can´t find that forceful and annoying
wesley123 wrote: If people can´t cope with a noiseless competition it will be now on first seasson when they won´t watch it, but if first seasson is a success because people realice racing is a lot more than engine noise
, I don´t see how it could dissapear on next seassons
A1GP was rather succesful, and where is that series now? A series cannot be ran on hopes and dreams
A1GP was another formula... like any other... GP2, GP3, F3, F3000, World Series
Too similar, too many competition for tv coverage, didn´t provide anything new. But FE is completely new, can´t be compared.
wesley123 wrote:
Specially because this technology is so new there´s a huge margin to improve, so the cars will be much faster each seasson.
Battery technology isn't new, far from it in fact. It all now is carried by the hype around it, when the hype dies down, logically so will anything around it.
Who said battery technology is new?
But Lithium batteries are actually pretty new for car use, and that´s what is increasing the electric car industry, not any hype
Battery technology isn´t new, but it´s now when it has evolved enough to make possible useful electric cars. I´m sure without lithium batteries Tesla Motors wouldn´t exist, nor the Lola-Drayson B12/69EV, or the FE itself.
Not any hype, just technology reached the point where electric cars are possible, and this is just the beginning, wait for LiS batteries...
wesley123 wrote:
they have too many advantages to care about the sound, so I think FE then will be considered the real pinnacle of motorsports in few years.... if it survive first seasson
Honestly, it doesn't really have many advantages. It's all hype if you ask me.
Ok, I see what´s your point of view about EV, but you can´t seriously say they don´t have many advantages
1- The torque curve is what ICE manufacturers are trying to match for more than a century... without success.
2- Reliability can´t be compared. Electric motors are virtually indestructible, they´re too simple and there´s no wearing at all apart from two bearings. No maintenance at all either, no oil changes, no turbo problems, gaskets failing, injector problems, fuel or oil pumps... Think about all the problems you´ve had with all your cars, and probably 60-70% of them where engine related. All of them will dissapear
3- Lifespan will depend only on batteries because of the lack of wearing at the motor, they don´t get old or decrease the perfomance, the perform the same always, maintenance free and failures free. And next generation batteries will be around 70% cheaper than current ones, so a battery replacement won´t be a big investment, specially if you consider with a new battery you have a brand new power unit as the battery is the only part decreasing the perfomance with the use. Put a new battery and it will perform exatly the same than first day. So lifespan will be what the owner want it to be
4- Ease of use and confort will be at a different league. Manufacturers do a big effort to avoid any noise and vibrations reaching the passengers, and they do a great job on some cases, but electric cars don´t provide any noise or vibration at all, so comfort in this aspect (noise and vibration isolation) will be at a different league.
5- Emissions are at a different league too as explained above if you make a fair comparison
6- Today they weight the same or even a bit more than ICE cars, but with next batteries they will be much lighter and with much better weight distribution as they can be placed lower and more centered than the block of an ICE, what will improve handling, breaking and overall perfomance
And I´m probably forgeting something... not a hype at all IMHO, but real advantages
wesley123 wrote:F1 does not need to innovate. F1's issue is is that it has come to the point that everyone who is interested in watching is watching. There aren't many more potential viewers anymore(well, a few, but not a huge amount), so it has come to the point where growth is getting harder, and where the growth is mainly coming from income.
Singapore, Russia, India, Abu Dhabi... those look like some millions of new potential viewers.
But even with Bernie doing big efforts to... well, actually to stop the fall of the audience numbers, he can´t. So even with F1 going to new countries what should increase the audience, it´s decreasing
F1 does need innovation, and that´s what Bernie think too, you just have to take a look at his ideas (sprinklers, double scoring at last gp, new countries with no F1 tradition at all, night races...). He´s not trying to leave the competition as it is, but trying to be innovative
