planetf1.com

Really don't like this track, and it's been turning into one of the least entertaining races for me over the past 5 years so far!

Maybe I'm being premature and it'll get better after the red flag, but I don't see it happening.

I love FE but the continues penalties for various technical infringements are very grating. They need to simplify some of the rules.

mikeyg123 wrote:I love FE but the continues penalties for various technical infringements are very grating. They need to simplify some of the rules.

At least Jev only got a reprimand so the podium is accurate this week!

mikeyg123 wrote:I love FE but the continues penalties for various technical infringements are very grating. They need to simplify some of the rules.

The one about using your brakes the same on every lap in qualifying is ridiculous. This latest example where Buemi gets DSQ because he crashed and didn't brake with full pressure on his way back just drives it home.

JEV arguably deserved a penalty for not staying close to the safety car, though. That one's a pretty normal rule, and I think everyone knows it. Vettel got a penalty for the same thing back in the Red Bull years.

Exediron wrote:

mikeyg123 wrote:I love FE but the continues penalties for various technical infringements are very grating. They need to simplify some of the rules.

The one about using your brakes the same on every lap in qualifying is ridiculous. This latest example where Buemi gets DSQ because he crashed and didn't brake with full pressure on his way back just drives it home.

JEV arguably deserved a penalty for not staying close to the safety car, though. That one's a pretty normal rule, and I think everyone knows it. Vettel got a penalty for the same thing back in the Red Bull years.

They haven't specified when Jev did that. I was assuming it was on the 1 lap safety car after the red flag? If it was then I can see the reprimand being appropriate as there was no safety issue and the car was due in the same lap. If it was the earlier period then a bigger penalty should have been applied.

Edit: Seen the replay now, it was the restart safety car period. And he was a long way back with the safety car lights still on. But on the flip side, the safety car lights were on very close to the end of the lap for knowing it was coming in.

Exediron wrote:

mikeyg123 wrote:I love FE but the continues penalties for various technical infringements are very grating. They need to simplify some of the rules.

The one about using your brakes the same on every lap in qualifying is ridiculous. This latest example where Buemi gets DSQ because he crashed and didn't brake with full pressure on his way back just drives it home.

JEV arguably deserved a penalty for not staying close to the safety car, though. That one's a pretty normal rule, and I think everyone knows it. Vettel got a penalty for the same thing back in the Red Bull years.

The Buemi one is absurd and unfortunately it's not the first. It feels like they are trying to trip teams and drivers up sometimes.

Great race for Vergne, finally some luck & big points for him.
That manouver on Rowland (maybe the best rookie of this season so far) was bonkers.

Buemi was to blame in that incident i think

minchy wrote:

mikeyg123 wrote:I love FE but the continues penalties for various technical infringements are very grating. They need to simplify some of the rules.

At least Jev only got a reprimand so the podium is accurate this week!

Yes only, were politics involved with it being the home race for his team?

Has Buemi been penalised for crashing out di Grassi?

pokerman wrote:

minchy wrote:

mikeyg123 wrote:I love FE but the continues penalties for various technical infringements are very grating. They need to simplify some of the rules.

At least Jev only got a reprimand so the podium is accurate this week!

Yes only, were politics involved with it being the home race for his team?

I don't care tbh. I've had enough of seeing drivers loose wins for things that didn't effect the race.

mikeyg123 wrote:

pokerman wrote:

minchy wrote:

mikeyg123 wrote:I love FE but the continues penalties for various technical infringements are very grating. They need to simplify some of the rules.

At least Jev only got a reprimand so the podium is accurate this week!

Yes only, were politics involved with it being the home race for his team?

I don't care tbh. I've had enough of seeing drivers loose wins for things that didn't effect the race.

I must admit I didn't mind Vergne winning in comparison to Oliver "I'll put you in the wall if you try to pass me" Rowland.

A penalty for Vergne would have been way too harsh imho.

Next stop Rome in three weeks, one of the best tracks of Formula E!

Than Paris, Montecarlo, Berlin, Bern.

European season about to begin!

(There's a "Mini" trophy for the European Season champion also!)

With the pace of these cars in mind I would say anyone down to 14th still has a chance of taking this championship.

Only been 2 weeks and found this thread halfway down page 2! Guess it's good to see the forum getting a bit more traffic through it and activity again though.

Anyway, just thought I'd bump this thread as it's Rome this Saturday. Race start time 16:00 local time (15:00 BST). I'm sure thegamer23 will give everyone his usual detailed post sometime in the next few days

I'm looking forward to it. Seems like Piquet has been dropped.

mikeyg123 wrote:I'm looking forward to it. Seems like Piquet has been dropped.

yes it happened a week or two ago. His performances have been somewhat disappointing of late

Yeah, Rome e-Prix coming up tomorrow afternoon!


Source: FE

One of the best tracks of the season, with elevation changes, fast parts & techinical ones.
This year they've widened the chicanes, so it should be even better!

Schedule is as follows | Local Time (UK time -1 hour)

Formula E Free Practice 1 - 07:30
Jaguar I-Pace eTrophy Qualifying - 08:35
Formula E Free Practice 2 - 10:00
Formula E Qualifying - 11:45
Formula E Super Pole - 12:30
Jaguar I-Pace eTrophy Race (25' + 1 Lap) - 14:00
2019 Rome E-Prix (45' + 1 Lap) - 16:00


Race on BBC Sport, Red Button, Quest, BT Sport or Eurosport.

Great race after the restart.

Don't know what happened behind the first 2, but great racing by both of them. A bit gutted for Lotterer, but well deserved win for Evans and Jaguar.

Get in Jaguar!

We'll that was a chaotic race! We'll worth a watch for anyone who missed it.

Nissan really are struggling this season.

Having got back into Formula E this year, I am really enjoying the racing and the close results.

However they either need to do some thing about the driving standards or widen the tracks, or both
Sometimes it resembles the Wacky Races out there with the amount of contact going on.

G926 wrote:Having got back into Formula E this year, I am really enjoying the racing and the close results.

However they either need to do some thing about the driving standards or widen the tracks, or both
Sometimes it resembles the Wacky Races out there with the amount of contact going on.

Exactly that it's a bit like wacky racing on Mickey Mouse tracks, for me it's a filler and last weekend was F1 with F2 thrown in, someone actually posted in the F1 qualifying thread why watch the qualifying when FE was on and it was more exciting, er no.

pokerman wrote:

G926 wrote:Having got back into Formula E this year, I am really enjoying the racing and the close results.

However they either need to do some thing about the driving standards or widen the tracks, or both
Sometimes it resembles the Wacky Races out there with the amount of contact going on.

Exactly that it's a bit like wacky racing on Mickey Mouse tracks, for me it's a filler and last weekend was F1 with F2 thrown in, someone actually posted in the F1 qualifying thread why watch the qualifying when FE was on and it was more exciting, er no.

The FE is way more exciting than F1 qualifying. F1 quali these days is exciting for about 5 minutes at the end.

I think this season has been brilliant. The quali format really helps with keeping the championship interesting without being unfair or artificial.

The only thing I really dislike about FE is all the penalties for technical infringements or sporting infringements. They need to make the rules easier to follow.

mikeyg123 wrote:I think this season has been brilliant. The quali format really helps with keeping the championship interesting without being unfair or artificial.

I suppose it's not unfair insofar as everyone knows ahead of time what's going to happen, but I'm not a fan of the reverse championship order qualifying. Running in the first group is almost always a big disadvantage, and I feel they made the change to artificially tighten the championship (which has worked).

My biggest pet peeve with FE, however, is and will remain FanBoost. I'm happy that the coverage barely focuses on it anymore, and I'll be happier still the day it disappears entirely. FE is a legitimate racing series, but it comes across sometimes as desperate with gimmicks like FanBoost or the attack zones. Once it can get over those, it will be easier to convince people to take it seriously. The cars are getting faster, and the field is far stronger than it was in the first season -- the gimmicks are really all they need to work on.

Exediron wrote:

mikeyg123 wrote:I think this season has been brilliant. The quali format really helps with keeping the championship interesting without being unfair or artificial.

I suppose it's not unfair insofar as everyone knows ahead of time what's going to happen, but I'm not a fan of the reverse championship order qualifying. Running in the first group is almost always a big disadvantage, and I feel they made the change to artificially tighten the championship (which has worked).

My biggest pet peeve with FE, however, is and will remain FanBoost. I'm happy that the coverage barely focuses on it anymore, and I'll be happier still the day it disappears entirely. FE is a legitimate racing series, but it comes across sometimes as desperate with gimmicks like FanBoost or the attack zones. Once it can get over those, it will be easier to convince people to take it seriously. The cars are getting faster, and the field is far stronger than it was in the first season -- the gimmicks are really all they need to work on.

Fan boost I agree is peaky although I think Attack mode works really well.

I don't think quali is unfair in that you are session or at worst one apart from your direct championship rivals. I think it's a good way to mix up the grid whilst still giving everyone a chance and everyone will be rewarded for a good performance.

mikeyg123 wrote:

pokerman wrote:

G926 wrote:Having got back into Formula E this year, I am really enjoying the racing and the close results.

However they either need to do some thing about the driving standards or widen the tracks, or both
Sometimes it resembles the Wacky Races out there with the amount of contact going on.

Exactly that it's a bit like wacky racing on Mickey Mouse tracks, for me it's a filler and last weekend was F1 with F2 thrown in, someone actually posted in the F1 qualifying thread why watch the qualifying when FE was on and it was more exciting, er no.

The FE is way more exciting than F1 qualifying. F1 quali these days is exciting for about 5 minutes at the end.

I think this season has been brilliant. The quali format really helps with keeping the championship interesting without being unfair or artificial.

The only thing I really dislike about FE is all the penalties for technical infringements or sporting infringements. They need to make the rules easier to follow.

I guess it's horses for courses, was it the FE qualifying that it clashed with?

Anyway for me personally I can't get excited by the slowness of the cars, the mickey mouse tracks and the uninspiring whine from the engines, I don't feel like I missed anything.

mikeyg123 wrote:

Exediron wrote:

mikeyg123 wrote:I think this season has been brilliant. The quali format really helps with keeping the championship interesting without being unfair or artificial.

I suppose it's not unfair insofar as everyone knows ahead of time what's going to happen, but I'm not a fan of the reverse championship order qualifying. Running in the first group is almost always a big disadvantage, and I feel they made the change to artificially tighten the championship (which has worked).

My biggest pet peeve with FE, however, is and will remain FanBoost. I'm happy that the coverage barely focuses on it anymore, and I'll be happier still the day it disappears entirely. FE is a legitimate racing series, but it comes across sometimes as desperate with gimmicks like FanBoost or the attack zones. Once it can get over those, it will be easier to convince people to take it seriously. The cars are getting faster, and the field is far stronger than it was in the first season -- the gimmicks are really all they need to work on.

Fan boost I agree is peaky although I think Attack mode works really well.

I don't think quali is unfair in that you are session or at worst one apart from your direct championship rivals. I think it's a good way to mix up the grid whilst still giving everyone a chance and everyone will be rewarded for a good performance.

Given the supposed close performance of the cars why do the faster drivers need disadvantaging like that, this is the future of the sport to try and create different winners?

pokerman wrote:

mikeyg123 wrote:

Exediron wrote:

mikeyg123 wrote:I think this season has been brilliant. The quali format really helps with keeping the championship interesting without being unfair or artificial.

I suppose it's not unfair insofar as everyone knows ahead of time what's going to happen, but I'm not a fan of the reverse championship order qualifying. Running in the first group is almost always a big disadvantage, and I feel they made the change to artificially tighten the championship (which has worked).

My biggest pet peeve with FE, however, is and will remain FanBoost. I'm happy that the coverage barely focuses on it anymore, and I'll be happier still the day it disappears entirely. FE is a legitimate racing series, but it comes across sometimes as desperate with gimmicks like FanBoost or the attack zones. Once it can get over those, it will be easier to convince people to take it seriously. The cars are getting faster, and the field is far stronger than it was in the first season -- the gimmicks are really all they need to work on.

Fan boost I agree is peaky although I think Attack mode works really well.

I don't think quali is unfair in that you are session or at worst one apart from your direct championship rivals. I think it's a good way to mix up the grid whilst still giving everyone a chance and everyone will be rewarded for a good performance.

Given the supposed close performance of the cars why do the faster drivers need disadvantaging like that, this is the future of the sport to try and create different winners?

What would be a fairer way of deciding quali groups? It's a lot fairer than the way they used to do it. At random.

mikeyg123 wrote:

pokerman wrote:

mikeyg123 wrote:

Exediron wrote:

mikeyg123 wrote:I think this season has been brilliant. The quali format really helps with keeping the championship interesting without being unfair or artificial.

I suppose it's not unfair insofar as everyone knows ahead of time what's going to happen, but I'm not a fan of the reverse championship order qualifying. Running in the first group is almost always a big disadvantage, and I feel they made the change to artificially tighten the championship (which has worked).

My biggest pet peeve with FE, however, is and will remain FanBoost. I'm happy that the coverage barely focuses on it anymore, and I'll be happier still the day it disappears entirely. FE is a legitimate racing series, but it comes across sometimes as desperate with gimmicks like FanBoost or the attack zones. Once it can get over those, it will be easier to convince people to take it seriously. The cars are getting faster, and the field is far stronger than it was in the first season -- the gimmicks are really all they need to work on.

Fan boost I agree is peaky although I think Attack mode works really well.

I don't think quali is unfair in that you are session or at worst one apart from your direct championship rivals. I think it's a good way to mix up the grid whilst still giving everyone a chance and everyone will be rewarded for a good performance.

Given the supposed close performance of the cars why do the faster drivers need disadvantaging like that, this is the future of the sport to try and create different winners?

What would be a fairer way of deciding quali groups? It's a lot fairer than the way they used to do it. At random.

By who's quicker in practice.

Why would you when you have a fair system that makes the championship more exciting?

Personally I like it.

mikeyg123 wrote:Why would you when you have a fair system that makes the championship more exciting?

Personally I like it.

How is it a fair system to handicap the leading drivers, that's not done for sporting reasons but more for commercial reasons, we can't have a driver dominating the series because people might stop watching, only in motorsports is such a thing is seen to be undesirable so we have to have a WWE type set up to appease the casual fan.

pokerman wrote:

mikeyg123 wrote:Why would you when you have a fair system that makes the championship more exciting?

Personally I like it.

How is it a fair system to handicap the leading drivers, that's not done for sporting reasons but more for commercial reasons, we can't have a driver dominating the series because people might stop watching, only in motorsports is such a thing is seen to be undesirable so we have to have a WWE type set up to appease the casual fan.

I'm pretty sure it's done to try and keep races interesting and it works. I'm not saying I would like it in F1 but FE has no tradition to keep. When I say fair I mean in the context of the championship it's fair. Obviously not from individual race. That being said the championship leader did get into super pole for the Paris race so if you do a good job you still have a chance.

mikeyg123 wrote:

pokerman wrote:

mikeyg123 wrote:Why would you when you have a fair system that makes the championship more exciting?

Personally I like it.

How is it a fair system to handicap the leading drivers, that's not done for sporting reasons but more for commercial reasons, we can't have a driver dominating the series because people might stop watching, only in motorsports is such a thing is seen to be undesirable so we have to have a WWE type set up to appease the casual fan.

I'm pretty sure it's done to try and keep races interesting and it works. I'm not saying I would like it in F1 but FE has no tradition to keep. When I say fair I mean in the context of the championship it's fair. Obviously not from individual race. That being said the championship leader did get into super pole for the Paris race so if you do a good job you still have a chance.

Indeed it's a different platform that may interest different people, I believe some of the drivers are not overly keen on the format, in particular JEV, but the pay cheque takes preference.

pokerman wrote:

mikeyg123 wrote:

pokerman wrote:

mikeyg123 wrote:Why would you when you have a fair system that makes the championship more exciting?

Personally I like it.

How is it a fair system to handicap the leading drivers, that's not done for sporting reasons but more for commercial reasons, we can't have a driver dominating the series because people might stop watching, only in motorsports is such a thing is seen to be undesirable so we have to have a WWE type set up to appease the casual fan.

I'm pretty sure it's done to try and keep races interesting and it works. I'm not saying I would like it in F1 but FE has no tradition to keep. When I say fair I mean in the context of the championship it's fair. Obviously not from individual race. That being said the championship leader did get into super pole for the Paris race so if you do a good job you still have a chance.

Indeed it's a different platform that may interest different people, I believe some of the drivers are not overly keen on the format, in particular JEV, but the pay cheque takes preference.

And I'm not surprised but then I don't think it should be the job of any sport to make things easy for it's competitors. Drivers will always moan but what they do now is much fairer than it was in the past in FE when they just did the quali groups at random.

mikeyg123 wrote:And I'm not surprised but then I don't think it should be the job of any sport to make things easy for it's competitors. Drivers will always moan but what they do now is much fairer than it was in the past in FE when they just did the quali groups at random.

I agree it's more fair than the old system, but I still don't consider it fair. The new system is designed to give drivers further down the table more of a chance to start towards the top of the grid -- they've made no secret about that fact, and it generally works. I don't think it's fair, however. It's too much like success ballast, another concept I detest.

For an example of a fair group-based system, the IndyCar qualifying format uses groups and is about as fair as can be. Formula E could even put their own spin on it if they wanted -- have the upper half of the grid and the lower half do groups to begin with, with the fastest half of each group advancing to a further session. That way they'd give a chance to drivers further down without disadvantaging the people at the top so much.

mikeyg123 wrote:

pokerman wrote:

mikeyg123 wrote:

pokerman wrote:

mikeyg123 wrote:Why would you when you have a fair system that makes the championship more exciting?

Personally I like it.

How is it a fair system to handicap the leading drivers, that's not done for sporting reasons but more for commercial reasons, we can't have a driver dominating the series because people might stop watching, only in motorsports is such a thing is seen to be undesirable so we have to have a WWE type set up to appease the casual fan.

I'm pretty sure it's done to try and keep races interesting and it works. I'm not saying I would like it in F1 but FE has no tradition to keep. When I say fair I mean in the context of the championship it's fair. Obviously not from individual race. That being said the championship leader did get into super pole for the Paris race so if you do a good job you still have a chance.

Indeed it's a different platform that may interest different people, I believe some of the drivers are not overly keen on the format, in particular JEV, but the pay cheque takes preference.

And I'm not surprised but then I don't think it should be the job of any sport to make things easy for it's competitors. Drivers will always moan but what they do now is much fairer than it was in the past in FE when they just did the quali groups at random.

It's not fairer because it's looking to handicap the more successful drivers, this is not what true sporting events should be about.

pokerman wrote: It's not fairer because it's looking to handicap the more successful drivers, this is not what true sporting events should be about.

Surely it's a fairer than a random lottery. Someone could end up in group 1 every race just by chance. At least with this system you are on a par with you direct championship rivals.

mikeyg123 wrote:

pokerman wrote: It's not fairer because it's looking to handicap the more successful drivers, this is not what true sporting events should be about.

Surely it's a fairer than a random lottery. Someone could end up in group 1 every race just by chance. At least with this system you are on a par with you direct championship rivals.

Yes I see your point, still in what is essentially a pure driving series what's wrong with the best drivers winning, like I say only in motorsports do we see excellence needing to be handicapped for what I can only see as an attempt to attract casuals and for a purist like me it's just basically a watered down version of what racing should be about, thank god such things are not done presently in F1.

Each to his own though, I see myself as an outsider to something I can take or leave and if the supporters of the series are happy with this so be it.

Just watched the last race on catch up - you'd think that most of them had never raced in the rain before!