this post was submitted on 15 Jan 2024
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As a fan of Formula E, I can say with certainty that it's the most faux-progressive sport I've ever seen.
I love the actual product, but loathe the attempts at feigning some sort of progressivism that always manages to put on blast the fact that its founder was a center-right Spanish politician.
Also, Hazel Southwell is literally right there.
Yup. FE is about fast cars racing down narrow streets. "Racing to save the planet" is such lame marketing with no real substance, especially considering that each FE car produces more emissions throughout the season than F1 or NASCAR due to expensive manufacturing. And the real potential for innovations has been crushed by blocking development of batteries and powertrains.
Hazel is actually the main person who's made me so critical of FE since 2020ish. I'd love to see her in a full time position for the sport, even for one of the teams. However she has stated several times that she loses money by going to FE events, even when it's paid for. It's fuckin sad, but the only motorsport that makes me feel included and welcome is rally.
Are you able to expand on this? What's unique to FE's manufacturing that it could be more impactful than F1? I can only assume it's something to do with the batteries, but F1 also uses batteries for the hybrid system, albeit smaller than FE's.
Correct, it's the batteries and powertrains. F1 uses hybrid powertrains, but at the end of each year cars 'transferrable parts' are often sold from one team to another, put in car museums, or scrapped.
FE has a similar process, except nobody wants to put a big dumb battery in a museum, and nobody wants to buy a used battery for their cars (I think they're not allowed to). So whenever a part isn't being used, it's always scrapped. This can include buying a brand new battery for each race, as any depletion may cause a driver to become disqualified for going over the 600kw limit. A new battery every race, even if recycled, is still incredibly wasteful. In comparison, F1 batteries can be used for a whole season.
They're lying about reusing tyres too. Teams often purchase extras and get fined for it, because it's really dumb to race a whole season on 4 sets of tyres.
Thanks for the reply. It definitely sounds like there should be a limit on the number of batteries used per season then. There must be a reason for doing it though - are they just not as performant once they've been through a race weekend?
Yeah basically. Whenever a battery is used, its capacity is slightly reduced over time. If you ever watch a FE race, they're finishing the race with like 0.1% battery remaining, because at 0% they're disqualified. So since they're racing for millions of dollars, it's only sensible to spend thousands to improve their chances of not getting disqualified.
In the sense that it tries too hard to be progressive?
In the sense that it uses progressive language, without actually being progressive in action. It's advertised as being socially progressive while racing in Dubai, eco friendly while transporting supplies on oil burning ships, and being innovative despite blocking battery development.
What do you mean by blocking battery development?
Okay, so motorsports have always been considered an innovator in automobile development. Disc brakes, seatbelts, headlights, and anti-lock braking all come from motorsports, and thus the claim put forward by car manufacturers "motorsports innovations make regular driving safer/better" has merit.
In FE, the cars have regulations saying what parts can be modified and improved, and what can't. One of those things that can't be modified on the racecars are the batteries (and powertrains). So no smaller batteries, or more powerful batteries, or different battery casing, or different material components. Every car on the track has been using the same type of 600kw lithium batteries since the beginning of Gen-3 cars.
Manufacturers want to use motorsports as a test bed for trying out new parts and ideas too expensive or risky to put into a production car, so the FIA choosing to block manufacturers from making more efficient batteries for FE means that there's no real innovation going on, despite FE writing the word "innovation" on tons of articles and promotional material.
And what's their argument to block new battery technologies?
Oh nothing. The FIA has actually made promises to open up battery development back during the Gen-2 cars. Manufacturers and fans are still waiting though.
They can't even really claim it's something that would financially affect the teams, since the batteries and powertrains aren't made in-house. They're made by Maserati, Porsche, and Mercedes.
Maybe they don't want Chinese manufacturers showing everyone that they are 20 years ahead on battery technology that everyone else.
The only two possible reasons I can think of are to try and keep on top of costs, and to keep performance of the teams as close as possible.
It's kind of hilarious as a sport. There's so many Mario Kart inspired rules and, not even sure what to call them, but things like the boost when you drive over the special spot on the road.