Jaguar Formula E team principal James Barclay blamed Nick Cassidy’s crash in the Sao Paulo Eprix on Formula E’s peloton style of racing.
Since the introduction of the Gen3 car at the start of last season, Formula E races have become closer than ever before.Due to the energy regeneration required to make cars’ battery life last until the end of the race, many drivers have resorted to running behind rival cars to benefit from the lower energy requirements of running in a slipstream. This has resulted in so-called ‘peloton’ style of racing, similar to that of road cycle racing.
Formula E championship leader Nick Cassidy crashed out of Saturday’s eprix after his front win broke off and jammed under his front axle following earlier contact with Edoardo Mortara at the chicane. While the Jaguar driver was unharmed in the crash, his team principal said the accident was a symptom of the style of racing in the Gen3 era.
“You saw he had some damage on his front wing and, unfortunately, the risk is it gets under the front tyre and you lose steering and he’s going into the wall,” Barclay said during the race broadcast.
“The main thing is Nick’s okay – that’s obviously always the priority. But it’s frustrating for him and for the team. Ultimately the ‘peloton’ style of racing we’re seeing, it’s starting to get a bit silly. You try to carry momentum into the corners, cars are stopping all the time. So this is the risk of this very extreme kind of racing. You can easily get caught up. The main thing is Nick’s okay, but it’s something I think we just need to be aware of when we look at the race and energy. Because it does form this kind of concertina effect, which is very difficult for the drivers to predict.”
Cassidy’s team mate Mitch Evans lost victory to McLaren’s Sam Bird after a thrilling final lap battle. While Barclay said he was happy with a podium for the team, Evans described his second place as “really bittersweet”.
“I just unfortunately had a battery de-rate,” Evans explained. “Super happy for Sam to get his win, but I thought it was ours.”
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Coventry Climax
17th March 2024, 13:03
And yet ‘peloton’-style racing is what modern F1 management as well as modern fans seem to strive for.
My solution would be: Have those in favor of this style of racing move over to E-Prix, and restore F1 to at least some semblance of what it once was. Win-win!
BasCB (@bascb)
17th March 2024, 17:12
I think it’ll be just a matter of time until the teams improve their stuff and manage to get more and more out of the batteries and won’t need it to this extreme.
GmP (@gmp)
18th March 2024, 2:11
Can you please explain what you want from F1 racing AND how you want to achieve what you want? And please include who will pay for it to happen? Sponsors? TV-rights? Spectators at the circuits?
I am getting really tired of the constant stream of what is going bad at F1 and blaming FIA, FOM, politicians, whatever for it. For once please spend effort to describe how what you want is achievable given the complete context within F1 races have to exist.
Thank you.
Coventry Climax
18th March 2024, 12:22
Regarding the FiA and rules, see my answer to you here.
As for the Formula part of F1, I’ve been giving remarks on that for ages already, and getting quite tired of doing it again and again. Maybe you joined here too recent to know about that history, I don’t know. But OK, one last time:
It basically boils down to F1 being a competition again, between both teams and drivers. That means teams having the option to test, change and improve their cars again over a season, no or at least very limited parc fermé, having the option to run any type of engine they see fit, as long as it does not exceed using the allowed amount of energy, in whichever form, run whichever type of chassis they see fit, bit it ground effect, or mainly wing oriented, low rake, high rake whatever. That requires the FiA to come up with a definition of, plus a means of measuring and setting the amount and level of ‘dirty air’. I’d like to see all sorts of competition back into F1, including tyre competition. I’d like to see using parts designed by other teams forbidden. Race your own design. The list goes on and on. It boils down to setting rules such that engineering creativity is left open instead of boxed in and limited.
I’m not particularly in favor of the budget cap either, as getting the funding can be seen as part of the competition as well, but given the budget cap is there, and the way the money is divided these days, there’s no real money issues. That said, we do see teams not even really making an effort anymore to improve as well, so I’ll leave you to ponder over that.
Apart from all that, and quite importantly: It is allowed to disagree with something, even without having a ready-made solution. I’m quite sure that same ‘blame’ applies to you too, in daily life, just like with everyone.
Which leaves me with you tiring of what I say. That’s fine, but I hope you realise you can’t really use that as an argument for anything? Maybe just skip reading my comments will help?
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
17th March 2024, 16:46
two ways, diversity of solutions, or a bunch of people doing the same thing hoping the next rule change benefits them. Thats not really racing though, thats more like politics.
Keith Campbell (@keithedin)
17th March 2024, 21:35
I’m not sure if you can blame a collision on ‘peleton style racing’. The concertina effect has existed in racing forever and drivers always know they have to be able to react to the pack backing up, whether it’s just on the opening couple of laps or for longer in Formula-E’s case.
But I have to say, having struggled to be interested in Formula E since its inception, the style of the races I saw last year really turned me against it. I saw a driver getting a great start from row 2, being in position to take the lead, then backing out of it completely when he remembered he didn’t actually want to lead the race. Then around 80% of the race was the leader crawling round the track at minimum speed trying to bait others into overtaking so that he could save energy in the slipstream, with the lead usually only changing when the leader went to take his mandatory power boost (which he then wouldn’t make use of in order to conserve energy because again, track position doesn’t matter).
I don’t know, maybe fans of Formula E like this kind of tactical racing or find the close competition and less predictable results worth the tradeoff, but so far FE has failed to hold my interest.
Rhys Lloyd (@justrhysism)
18th March 2024, 0:49
@keithedin seems like the solution is the races should only be long enough to run all cars flat out without the need for conservation.
Coventry Climax
18th March 2024, 12:42
I’m not answering for @keithedin, but I’d say:
Nope; there’s a solution inbetween somewhere, a balance, but FE choses to go to an extreme somehow.
Keeping an eye on the state of your material and level of your fuel has always been part of this type of racing. (For dragracing e.g., that’s different.)
But for me, this level of having to keep an eye on energy and everything, is making me say FE is not my cup of tea. For me, they’ve got the balance wrong.
MichaelN
18th March 2024, 10:59
Sounds like there’s a bit of a mismatch between the battery+recharge capabilities and the length of the race. Both should be easy enough to fix. Shortening the races might be a small PR-cost in the short term, but ‘energy saving’ races are never that popular; no matter if its with batteries or fuel. So it seems a bigger problem to let that become the norm in FE.
Minardi (@gitanes)
18th March 2024, 17:18
I’m a supporter of FE in general but as I watched the Brazil eprix I couldn’t help but wonder what fans watching that race must have been thinking seeing a new leader come by every lap. There was certainly nothing exciting from my viewpoint watching on tv along with graphics showing who had the most overtakes. Other than the last lap, their entire weekend including qualifying, this was completely and uninteresting sporting event, in every way.