Formula E: The Berlin FINAL-e WEEK! [8 days, 6 RACES!]

WHEN: From August 5th to August 13th
BUT WHEN?: Almost everyday at 18.00 UK TIME
WHERE?: Berlin, Tempelhof Airport Circuit
WHY?: 6 races in 8 days, 3 track layouts. And it's Formula E. Enough? 

-------------




"UNPRECEDENTED TIMES CALL FOR UNPRECEDENTED MEASURES"

Even in the Racing World.

Formula E has been hit hard by Coronavirus.
Unlike most of the other Racing Series, the electric championship races mostly in narrow street tracks & City center routes.

The Corona-crysis meant that none of the remaining Street races could be green-lighted.
Seoul, London, Rome, New York, London...

All gone...





Hard times for Alejandro Agag & co.
The Championship that brings races to the people (and not the other way around) , had to find a viable solution to host all of the remaining races in a very short period of time.

After months of speculation, the solution has been found, with the green light from all of the teams involved.

And, in line with the Formula E style, that solution is straight up BONKERS!

6 Races in 8 Days

Yes.
It's happening.
And it's happening in Berlin...












2 ROUNDS on each track configuration, with one or two days of rest between each Double Header!

-------------------------------------
EVENT CALENDAR
-------------------------------------

Race 1/2 -- 5-6 th August
Race 2/3 -- 8-9 th August
Race 3/3 -- 12-13th August


We basically start next Wednesday, than stop the week after.

It's going to be one hell of a week for the drivers & the teams.
Massive pressure, stress & fatigue will raise as we go into the final days of racing.

Limited time for damage repairs also means that every mistake or crash could have massive consequences.





"...that's a lot of damage!"






-------------------------------------
REVERSED LAYOUT ANALYSIS
-------------------------------------
(5-6th August)





Probably the most intriguing & interesting layout out of the 3.
It's just the Reversed, traditional Berlin circuit.

But it creates a lot of interesting points!!


OVERTAKING SPOTS

TURN 1
TURN 2
TURN 5
TURN 7


DANGER ZONES


TURN 4

Will now be a very fast right hander, with very little runoff.
We could see some big crashes there, no room for mistakes.


TURN 6-7

After the long straight, the cars will jump onto the brakes while turning.
This is the worst scenario for a Formula E car, as it's not suited for this type of braking.

We could see major Drama at Turn 7. Big lockups & cars going straight into the runoff (if present).

TURN 10, the Snail

The infinite corner.
This time the cars will tackle "The Snail" in full acceleration.
Putting the power down & not slide out will be a real challenge, and crucial for the lap time.


-------------------------------------
NEW LAYOUT ANALYSIS
-------------------------------------

(12-13th August)




The New Berlin e-Prix Layout is twisty & super technical.
The Hungaroring of Formula E!


OVERTAKING SPOTS:

TURN 1
TURN 7
TURN 15
TURN 16


DANGER ZONES


TURN 10-14

This section is set to be very difficult to get right!
Turn 10-11 are medium speed corners, you have to perfect the exit line in order to get T12 entry right.

Than a fast flick before launching again into the old track.

This Sector is set to be crucial for lap time, and the walls are super close.




-------------------------------------
TRADITIONAL LAYOUT
-------------------------------------
(8-9h August)

We know it very, very well!

It's one of the historical tracks in Formula E, and it always produces solid yet clean racing!
It's not super tight, so we we'll hardly see those cringy first lap pileups.
The Road is actually pretty wide, so you'll see multiple cars going side by side, expecially down the Turn 5-6 stretch!















It's UP FOR THE GRABS!

In 8 days, literally everything could change!

Even drivers outside of the Top 10 like Andrè Lotterer, Seb Buemi or even the Rookie Nyck De Vries could be looking for a title chance.

At the moment, Antonio Felix Da Costa (Techeetah) is leading the pack thanks to his victory in Marrakesh & his podium finishes in Santiago & Mexico.

We cannot underestimate Mitch Evans (Jaguar), who looked super consistent, and Max Gunther (BMW), the surprise of the season so far.
Alexander Sims looked great in Riyadh, but kind of faded away in the following rounds. Can he comeback at the Top?

Reigning 2X champion Jean Eric Vergne had a difficult first part of the season.
Can he do it again and prove everyone he is the best Formula E Driver of All time?












This event will feel like a Formula E Season 6.5 race.

A lot of driver changes for the Berlin Finale.
Some expected, others not!


AUDI SPORT

Rene Rast makes his long-awaited Formula E debut (well, he kind of debuted in Season 2 with Team Aguri, but that was a one off). Can he be a new Formula E star, after dominating DTM?


DRAGON RACING

Sergio Sette Camara replaces Brendon Hartley in Dragon Racing. The young brazilian star made a good impression in his Marrakesh Rookie Test. Will he shine?


MAHINDRA
Alex Lynn replaces Pascal Wehrlein, as the german signed a contract with Porsche for next season. Lynn showed great promises in his rookie debut, but never mantained the hype. Will it change?


TEAM NIO

Daniel Abt replaces Ma Qing Hua, pairing with Oliver Turvey. The young german managed to grab a seat after the SIMRACING CONTROVERSY. Will he do enough to retain the spot for Season 7?

Here it is the UPDATED DRIVER LINEUP!


DS Techeetah: Antonio Felix da Costa - Jean Eric Vergne
BMW-Andretti: Maximilian Günther - Alexander Sims
Jaguar: Mitch Evans - James Calado
Nissan e.dams: Sébastien Buemi Oliver Rowland
Mercedes: Stoffel Vandoorne - Nyck de Vries
Audi Sport: Lucas di Grassi - Rene Rast
Virgin-Audi: Sam Bird - Robin Frijns
Venturi-Mercedes: Felipe Massa - Edoardo Mortara
Porsche: André Lotterer - Neel Jani
Mahindra: Jérôme D'Ambrosio - Alex Lynn
Dragon Racing: Sergio Sette Câmara - Nico Muller
Nio333: Daniel Abt - Oliver Turvey





High expectations for Rast....






Where to Watch:

- BBC IPLAYER

- BBC RED BUTTON

- EUROSPORT

- YOUTUBE (Practice + Quali)


All the races will be green-lighted at 19.00 CET [18.00 UK TIME]
Racing at Dusk, for the Season 6 Title!
Should be fascinating!
This also means: less hot temperatures & no conflict whatsoever with the F1's Silverstone Grand Prix.


EVENT TIMETABLE

Edited by thegamer23, 30 July 2020 - 07:59.

Great effort with the OP. If FE doesn't pay you already for fervently promoting their series around here, maybe they should 

We start off today with 2 Big News!

One positive, the other, awful 

First off, Mercedes EQ goes full Black in support of "Black Lives Matter".
And i dare to say it looks even better than the F1 counterpart.

Second news. 

A track worker has been killed today in an accident with a forklift during the construction works.

https://www.reddit.c...f_berlin_eprix/

Awful news.       

Edited by thegamer23, 29 July 2020 - 18:52.

Love the OP as always Gamer. Cannot wait for this.

It feels like a World Cup of Formula E.

No idea who will win the title, going to come down to who makes the least mistakes I think.

Cannot wait - This should be a pretty unique. 

Great OP, looking forward to seeing how this all plays out. 

These races will close out the pre World Championship Era. 

Great comprehensive OP, well done, and very fitting.

This should be FUN! 

I'm not going to get a lot of work done while this is on!

Can't wait. Hope we get some weather too!

Edited by thegamer23, 29 July 2020 - 22:16.

'FINAL-e' 

I see what you did there 

Great OP (as always )

Really looking forward to these races now. Championship is anyone's for the taking.

Pretty crazy concept. Now I'll have to figure out how to watch these! (in Germany)

Pretty crazy concept. Now I'll have to figure out how to watch these! (in Germany)

The Formula E website is your friend!     

https://www.fiaformu...206&session=All

The Black Mercedes, in flesh!

Anyway, why was the Thread's Pool removed? 

Edited by thegamer23, 30 July 2020 - 07:53.

Was wondering why the poll disappeared myself... 

Bold prediction time but I think JEV is well placed and hungry enough to take a third Formula E championship title. These newer challengers won't have it easy in Berlin...

_{(I mean I could be entirely wrong, my powers of prediction have never been all that impressive)}

https://www.autospor...wo-berlin-races

Makes sense for Calado to focus on his endurance racing commitment, now that it's clear he won't be back in FE next season (at least not with Jaguar, and I'd be somewhat surprised if any other team picks him up).

It will be so weird to remember these times decades later: "Remember the third Berlin e-Prix from 2020? it was such a borefest... but the fifth one, that was a classic thriller!"

Edited by balage06, 30 July 2020 - 13:02.

Calado was always a bit of a left field choice from Jaguar. Surprise signing as he had no prior FE experience and then he just became another team-mate that Evans quite convincingly outperformed. Sure, you could give him another season or so to 'settle' but it's clear Jaguar have championship ambitions and so need a second driver who can match and challenge Evans. 

If Blomqvist gets in the car for Berlin, is that an 'upgrade' until Bird arrives? Hard to say actually. The Andretti car he drove for a partial season was far from the best car out there at the time and he didn't perform noticeably worse than a certain Antonio Felix da Costa in it. 

Edited by Ben1445, 30 July 2020 - 14:54.

Calado was always a bit of a left field choice from Jaguar. Surprise signing as he had no prior FE experience and then he just became another team-mate that Evans quite convincingly outperformed. Sure, you could give him another season or so to 'settle' but it's clear Jaguar have championship ambitions and so need a second driver who can match and challenge Evans. 

 

If Blomqvist gets in the car for Berlin, is that an 'upgrade' until Bird arrives? Hard to say actually. The Andretti car he drove for a partial season was far from the best car out there at the time and he didn't perform noticeably worse than a certain Antonio Felix da Costa in it. 

I'd say Blomqvist and Calado probably performed at about the same levels.  Probably the least exciting of the substitute drivers for the finale, though.

New race livery for Mahindra!

More red, the better!   

I like it. 

I still think their Season 3 livery was pretty much spot on for them and this is a step back closer to that so 

Will this make them stand out more from the Porsche, Nissan, Venturi blancmange of red, white and black?

I think it might still do from the side as none of those teams have a red roll hoop/battery cover.... but that wasn't really an issue as no one else had blue either. Not sure it's going to make much difference from the front though which was more tricky for ID purposes to begin with  actually that's not right, Mahindra have the red nose which isn't shared by anyone else on the grid either.

I guess we'll find out for sure in a few days.

Side note: I've always liked Mahindra's wheel rim highlights in the colours of the Indian flag. 

Edited by Ben1445, 31 July 2020 - 11:11.

Side note: I've always liked Mahindra's wheel rim highlights in the colours of the Indian flag. 

And it's quite fitting, since there's a wheel ON the Indian flag itself 

Porsche's pre-Berlin press release would indicate that Jani will see out the rest of the season with Porsche. 

https://newsroom.por...prix-21598.html

That is unless the contract expires as of the end of July and they stab him in the back over the next few days. Which I just can't see Porsche doing. 

Too bad.  Meanwhile Wehrlein is sitting around.

I suppose a parting gift for years of service.

Daniel Abt spotted testing the NIO 333
Test Livery

Edited by thegamer23, 01 August 2020 - 09:24.

I suppose a parting gift for years of service.

But does he even enjoy this kind of "gift"?

Would be mildly ironic if Jani's performance takes a big step up over the next two weeks only for him to be replaced by Wehrlein from next season.

The Software War Raging Ahead of Formula E's Return | The Race

https://the-race.com...mula-es-return/

“Top teams run fully integrated software simulation tools,” confirms McCool.

 

“Vehicle dynamic optimisation software, energy use and recovery modelling and lap time simulation software packages are all combined with DiL simulators, real time verification and race strategy software to gain significant performance advantages over smaller, less well funded teams.”

 

But of course the beauty of Formula E is that software, although important and perhaps sometimes critically so, cannot change the qualifying format, human error or the limited timetable that the six races will run to.

 

The boffins only get you so far in Formula E. Courage, skill, luck and good old fashioned racing guile contribute just as much over the course of a full season.

Edited by Vielleicht, 01 August 2020 - 09:14.

Can't help but think it's going to be a really intense end to the season. 

Can you simulate driver frustration levels on these fancy pants computers these days? 

The Software War Raging Ahead of Formula E's Return | The Race

https://the-race.com...mula-es-return/

I had to click on the otherwise unappealing article, just to see with my own eyes that there indeed is a character named "McCool" involved here   

Here's the story behind Jean-Eric Vergne's tribute helmet for Berlin:
 
The Unknown ‘Mega Talent’ Who Rivalled Alonso and Inspired Vergne
https://the-race.com...nspired-vergne/

Cars arrived at the Tempelhof!

- 3 days

And, Highlights of the Season so Far!

 

Edited by thegamer23, 02 August 2020 - 15:52.

There will be a shakedown on Tuesday afternoon apparently.

I cannot wait myself. FE is nearly back!

It's nearly race fortnight...

(don't get that all too often!) 

There will be a shakedown on Tuesday afternoon apparently.

 

I cannot wait myself. FE is nearly back!

I totally forgot about that.   

SO....

Tuesday

Shakedown + Preview Show

Wednesday

Race 1: Reverse Layout

Thursday 

Race 2: Reverse Layout

Little Break --------------------------------------------------------------

Saturday 

Race 3: Traditional Layout

Sunday

Race 4: Traditional  Layout

Little Break --------------------------------------------------------------
 

Wednesday 12th August

Race 5: New Layout

Thursday

THE FINALE: New Layout

A stroll around the reverse track in Rfactor 2

Edited by thegamer23, 02 August 2020 - 19:01.

Race Preview by Alexander Sims 
https://alexandersim...-back-on-track/

Very interesting stuff!

Here's the story behind Jean-Eric Vergne's tribute helmet for Berlin:
 
The Unknown ‘Mega Talent’ Who Rivalled Alonso and Inspired Vergne
https://the-race.com...nspired-vergne/

If I had a fiver for every 'Unknown Mega-Talent' back in karting days, I'd have.....well, enough for a McDonalds Happy Meal.

There were always these lost talents in karting, who either never wanted to proceed any further, or were casualties of the darker side of racing.  I can recall a girl who was winning everything in karts but was tragically killed.  Would she have been the first female WDC.  Who knows?

If you think of Helberg, she died a long time after her career did not work

JEV with the tribute helmet, already in the car!

Looking for the Third Consecutive Championship Title

Worlwide Schedule for Races 1 & 2

(wednesday-tuesday)

Edited by thegamer23, 03 August 2020 - 15:05.

If you think of Helberg, she died a long time after her career did not work

No, it was a 14 year old girl, but I have long since forgotten her name.