WHERE: Streets of Rome, with a Upgraded Layout configuration!
WHY: One of the best circuits, unpredictable weather and....hey it's Formula E!
Chariot racing was one of the most popular ancient Greek, Roman, and Byzantine sports.
We can consider this discipline as the precursor of modern Motorsports.
Chariot racing was, in fact, racing, at the extremes: dangerous for both drivers and horses as they often suffered serious injury and even death, but these dangers added to the excitement and interest for spectators.
Chariot racing involved everyone in the capital.
The rich would sit in the high seats, shaded from the harsh sun, the emperor had his own designated seating and even the poor, who had little else to do, could sit in the stadium for free.
Chariot races could be watched by women, who were banned from watching many other sports, and thousands of people met in the Stadiums to watch those intense, violent & unpredictable races.
The crowds were massive, and the races were majestic, involving the best drivers of the planet.
Teams represented different social groups, or associations, that recruited particularry skilled drivers to go racing & bring honour & fame to the cause.
The ancient constructors.
As in modern Motorsports, spectators generally chose to support a single team, identifying themselves strongly with its fortunes & living their endevours with passion.
Racing was more than a fun pastime, or somewhere to take the family for a different kind of Sunday afternoon.
In fact, the legend says it had roots in the very foundations of Rome itself.
Legend says that Romulus, one of the founders of Rome, used chariot races to distract the local Sabine tribe.
According to the story, the Sabine men were so engrossed in the race they didn’t notice Romulus and his men carrying off their wives, who then became the first Roman wives & started a new tribe.
‘Watch the sport and you’ll lose your wives’
And now we are here again, in the same Historic locations as 2000 years ago, waiting to see those modern chariots fighting wheel to wheel in the streets of Rome.
Welcome to a Formula E Classic, welcome to the Rome e-Prix Double Header!
The New Circuit of Rome is adeep diveinto History.
Basically every corner faces a monument or a stupendous landmark: one of the Highlights of the Track is a long roundabout in Piazza Marconi, around the Obelisk of Guglielmo Marconi.
The track goes up & down with elevation changes & high speed sections, between some of Rome's Most iconic quarters..
Below you can see the Square Colosseum: the cars will dive down the road & into a fast chicane, in the shadow of that iconic building.
This 2021 version of the Rome e-Prix layout will also offer a variety of scenery.
A very fast & tight section of the track is set literally inside a Park: cars will reach over 200 km/h under the trees, remiscent of some of the fastest sections of Battersea Park.
Faster, longer, more challenging.
A real street track, and a might achievement for Formula E to hold such a Race in massive COVID restriction times here in Italy.
Down below we can see a comparison between the Old Track (RED) & the New Version (BLUE).
As you can see: it's much longer & faster!
From 2.8 KM to 3.4 KM lenght: this is going to be the second longest Formula E Track in history (only behind Beijing, wich was slightly longer with 3.453 km)
600 meters of additional roads, long full-throttle sections & now a much more open & scenographic Hairpin around the Obelisk.
De VRIES is FAST
Fastest in FP, fastest in QP, dominated the Race 1.
De Vries is looking as fast as he was during his F2 title winning campaign:
Got unlucky in Race 2, with the disqualification from QP of the Mercedes Powertrains, due to the Mortara incident.
Vandoorne also got unlucky with the Quali Groups, but Mercedes looked like a Top Tier package.
Will the Silver Arrows deliver in the streets of Rome too?
BIRD is the Word!
The only man to have won a race in every season of Formula E so far.
New year, new team: Jaguar Racing.
Bird got involved in a contact with Lynn in Race 1, but won Race 2 in a solid fashion for Jaguar, beating Robin Frijns on track before the Red Flag
Will we see Bird fighting for the title?
SETTE CAMARA delivers!
Ad Diriyah's weekend started bad for Sergio Sette Camara, at his first Full Season as a FE driver with Dragon Racing.
A mistake during Quali 1 forced him to start at the back of the grid for Race 1, but the brazilian managed to put his one year-old car in SuperPole during Race 2.
Starting from P2, Sette Camara drove a solid race, managing to stay around P6 despite the Dragon Racing's problems in Energy Management.
After the penalties, he finished P4.
Lot of points for the "Rookie", and a new powertrain is coming for the european races.
Is he going to fight for race victories?
TECHEEATH's STRUGGLES!
First golden rule of Racing: don't hit your team-mate.
And right away, we saw the two Champions fighting wheel to wheel, with Da Costa nearly sending JEV into the wall.
It was a heated discussion on the radio.
Can these two guys live together in the same team any longer?
And now, with the new DS powertrain coming in Rome, will wee see the Techeetahs there back in front?
THESE CARS are safe!
Riyadh's Season Opener Double Header was and incident-packed event.
We've seen at least two monumental crashes during the weekend: first one involving Edoardo Mortara.
The swiss-man from Venturi lost the brakes during a Racestart simulation, going straight into the wall at the end of the main straight at 150 + km/h.
This crash forced FIA to stop the Mercedes powered cars from taking part to Quali 2!
How dramatic!
In fact, Mortara's Failure was down to a wrong setting in the Mercedes Powertrain's Re-Gen system: all those powertrains had to be inspected & the problem had to be solved before allowing the cars to go out on track again:
Eventually, Mercedes & Venturi managed to take part in Race 2, but starting dead last.
The second huge crash involved the Mahindra of Alex Lynn, and it was a Race-Suspending kind of crash.
It was that big!
Alex Lynn literally took off after touching Mitch Evans Jaguar's rear wheel, while trying a desperate attack move on the inside of the Main Straight.
The Mahindra rolled over & smashed rearwards into the Tech Pro Barriers in the Escape Route.
Thankfully, the driver was OK! Just a few bruises.
STANDINGS AFTER 2 RACES
Nyck De Vries leads, on merit, the Drivers standings so far after an incredible showing in the first round of Riyadh.
Mr.Consistency, Sam Bird is a close second, with Robin Frijns in 3rd, thanks to a podium in Race 2.
Rome 2021 could be a Formula E classic for various reasons.
One is the fact that's it's going to be a Double Header, so twice the fun on one of the best tracks in the Series.
Another reason could be the Weather.
After a full month of sunny skies & summer-like temperatures in Italy: this week the weather is worsening.
And, at the moment, Showers are expected during the weekend.
Expecially on saturday, it looks like it's going to be quite an overcast day, with a decent 50% chance of rain in the afternoon.
Mind that Formula E doesn't need rain to be exciting, but it could be a very important variable on such a complex circuit.
SATURDAY
7.00 // FREE PRACTICE 1
9.15 // FREE PRACTICE 2
11.00 // QUALIFYING
15.00 // RACE 1
SUNDAY
6.00 // FREE PRACTICE
8.00 // QUALI
12.00 // RACE 2
BST TIMES
Not in UK?
Pick your country & see where you can watch the race!!
As nice as the other poll options are, the suggestion of past carbonara just solved my lunch dilemma, so how could it possibly be any other choice?
Also, I'm just happy we have racing again. Annoyed I cannot watch it live, but at some point perhaps some racing series will figure out that the Canadian TV companies are not their friends and will stop letting them air the races on an inaccessible channel in return for a few pennies.
So no more formation lap through the side street with the parked cars then?
That was so weird. Like a throwback to the good old, bad old days.
I think it is a shame that a Roman street race doesn't include anything that is internationally recognisable as Roma. Wot, no Colosseum or forum? I had the same misgivings about Berlin and even Paris to some extent (although you could see the Eifel Tower in the distance there). There seems little point to suburb racing rather than city CENTRE racing. But as there will be no spectators, maybe it doesn't matter. Which brings me to:-
The rich would sit in the high seats, shaded from the harsh sun, the emperor had his own designated seating and even the poor, who had little else to do, could sit in the stadium for free.
I have received a message through the astral plane from St Bernard of Ecclestone who denounces this idea as likely to bring about the Fall of the Bernardian Empire.
The Paris circuit goes around Les Invalides, and as you note, is pretty close to the Eiffel Tower. It's a five minute walk from the Champs-Élysées too. Having lived in the city, I'm honestly shocked they're able to hold a race that's so centrally located each year.
I always had a feeling that the best possible Paris street race would be a time trial recreating C'etait un rendez-vous. If nothing else, you'd at least get a proper sense of it being Paris.
That was so weird. Like a throwback to the good old, bad old days.
I think it is a shame that a Roman street race doesn't include anything that is internationally recognisable as Roma. Wot, no Colosseum or forum? I had the same misgivings about Berlin and even Paris to some extent (although you could see the Eifel Tower in the distance there). There seems little point to suburb racing rather than city CENTRE racing. But as there will be no spectators, maybe it doesn't matter. Which brings me to:-
I have received a message through the astral plane from St Bernard of Ecclestone who denounces this idea as likely to bring about the Fall of the Bernardian Empire.
On the other hand, because of the Formula E race I am now infinitely more like to visit the EUR district if I happen to be in Rome.
But then maybe that's something only slightly eccentric motorsport fans will do.
Not always too plugged into Formula E but I'm going to make an exception for the city of my birth. The weather where I am is slated to be gorgeous, so a morning reminisce around Roma before a long hike sounds like just the ticket for me
I think it is a shame that a Roman street race doesn't include anything that is internationally recognisable as Roma. Wot, no Colosseum or forum? I had the same misgivings about Berlin and even Paris to some extent (although you could see the Eifel Tower in the distance there). There seems little point to suburb racing rather than city CENTRE racing.
Lol, have you ever been to Rome? It's one of the most chaotic cities in Europe and blocking the historical centre would mean the first attempt would also be the last race there.
On the other hand, the EUR area is historical in its own different way, especially if you are interested in early 20th Century urban architecture. The fascist reconstruction of that area is interesting (yes, I find some fascist architecture interesting, regardless of political orientation).
All in all, I think it's nice that it brings attention to another side of Rome's history.
It is laughable to me that a sport promoting themselves as "New Green Racing", but spending so many resource (and money) to build race tracks which would be used for one day only.
It is laughable to me that a sport promoting themselves as "New Green Racing", but spending so many resource (and money) to build race tracks which would be used for one day only.
If they go that route I would quite like to see one ‘sprint race’ with no energy saving required and one ‘normal’ FE race.
A couple of narrow looking sections but on the whole this looks like a proper city centre street track, and not like it’s been shoe horned in somewhere where it won’t cause too much bother.
Reminds me off the second Swiss circuit FE visited.
It is laughable to me that a sport promoting themselves as "New Green Racing", but spending so many resource (and money) to build race tracks which would be used for one day only.
On the other hand the one day format was supposed to make FE more attractive for the hosting cities thanks to less disruption time compared to the traditional full weekend schedule. This might have been helpful when the series was just starting out, but now with the higher profile double headers really should become the standard.
I am just grateful and so very glad that this event is even happening, seeing just what a flaming sh**show Europe is at the moment.
I'll take any optimism I can find and this one is above and beyond what happened last year. Feels like that Sonoma GT race earlier last month with seeing international drivers and teams back in California for a race at a gorgeously GREEN Sonoma race track; it feels good.
As for pastas; I love 'em, but I am nearly Lewis Hamilton on the scale of diet preferences so carbonara is just plain gross to me. Give me fancy seaweed pesto pastas with garlic ginger flakes and lavender sprinkled low fat high protein cheese yo.
Cheers Gamer23 for the great electric energy as always. See ya Saturday.
Lol, have you ever been to Rome? It's one of the most chaotic cities in Europe and blocking the historical centre would mean the first attempt would also be the last race there.
It's Italy. A country that thrives on being chaotic. And loves motor sport.
But at the moment , it is academic. What is even the point of incurring all the expense, administrative hurdles and disruption from a suburb street race if there will be no spectators? Why not just save a huge amount of effort and use a permanent race track? Vallelunga is only a few miles from Rome and is suitably twisty.
The Paris circuit goes around Les Invalides, and as you note, is pretty close to the Eiffel Tower. It's a five minute walk from the Champs-Élysées too. Having lived in the city, I'm honestly shocked they're able to hold a race that's so centrally located each year.
I still think they should use the TDf circuit up and down the Champs and through place concorde under the tuileries and back. Would be a great spectacle.
It's Italy. A country that thrives on being chaotic. And loves motor sport.
But at the moment , it is academic. What is even the point of incurring all the expense, administrative hurdles and disruption from a suburb street race if there will be no spectators? Why not just save a huge amount of effort and use a permanent race track? Vallelunga is only a few miles from Rome and is suitably twisty.
Vallelunga would have been an "easy" & conservative choice
But FE is made for street racing, and managing to organize the race in a very important & busy district of Rome (EUR) despite the current problems is worth an applause imho.
And bodes well for the other street races on the calendar too, staring from Monaco.
Gen 1 Era Rome's Throwback, a great trackside footage
Observations: the first sector of the lap is going to be seriously fast & flowing.
The fast up-hill section looks bonkers, and looks very bumpy as well, should be a challenge.
The 90° corners are generally quite open, you have to carry the speed.
One or two narrow sections.
Quite a few quick flicks left/right, and the chicane is OK, quite quick.
The "Hairpin" looks very interesting, with a massive positive camber on the exit.
"Both drivers have run the new Penske EV-5 machines in private testing recently but it is believed that the improved form of the old car swung the decision to stick with it until development on the new package evolved further"
So, Techeetah will introduce the new powertrain this weekend.
Nissan to introduce it in Valencia Dragon in Valencia too? Still unsure.
By my measurement, the run between T4 and T7 is just short of 900m.
That section should be very spectacular, expecially in quali trim.
Teams still not sure if T6 will be flatout, wich adds to the challenge. I bet we'll see some sideways action at 200 km/h, similar to Mexico's Peraltada
Today:
Trackwalk & Shakedown at 16.30 UK TIME (Not sure it's going to be broadcasted, it wasn't shown in Riyadh)
Weather Update: Saturday should be quite good, with some sun. Sunday is set to be overcast, but rain chances are dropping to 30%
Glad to see the marshal has got the crowd (almost) under control - I guess the spear is to persuade them to get behind the barrier - never thought of that back in the days at Silverstone