strad wrote:Did you see how narrow and bumpy that London track was?
Yeah it looked ridiculous in places, the cars in line pitching up and down like crazy... and so difficult to pass with it easy to defend by driving in the centre of the track.
* I started life with nothing, and still have most of it left
“Good drivers have dead flies on the side windows!” (Walter Röhrl)
* I married Miss Right. Just didn't know her first name was Always
If a man can't look at danger and still go on, man has stopped living. If the worst ever happens – then it means simply that I've been asked to pay the bill for the happiness of my life – without a moment's regret. Graham Hill
Two seasons old, and FE has already outstayed its welcome. Electric cars, and other innovation's, place is where they can beat conventional cars outright: Pikes Peak is the prime example, and I think rallycross is next (and endurance racing of course); but I think this change-car-in-the-middle-of-a-race-gimmick must end ASAP.
***Some say you should live each day like it was your last... but who wants to live each day in wild panic and extreme death anxiety?
The universe, look at the hugeness of it... it is a dizzying thought that little ol' me is the centre of it all!***
They didn't outstay their welcome, it was a stupid decision to goto Battersea in the first place, nobody in their right mind would hold a car race round there (and none of the locals wanted the event either), it's a moderately nice park in a slum area.
There was a group of residents who didn't like the fact they couldn't go jogging in the park during the week-ish time the race was on, as the park is public property, and the fact that Formula E shuts the entire park, not just part of it like pop concerts, they threatened to take the Local Authority and FE to Court, FE folded, not because they didn't want to go through expensive Court action, but because they knew they were in the wrong from the start.
It's complicated but local taxes (Council Tax) that residents pay goes towards the upkeep of the park, and they pay a lot round there, so access to the park is a right, not a privilege. FE were aware of this before the event was even launched and had a backup plan to race around the old Docklands site (that Telehouse is at now) that is privately owned and which would have been much more suited, but they plumb for Battersea because it was the prettier option, and the local authority wanted it and didn't give a shit what the local residents thought, more fool them.
I actually quiet like the changing of the car mid-race, it adds something a little different to the events.
Next year they'll either race in the Docklands or the Olympic Park, although they may find the same level of resistance at the Olympic Park if they try and close the whole thing (it's massive so that's unlikely), it seems the GLA didn't realise that when you make the local residents pay for an event (like the Olympics or upkeep of a park) even if they don't want it, as soon as you tell them they can't use it, they'll get their knickers in a twist over it because ultimately, they paid for it so have a right to use it.
I am very sorry if you find my posts long and boring, I like to type and often go off on a tangent.
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