I like motorsport, so I watch a lot of it. I try to go in person, where possible. I know some local drivers personally, and I have considered becoming a track “official”. That’s my starting point for this “perspective”.
Recently, I came across Formula E. The all-electric version of Formula 1, basically…
It’s a bit shit, partly because the cars and drivers are like off-brand Formula 1, but mainly because the rules are fucking absurd, and they have chosen absurd temporary tracks, in shitty locations, in old industrial parts of big cities around the world, instead of using existing track infrastructure… So it just… Looks like shit the whole time. Seoul was novel because they used the old Olympic Park, but in general it was just… Shit.
Today I watched Extreme E, which is the rally equivalent (electric), and it is just… A complete fucking joke. Comically absurd.
All teams must have one man and one woman. Each of those does one lap of the course in the car, with a 40-second stationary changeover in between (yes, really). Each of the races is held “in a remote location” WITH NO SPECTATORS. It is purely made for TV. No pit. Everything (external to the car) is done indoors, in tents. Teams aren’t allowed to travel by air, so the series bought their own cargo ship, which they then proceed to use to carry all the equipment to these “vulnerable” locations (which is why no spectators, they claim), which they then destroy with race cars…
Half of each episode is devoted to greenwashing initiatives, climate change shit, and “white man bad”. At one point they were literally planting trees in the desert sand (!!), for virtue signaling purposes…
The whole thing is sponsored by the Saudi government (who else?), with the most convoluted rules I have ever seen in a car race, and yep, the first round held in the Saudi desert…
It’s a joke. A mockery of the sport. And yet all that fucking Saudi blood money means it is is widely promoted, and essentially immune to criticism…
Like, fuck, surely banning spectators tells you what a joke the whole thing is (even Dakar does not do that, and it literally uses some of the same course, now)…
Who would have thought that they could even ruin car racing, in current year (thanks, Hollywood, Jenson Button and fucking Lewis Hamilton once again!! They’re some of the main “sponsors” of this shit) smh…
I've wanted to watch Formula E, but it just seemed boring a few minutes in.
The shipping container sounds like a great idea, everything is in it to make a production. It sounds like the producers wanted to try a traveling show, came up with an ingenious idea, and then the hired crew and investors destroyed it.
Why doesn't .win have a driving group anyway? I like finding fun roads, and seeing what I can do with them. It would be fun to chat about that.
There's like a few hundred of us here, and out of that how many like cars? And how close are we to each other geographically?
Not only that, but if we start meeting in person we lose anonymity and possibly get marked by Feds just for posting here.
Yeah, the concept is cool. It’s just a very, very odd… Execution. To the point where the coverage is just… Unwatchable.
Motorsport really sucks without the crowd of spectators, lol…
Which is why Extreme E worked during lockdowns, but just looks like a joke, now…
Re the .win Driving group, I would be really keen for that, if anyone makes one! 👍
We have some dope roads down here in the Southern Hemisphere, particularly island roads and Alpine switchbacks!
Though also the longest stretch of straight road on Earth, surprisingly (the Nullarbor highway), so really… There's just about every “road type” you could want, down here. It’s just… Slightly balanced by the fact that we (Aus and NZ) are complete nanny states, which affects what you can do on those roads, at any time, ahaha…