Formula E Gen3: The world’s most efficient race car

https://roborace.com/

They don't use lifelike robots, yet, but they're doing some exciting stuff.

It’s incredibly fun in VR.

It isn't many of us ran canyons as a lead up to track days to dial in our suspension or engine maps ahead of time attacks, and just as another poster mentioned: you ignore it entirely when you're in the zone.

You're looking at your own lines, and making your own braking points which often require you go wide (on to oncoming traffic) to make an apex in a high gear and have a higher exit speed etc...

In short, normal day-driving has almost no bearing on how you drive in anger in the canyons or the track. I drive like an old man on the street and seldom speed, but once the helmet goes on I'm a full contact driver and I will block pass and push you wide off the track to make an apex on the track without a second thought.

I was getting too aggressive at the K1 racetrack on my bday one year, I had just assumed people had done track days before and the marshals eventually let me run alone on the track to set a best flying lap because I was forcing people into dangerous situations, which to me is a part of racing: forcing people into mistakes is a critical part of race-craft. And if you go over your limit and you crash those are just racing incidents at the end of the day.

I think I held a Top 10 lap record for most of that year at that location.

As for reminiscing about F1 I think the hybrid era has yielded the most monotonous era on F1 history; which is saying a lot where 5 on track overtakes was considered an exciting race before that. Mercedes/HAM domination is about as compelling as the Redbull/Vettel era but with way more boring engines (they had V8s back then).

I was in Maranello the last season right before the v6 hybrid era and I could hear them testing the V6s F1 engines in the factory and then heard it on the track Fiorano. They sounded pathetic to even the street version V8s and I knew it was an end of an era.

Luckily, I got to see the LaFerrari prototype with its crazy hybrid-V8 get tested out on the canyons up Torre Maina which was a remarkable experience. They always say that when Ferrari sucks in F1 is when their Strada division makes it's best cars.

Either way, I think the Senna/Prost days in manual Turbo V6s was cool but way over valued, to me the pinnacle will always be the V10 era. Seeing that BMW V10 in the Williams screaming at near 20K RPM was insanity [0]! I know the V8s and even the V10s are faster around a track, but these engines were over a 1000HP in qualy trim, and the sound alone was what made the racing back then.

0: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gT36kC2pwAc

I believe the biggest reason they are in cities now is that the battery capacity/tech just isn't there yet for something like Spa or COTA for the distance and speeds required for an interesting race. City courses allow for a design that offers a lot of regenerative braking.

Another reason to host them in cities is that cities are great for fans. Lots of hotels, restaurants, people buy tickets, etc. Cities are likely more open to Formula E due to the quieter cars and lower pollution too.

So, not useless, just maybe not interesting to you.

I'd bet FE has similar arrangement - no one wants obvious comparison with an obvious loser by some metric.

The only reason I can imagine a EV being more noisy is for very slow sppeds which are usually in areas with pedestrians. It may be a good idea to gently warn them that a car is nearby (though I do not have a strong opinion on that one - a bike is silent after all)

Monaco is very cramped with lots of buildings and roads that are not easy to cross. There are nice parks, though - but everything seems really cramped.

The prices are outrageous, but this is the case in many places in the south of France. You do not live in Monaco comfortably with a middle-class income.

France is a marvelous country, with beautiful places and climates - there are really better places to choose from.