Electrifying, or not?
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Today I read the news that the WRX (World RallyCross) championship wants to run its topclass electric by 2020. Meanwhile also MotoGP has released something eBike-ish I guess.
Now I was just wondering, what you guys think of these not so much as an alternative, but as the only viewable sport in its category. Let’s say if F1 would have to be cancelled in 2019, so FE becomes all you can see regarding open wheel racing, and then imagine some electric F3E too.
I’m thinking about this especially in the WRX case, I love the engines roar before the cars even get moving. Well, an electric car standing still makes, uhm, no noise, or none that does something with me.
Surely electric racing is a part of the future, but do you think your love for motorsport in general will still be there if there were no petrol powered alternatives (be it hybrid or not) left?
Basically, if you’d turn a really good race on mute, would it still interest you?
I like the sound of engines and I would miss them but in all honesty I doubt that would last more than a few races.
If I listed everything I like about motorsport the sound would be far from my priority and in the 4 years I’ve watched Formula E it was only the first 2 races I noticed the sound, I think the racing itself is more important.
It’s not per se the type of sound the sound makes. It’s its presence that builds tension in you, or that’s how I feel. Hearing those 6 WRX car ramble before the start is part of the race for me. Being trackside and hearing the cars come from around the corner is part of the experience of going to races.
It’s a shame the Brussels ePrix was cancelled otherwise I would’ve gone, but I do think it’s be a fairly poor experience compared to WEC or F1 events.
That amazed me the first time I attended a GP to hear the start of the race even when I was at the opposite side of the track. And that remains a strong memory of the experience.
However, I think we can live without and we will get other source of satisfaction. Probably that if you take someone to a race in 10y and bring that story about the start and the noise ‘it was almost impossible to speak when a car was passing by ‘. The person will look at you and ask how you could enjoy that.
If you take the start of a 100m sprint in athletics, the silence before the start build so much tension and anticipation. It could become the same with e-racing (it will become confusing between electric and e-games).
I agree. Not to always compare Formula 1 but when I think about several changes there’ve been, that I disliked initially, I’ve largely gotten used to it within a few races. Take the raspy exhaust blown diffuser era or the massive reg change in 2014. Even the halo!
In the inaugral Formula E race I really noticed it to start, but there was such an exciting fight with Heidfeld and Prost that I barely gave it a second thought later on.
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