One thing you didn't mention was energy management. The cars don't have a battery big enough to run the entire race and must recover about 40% through regenerative breaking. This means that you have to balance going fast enough to win, while braking and coasting heavily enough to have the energy needed to get to the end of the race, all the while dealing with the other drivers who also trying to figure out the same
People forget that Extreme E exists which is a much better use of electric powered racing and much more fun to watch! Basically electric rallying/dakar.
Last week's SP e-Prix was crazy, overtakes (yes, plural) on the last corner and carnage all the time. Not all races are that good, but usually they delivery pretty well!
Gotta say, FE has evolved into a fun series to watch. The cars look quick, and the drivers are super aggressive. If you like watching scrappy, wheel-to-wheel action, this is the series for you.
I am struggling this year. The races still seem to be pretty good, especially last weekend but it's becoming harder to follow when the licence keeps moving around and you have to keep chasing it. No disrespect to TMT or whoever it is now for the UK but damn, they suck. They don't have convenient schedule updates like C4 and BBC did. You take the luxury for granted until it's gone. It's kinda hurt my enthusiasm for the sport.
@@edwardwong654 The FE tires are not my favorite but it makes me wonder what an F1 race would look like if all the slicks were compromised or lost somehow and they all had to run a dry race on inters or some other kind of treaded tire. Less mechanical grip, longer braking distances, cars drifting and sliding again.
FE feels much more approachable to watch than most motorsports, which I think is for a mix of reasons. Of course there's the variety in winners, but the sprint race duration, the very obvious strategy component, and the fact that they put out the full races on their website after the fact, all of which makes it more approachable to a casual viewer.
If you want approachable, BTCC is where it's at. Meet all the drivers in the pits before the race, wander around between the garage between races, tickets are cheap and all the races, including support series, are broadcast on free to air TV.
You mean like nico rosberg, when he did that with the gen2 car? Or when nick heidfeld presented the gen3 car in goodwood? Also jean eric verne managed a P6 in F1. Like Massa, Jacques Villeneuve also had a go in 2015 but he wasn't successful either.
@@tomwallach but he was a top F1 Driver that did drive the gen3 car. That would meet the OPs requirements. Edit: Man, look at me old guy still thinking that Heidfeld and Rosberg are recent F1 drivers
It's good that the electric powered world championship is hard in different ways than the gasoline powered world championship. The variety in racing formats and styles means people with different tastes can watch a flavor of motorsport that showcases drivers and machines that are the best for that particular discipline.
I definitely appreciate the actual racing in FE, especially Monaco a few years ago was WILD, not to mention the half-indoors London circuit. I also really like that everything's so quiet, you can go to a race and actually hear yourself think. That said, no, they're not as fast or as much a pinnacle of technology as F1. But it's a tradeoff, and I love them both. So.... D1GP next?
I'm interested in an electric racing series on proper tracks, with free development and without stupid Mario Kart gimmicks, but FE just takes up that space so we'll probably never get it...
Formula E has a peloton effect where you don't really want to be in clear air because it uses more energy. I really like the added strategy that creates. Some people hate it because it's not "pure" racing, but F1 has DRS so...
0:56 I kinda hope Max somehow manages to win all 24 races this season because #1 that would be incredibly impressive and a record that would most likely stand forever and #2 because that might finally put pressure on the rule makers to make some radical changes to prevent such domination to occur again.
We've always had this level of domination in every calendar year. The past used to have reliability issues that prevented cars from finishing, which opened the door for more race winners. The qualifying pace used to have pole to P2 and P3 with gapes that were over a second, now it's down to tenths or hundredths of a second, and you claim there wasn't domination back then?
dominating in the sport is like a business having a monopoly on a product. it's not the business's fault if their product is simply much better than their competitors innovation is not something you should discourage
Regulations changed every few years to avoid domimation, but you must be aware that although it can take down one monster, it can also create another one. That's what happening right now, they stopped Mercedes and Hamilton, just to create Max and RB while doing that.
We need to take into account costs... a Formula E season is around 12mill, thats like 5% of what F1 cost. Of course they will try to save the cars as much as possible.
A year ago i got an opportunity to join a pre-qualifying round for jakarta e-prix esports event. And i can confirm the car is very hard and a bit fun to drive. The best i can describe is a way more slippery radical sp3 with very instant torque. Even though i didn't qualify (0.8 sec off), i can keep the car for free 😂
Last season of Formula E was not great but it looks like the gen 3 cars have been improved this season. The racing is much better than F1 but I don’t think the racing is really F1’s main attraction.
@@Kj16V The speed and engineering side I would say. I'm more interested in exciting, wheel to wheel battles so it's not my personal favourite series but I can appreciate F1 for what it is and I still watch the races.
@@Kj16VI enjoy F1 even the boring races because it's the top series in the world. It's the same reason I enjoy the Champions League more than amateur football. The stakes are higher, the best drivers and engineers are competing, etc
@@Kj16V the engineering competition there is what makes it. Plus, just the raw speed of those cars is great and they have great drivers as well. I think thats F1's main appeal
Both are very difficult and different from each other. The G forces would be much lower in a formula E car compared to formula 1, due to the cars being lighter and because they have a lot less downforce. The Formula E cars are more affected by wind and other drivers on the track.
Yeah g forces will be low. Don't think any series really comepetes with f1 there. Apparently steering is very heavy in FE as have no power steering and front regen adds even more weight there, also the cars are heavy. So probably requires a bit more arm strength.
@@thelegend5243you said the cars would have exert less g force on the driver because the cars are lighter? That’s not correct. G force is the rate at which the car’s velocity can change, which is related to cornering speed, which is improved by having a lighter car.
Interesting video! Thank you. I have to say as a spectator, I don't enjoy watching races on those fenced street circuits. They kinda look all the same and very boring. I only watch street circuit races when I'm bored to death and have absolutely nothing else to do. But when there are races on tracks like Nordschleife, Red Bull Ring, Spa the whole scenery is so amazing that it adds a lot to the enjoyment factor of that race.
Both are hard in different ways. I don't think really any one series is harder than the other. However, FE is challenging and it's good to have a video that tries to get that across to a casual viewer. Anybody that has rFactor2 should get the gen 3 car to see for themselves (or VRC formula lithium for Assetto Corsa). Its quick to see how hard the series is. F1 car has so much grip its easy to get to a respectable level with it (hard to get on the limit though). Gen 3 FE car on the other hand takes a lot of time to get used too the low grip and high torque.
Well you dont here fe drivers vomitting after half a race or rookys lean there head on the side of the car. Like bearmen litterly crushed His headprotection. Yeah its not easy to drive an fe car because it slides around but a f1 car at the limit, your basicly not allowed to slide. Yeah it has so much grip but your pushing to the edge of that. Plus the g forces over the complete distance, theres a reason f1 cars are 6 secounds slower in the Race. Ofc tyre Management but if they Race qualyfing pace for a full race than ppl gonna blackout. Formula 1 and indycars oval racing is brutal, and i dont think that fe is close to it
@@Jasongilliar yeah, F1 is more physically tough when it come to the g-forces. So when you have races like Qatar or Singapore, there's really no series that cam compete on that level. However, FE is still very physical as they have no power steering. With the front regen and heavy battery, it makes the steering very heavy. This is one area where you see the rookies struggling as they usually don't have the upper body strength initially. So one example I can think of is Hughes after his 1st race in a sweat saying how difficult the race was physically, and that's only 50 minute race. So these cars do put a strain on the drivers if they arent prepared, especially when they go to these tight twisty races. London probably being the toughest, that's where you see the drivers in the post race really talk about how heavy the steering gets. It's only going to get worse as well when they go to AWD next year. This is why they are going to introduce power steering for Gen 4, as the cars will have even more power and regen on the front axle, so it needs to come in really because the steering will be too heavy
@@meerkat5818It is assetto corsa 😂top left says flying finn. check out his youtube channel. he does assetto corsa content. assetto corsa can be really realistic
Tbf he is struggling back in FE as well. Granted he's not in a great team but he's been a step behind his teammate this year. Still getting up to speed with the current car.
Precision driving with no possibility to exceed the limits is boring. Watch AI racing if you want to fall asleep. Occasional oversteer, errors, pushing the limits, overcooking an overtake - they are exciting.
Formula E looks pretty cool tbh - F1 is all about the whole money theatre - not just the racing - whereas FE just looks like super intense and fun driving.
Portland is my home track, so I know lots of stats about it. The Formula E cars best lap times from last year's race would get them passed in some SCCA classes.
I like this comparison video, and agree with the overall conclusions. I’ve never driven F1 or FE, but have driven many other gas cars including F2000, and for the past 10 years was driving EVSR electric race cars, and I love how much quieter the EV drivetrain is, I can hear the tires so much better and get more cornering performance by hearing when grip starts to go away.
I’m not interested in a series that has tracks in converted car parks, gimmicks to try to make it more exciting, and cars that require a bigger focus on management rather than racing. That’s why I watch Formula E instead.
Was pretty cool to hear the balance between the two makes. Everything has major variables that play into this. F1 is just full out nuts and fuel is easy to work with right now. Electric still has the weight and charging or battery swap issues but at least the electric car weight is always the same. Id like to hear if the weight of the F1 car effects driving as the fuel weight is removed or sloshing. Either way cool video, thanks for making it.
I went to Formula E race in Portland last year, it was my first interaction with the series. As an Indycar fan I was really interested in the lap time comparison between the two categories. I figured they would be somewhat comparable however, the FE car was 12 seconds slower. it was also slower than a Indy NXT Car, GT3 car, and Trans Am car from 1984. For a series that bills itself as the Premier Electric racing series I expected something Faster Minimum 1:03.
A lot of that is just down to no aero and the tyres they run. Di Grassi said you could easily find 5 seconds with slicks, actual aero and activating the front powertrain for AWD. Also, because its a battery you can't take weight off for a quali lap which hurts laptime. Next year they're getting AWD and softer tyres (but still all weather). I think aero as well is getting cleaned up a bit. Probably find around 3 seconds from that. Then 2 years after that is Gen 4 which is when the tech will really be up there. Talk is doubling the power to 800hp, AWD and two aero kits (High and Low downforce). That could see it floating closer towards Indycar lap times. Though weight and tyres likely still holding them back.
I don't really see how watching a race with different (but not technologically more advanced) tires and aero makes it more interesting. Sure, it shaves a few seconds off the lap time, but it's not driver skill doing that, it's just the removal of some grooves and adding a couple of wings.
Agreed, the lack of speed doesn't take anything away from the driver talent. I'm just used to seeing a 58-65 second lap time, that's what my brain is used too. I expected to see the cars carrying the same speeds through the corners, and braking earlier than they did, it just wasn't as exhilarating of an experience for me. I will say though the Cars are quieter in person which made the whole experience nicer to watch. @@Curt_Sampson
Could you do a detailed video on that Alonso v Russell incident. I'm sure you could explain it in better technical details. Why it wasn't a brake check, and how a harversting Alonso lifted and downshifted, effected a speeding Russell, and why he lost control! Was it Alonso's fault or should have Russell reacted better? Even so was it normal for a car to lose so much control the way it did?
Havent watched FE since 2018 and I remember when they just got enough power in the batteries so each driver had one car. Its was fun guessing when divers would come in to swap cars cause you couldn't charge a car the way you'd fuel one. But the idea that you could run out of power in a race was so much fun and it was doubled when each driver had 2 cars. It also made the pit stops seam less like a driver getting serviced by a team of 20 but a test of driver foot speed watching them go into pits and jumping out and getting a new car and speeding off cause they got so aggressive in driving and spent almost all their energy. And the faster you pushed the more power you had used. So some would spend all their power to make room to switch cars later or hang off to switch so they could just pelt the cars. Watching the leader board show every drivers power, it was a instant show of whos pushing who in duels and watching the top three slowly tickle down to the Lowe power percents was nerve racking. F1 is amazing and cool. But FE is alot more fun.
I really don't like limiting the power, especially in formula E. They should make the race short enough so drivers could just give it the beans instead of having to lift and coast so much. I know F1 does that aswell, and that shouldn't be so imho.
Honestly my feeling for a while has been that F1 cars now have way too much grip relative the amount of power they have, it makes advantages in the car much more apparent. Not that driver skill doesn;t matter in F1, but i tend to feel F1 intentionally or otherwise emphasises the car too much.
Glad to have you in Diriyah - I actually like the track and have driven their quite a few times during track days and done some less than legal laps when no one is watching lol. It made me enjoy watching Formula E.
I'll be honest, main reason I don't watch Formula E IS the fact most of the tracks are street circuits. I just don't like 'em. Otherwise the racing does seem very interesting. I'll try to watch the ones on road courses this year.
@@GarageSupra it's defo a preference thing. I did a league race on iRacing on Belle Isle on the Porsche Cup. Bloody hell that was stupidly troublesome. Idk I just never liked them. In F1 I find it dumb that 2 meters wide, 5.5 meters long cars are racing in the narrow streets of Monaco.
I’m thinking about getting into watching a secondary racing series other than F1. I’m thinking about either F2, Formula E, or Indycar. I do live in Indiana and have been to a lot of races as a kid, but I’m not sure how interesting it is. Any thoughts on the most interesting other series?
I think it was interesting when Nyck de Vries went to F1 and it didn't work out for him sadly. I don't think it was more difficult for him as there were many factors involved and not all his fault. Glad he got back to Formula E. Love both formats but I do think they need to add other options to make F1 more closer for teams. I really like the qualifying in Formula E. It would give the smaller teams a chance of a fluke P1 as it's a 1 lap chance.
I was never that interested in F1, until I saw the FE race in NYC and Cape Town, and then I started getting interested in both sports. I am a bigger fan of Formula E, though.
The headline states "...Formula E is Harder Than Formula 1". In the video you asked the question, is Formula E more difficult to drive than Formula 1? Your answer was "In short, no." So... which is it?
I got all the comments you mentioned, and for me would be good to know your opinion on the Nyck DeVries who was a Formula E champion but a lot of issues in F1
Nyck won FE in a season where due to a rules issue, performing well was punished - he won few races, and finished 9th the season after when the rules were corrected.
I love the sound of a screaming NA engine behind my head. Nothing can replace or replicate that. It is more fun to drive a slow cat fast than to drive a fast car slow.
The Ds e-tense prototype 2 Dr coupe that Carlos the boss of stellantis drove on a few race circuits is the closest yet. Shame stellantis won't nut up and fkn build a road legal version of it. He seemed damn impressed with it on a real track. 😏
Formula E cars also preform a lot more overtakes due to the chassis being 1.7 Meters wide instead of 2 Meters on Formula 1 cars, Monaco is a good example with 197 overtakes in Formula E and only 4 in Formula 1 (2024), if a few more technologies are invented that can make the cars thinner and shorter we can easily have some more entertaining racing going on in F1
2:17 it was genuinely impossible to tell on the Street Circuit chart whether the red-and-white flag is Monaco or Indonesia, both countries have held Formula E races and their flag look the same 😮
Hey Scott, do you think you could get to test drive an IndyCar someday? Since there will be two british drivers on the IndyCar grid next year with Callum Ilott and Louis Foster, maybe one of them could offer you a ride 🤓... Other than that, that was an interesting video!
I wish FE had only 2 rules: Must fit in a certain box, and must be under a certain weight. We would see some wild battery, motor, and aerodynamic development!
F1 now days has nothing on rally, Indycar, GT3, V8 supercars or even slot of amateur race series. It's a pay to play sport. These manufacturers teach these guys to race, from f3 to f2 up to F1. The cars almost drive themselves
There's a really interesting story unrelated to Formula E about that place, they tried to open that airport for years and just couldn't do it. So many people used it for so many things in the mean time to keep money for it coming in, Formula E was kinda late to the party on that one.
Also, 95% of F1 fans will tell you there are way too many street circuits, they all suck with the possible exceptions of Singapore and Azerbaijan, and there need to be a lot fewer of them.
There are very rarely lapped cars in Formula E, but racing in tight packs against cars with significant straight line speed differences brought about by varying energy management must to a small extent be a transferable skill for WEC
Viewing all depends what country you're in if you want to watch live, the new CEO has stuck it behind a paywall in countries including the UK, where you need a VPN set for the US. Alternatively, every race in FE history is available in full on their website, with new ones added after a few week's delay. The best season (IMO), season 7, is there in full on their youtube channel, if you love motorsport enough you could call it binge-worthy. The best races to watch are Buenos Aires S2, Mexico City S3 and S5, Cape Town S9, Rome S7 (race 1) and S8 (race 1) , Monaco S7, Berlin S7 (both races), New York S5 and S8 (race 2), Portland S9, and Sao Paulo S9 and S10)
One thing I didn't hear about was the difference in steering wheels and the multitude of settings that can be made corner to corner. I imagine that an experienced F1 driver is making far more adjustments then a rookie and more than a Formula E driver has options to in a Formula E car, which would make driving a F1 car far more difficult. I would love to hear more about that, how much difference it makes and what the different adjustments are made by drivers corner to corner.
You'd be surprised. FE has a ton of wheel settings. There's a good video on their youtube which goes through the steering wheel and just how many different modes that can be changed. Its very similar to F1 on that side as its a very technical series.
To me, Attack Mode, battery management and the more narrow and sharper circuits + less predictable winners make FE more interesting to watch than F1, but i still like both, maybe F1 more because i've been watching it since the 2014 season, stopping at around mid 2017 and only catching up to it in 2021 (it took that long). That feels like forever Just to say it, as i'm currently more oblivious to the situation in FE, my favorite teams and drivers are Formula 1: Lewis Hamilton and Minar- i mean, Alpha- I MEAN, Racing Bulls Formula E: Félix Da Costa and Porsche. More homogenized
Well as a beer league sim racer I can second the hypothesis having raced and crashed in both. F1 cars are the sweetest cars to drive, which is why they are the pinnacle. In real life though, those wheels require a very sharp mind to race with.
I wish there was a way of separating drivers from manufacturers - like if each driver had to race each car - one per race. So Max would end up racing with each manufacturer's cars at least once through the season. That way you could split up the manufacturer's competition from the driver's competition, and hopefully have a clearer picture by the end of the season - who actually is the best.
Nobody wants to lead, because of battery manegement. There are so many overtakings, because drivers are forced to take a longer route twice a race to get extra power. So they get overtaken when they drive the long way and then regain their position because of the extra power or the driver in front takes the long road. That doesn't make it more exciting, it makes it random and stupid, especially, when there is a yello flag. Formula E is not racing, it's energy manegement. BTW i love the Caterham footage, i will never forget stigs lap with the 500.
You liked the car. I'm not much of a fan of street circuits....with the exception of Monaco. You can get the same things done on a racetrack. You can get some gravel instead of asphalt for the runoff. You will also have more safety.
Not to mention The tracks in the formula E is much slimmer, smaller and more narrower making it difficult to try to get ahead the rest of the other drivers aswell
Its not just more drivers winning races, there is WAY MORE actual racing. F1 fans get excited about 3 drivers in the mid-filed that battle it out for a few laps, when NONE of them has any shot at winning that race. Its not weird for there to be 10-15 lead changes every race, in other open wheeled leagues. I want to like F1, but I can’t stay awake almost every race. Max would still be the champion, if F1 was TEN TIMES more competitive than it is, and the racing fans would be the real winners. The first corner is usually the highlight of every race. The most exciting thing that can happen is for Max’s engine or transmission to blow. That isn’t a good product.
great video, but when will you make a video about pro drifting especially about dmec (drift masters european championship) such a good competition and imo the most exciting motorsport to watch. just look at some highlights of drift masters round 6 and you will get why i say that, just insane.
I worked as hospitality staff in the Ricciardo suites at this past GP in Melbourne and was very happy to see Verstappen and Hamilton DNF and Sainz win it fairly comfortably. Viva España 🇪🇸
Hey Scott, did you ever drive a rally car? If yes how would a similar comparison between Rally and Formula series look like? Maybe in a future video ;)?
One thing you didn't mention was energy management. The cars don't have a battery big enough to run the entire race and must recover about 40% through regenerative breaking.
This means that you have to balance going fast enough to win, while braking and coasting heavily enough to have the energy needed to get to the end of the race, all the while dealing with the other drivers who also trying to figure out the same
no EV has a battery big enough to finish the race, unless the race is running to whole foods to get more kale chips.
it has more than enough battery to finnish the race is fact it has enough battery to finnish 5/3 of races usually
@@DrDeuteron It actually does. It just that they deliberately reduce it to only 60% so that the race will not be a flat out race.
@@sajeucettefoistunevaspasme well if you drive it like a grandma
@@mohammadrifqisatriamas7311manly if you drive it ALONE with no competitor and no attack mode
People forget that Extreme E exists which is a much better use of electric powered racing and much more fun to watch! Basically electric rallying/dakar.
Had never even heard of Extreme E before.
@@LutraLovegood I hope you enjoy it! It's fun.
Last week's SP e-Prix was crazy, overtakes (yes, plural) on the last corner and carnage all the time. Not all races are that good, but usually they delivery pretty well!
F1 has last corner overtakes too. In fact, one well known one still has racists complaining about it 14 years later.
@@username_mcusernamefacewhich one?
which one? @@username_mcusernameface
@@username_mcusernameface No point gatekeeping, which race bruh
@@kent6054 "IS THAT GLOCK?"
Gotta say, FE has evolved into a fun series to watch. The cars look quick, and the drivers are super aggressive. If you like watching scrappy, wheel-to-wheel action, this is the series for you.
If you have the money in the UK.
I have a tyre fetish and I do not like seeing treads.
I am struggling this year. The races still seem to be pretty good, especially last weekend but it's becoming harder to follow when the licence keeps moving around and you have to keep chasing it. No disrespect to TMT or whoever it is now for the UK but damn, they suck. They don't have convenient schedule updates like C4 and BBC did. You take the luxury for granted until it's gone. It's kinda hurt my enthusiasm for the sport.
I tried so many times to enjoy it but it was boring for me I don't know why. I rather to watch wec although WEC is more boring by its nature.
@@edwardwong654 The FE tires are not my favorite but it makes me wonder what an F1 race would look like if all the slicks were compromised or lost somehow and they all had to run a dry race on inters or some other kind of treaded tire. Less mechanical grip, longer braking distances, cars drifting and sliding again.
FE feels much more approachable to watch than most motorsports, which I think is for a mix of reasons. Of course there's the variety in winners, but the sprint race duration, the very obvious strategy component, and the fact that they put out the full races on their website after the fact, all of which makes it more approachable to a casual viewer.
If you want approachable, BTCC is where it's at. Meet all the drivers in the pits before the race, wander around between the garage between races, tickets are cheap and all the races, including support series, are broadcast on free to air TV.
Watch wrc
Also why i like GT racing, and wec/imsa
I'd love to hear a current top F1 driver like Verstappen take some time in a Formula E car and give his thoughts
Felipe Massa failed massively in FE.
You mean like nico rosberg, when he did that with the gen2 car? Or when nick heidfeld presented the gen3 car in goodwood? Also jean eric verne managed a P6 in F1. Like Massa, Jacques Villeneuve also had a go in 2015 but he wasn't successful either.
@@kooooons nick Heidfeld also was pretty unsuccessful in the gen1
@@tomwallach but he was a top F1 Driver that did drive the gen3 car. That would meet the OPs requirements.
Edit: Man, look at me old guy still thinking that Heidfeld and Rosberg are recent F1 drivers
@@kooooons Giovinazzi, De Vries, Wehrlein and Vandoorne are all recent F1 drivers who have raced in FE.
It's good that the electric powered world championship is hard in different ways than the gasoline powered world championship. The variety in racing formats and styles means people with different tastes can watch a flavor of motorsport that showcases drivers and machines that are the best for that particular discipline.
I definitely appreciate the actual racing in FE, especially Monaco a few years ago was WILD, not to mention the half-indoors London circuit. I also really like that everything's so quiet, you can go to a race and actually hear yourself think. That said, no, they're not as fast or as much a pinnacle of technology as F1. But it's a tradeoff, and I love them both. So.... D1GP next?
I'm interested in an electric racing series on proper tracks, with free development and without stupid Mario Kart gimmicks, but FE just takes up that space so we'll probably never get it...
Right you are, no need to choose, I love both
Formula E has a peloton effect where you don't really want to be in clear air because it uses more energy. I really like the added strategy that creates. Some people hate it because it's not "pure" racing, but F1 has DRS so...
Yeah, but who wants to watch a peloton of BEVs faffing around a track for an hour before racing?
@@TheSteinbittQuite the number of people actually.
@@TheSteinbittwho want to see des overtake 🤣
0:56 I kinda hope Max somehow manages to win all 24 races this season because #1 that would be incredibly impressive and a record that would most likely stand forever and #2 because that might finally put pressure on the rule makers to make some radical changes to prevent such domination to occur again.
Won't happen, red bull know to sandbag to prevent exactly that
But how would you prevent it? There is always someone who is better
We've always had this level of domination in every calendar year. The past used to have reliability issues that prevented cars from finishing, which opened the door for more race winners. The qualifying pace used to have pole to P2 and P3 with gapes that were over a second, now it's down to tenths or hundredths of a second, and you claim there wasn't domination back then?
dominating in the sport is like a business having a monopoly on a product. it's not the business's fault if their product is simply much better than their competitors
innovation is not something you should discourage
Regulations changed every few years to avoid domimation, but you must be aware that although it can take down one monster, it can also create another one. That's what happening right now, they stopped Mercedes and Hamilton, just to create Max and RB while doing that.
We need to take into account costs... a Formula E season is around 12mill, thats like 5% of what F1 cost. Of course they will try to save the cars as much as possible.
Yes, more Fe coverage. We love to see it
A year ago i got an opportunity to join a pre-qualifying round for jakarta e-prix esports event. And i can confirm the car is very hard and a bit fun to drive. The best i can describe is a way more slippery radical sp3 with very instant torque. Even though i didn't qualify (0.8 sec off), i can keep the car for free 😂
Last season of Formula E was not great but it looks like the gen 3 cars have been improved this season. The racing is much better than F1 but I don’t think the racing is really F1’s main attraction.
Honest question: what would you say is the main attraction of F1, the noise and spectacle?
Why wasn't last season great? There was a great title fight between the jaguar and porshe teams
@@Kj16V The speed and engineering side I would say. I'm more interested in exciting, wheel to wheel battles so it's not my personal favourite series but I can appreciate F1 for what it is and I still watch the races.
@@Kj16VI enjoy F1 even the boring races because it's the top series in the world. It's the same reason I enjoy the Champions League more than amateur football. The stakes are higher, the best drivers and engineers are competing, etc
@@Kj16V the engineering competition there is what makes it. Plus, just the raw speed of those cars is great and they have great drivers as well. I think thats F1's main appeal
Both are very difficult and different from each other.
The G forces would be much lower in a formula E car compared to formula 1, due to the cars being lighter and because they have a lot less downforce.
The Formula E cars are more affected by wind and other drivers on the track.
Yeah g forces will be low. Don't think any series really comepetes with f1 there.
Apparently steering is very heavy in FE as have no power steering and front regen adds even more weight there, also the cars are heavy. So probably requires a bit more arm strength.
Weight and downforce don't directly affect G force, but they do enable faster cornering speeds, which do cause higher G force.
@@lemon0801 of course they do! You haven’t got a clue about Aerodynamics, and you’ve just contradicted yourself, I pity you!
@@thelegend5243you said the cars would have exert less g force on the driver because the cars are lighter? That’s not correct. G force is the rate at which the car’s velocity can change, which is related to cornering speed, which is improved by having a lighter car.
Also formula E cars are less affected by wind and dirty air as most of the downforce is generated through the floor
Interesting video! Thank you. I have to say as a spectator, I don't enjoy watching races on those fenced street circuits. They kinda look all the same and very boring. I only watch street circuit races when I'm bored to death and have absolutely nothing else to do. But when there are races on tracks like Nordschleife, Red Bull Ring, Spa the whole scenery is so amazing that it adds a lot to the enjoyment factor of that race.
Both are hard in different ways. I don't think really any one series is harder than the other.
However, FE is challenging and it's good to have a video that tries to get that across to a casual viewer.
Anybody that has rFactor2 should get the gen 3 car to see for themselves (or VRC formula lithium for Assetto Corsa). Its quick to see how hard the series is. F1 car has so much grip its easy to get to a respectable level with it (hard to get on the limit though). Gen 3 FE car on the other hand takes a lot of time to get used too the low grip and high torque.
Well you dont here fe drivers vomitting after half a race or rookys lean there head on the side of the car. Like bearmen litterly crushed His headprotection. Yeah its not easy to drive an fe car because it slides around but a f1 car at the limit, your basicly not allowed to slide. Yeah it has so much grip but your pushing to the edge of that. Plus the g forces over the complete distance, theres a reason f1 cars are 6 secounds slower in the Race. Ofc tyre Management but if they Race qualyfing pace for a full race than ppl gonna blackout. Formula 1 and indycars oval racing is brutal, and i dont think that fe is close to it
@@Jasongilliar yeah, F1 is more physically tough when it come to the g-forces. So when you have races like Qatar or Singapore, there's really no series that cam compete on that level.
However, FE is still very physical as they have no power steering. With the front regen and heavy battery, it makes the steering very heavy. This is one area where you see the rookies struggling as they usually don't have the upper body strength initially. So one example I can think of is Hughes after his 1st race in a sweat saying how difficult the race was physically, and that's only 50 minute race. So these cars do put a strain on the drivers if they arent prepared, especially when they go to these tight twisty races. London probably being the toughest, that's where you see the drivers in the post race really talk about how heavy the steering gets.
It's only going to get worse as well when they go to AWD next year. This is why they are going to introduce power steering for Gen 4, as the cars will have even more power and regen on the front axle, so it needs to come in really because the steering will be too heavy
Nick devries….
He killed it in the williams
And he died during the half season
im actually related to him
8:08 this footage blends in so well, nobody probably noticed it’s Assetto Corsa
Nope that's real footage
@@meerkat5818You can literally check out the channel name on the top left. They upload Assetto Corsa gameplay with realistic graphics mods
@@meerkat58185:14 - 5:21 is from Assetto and it's so obvious.
@@meerkat5818It is assetto corsa 😂top left says flying finn. check out his youtube channel. he does assetto corsa content. assetto corsa can be really realistic
I used to enjoy watching Formula E but now it's gone behind a paywall I can't justify another subscription grrrr. Such a shame.
Nyck de Vries begs to differ 👀
Tbf he is struggling back in FE as well. Granted he's not in a great team but he's been a step behind his teammate this year. Still getting up to speed with the current car.
@@lewis8552 compare him to his teammate back in Merc
he was consistently worse than Vandoorn
@@sajeucettefoistunevaspasmeyeah he was never that great. Season he won was a lottery
*Stoffel Vandoorne has joined the chat*
He's getting clapped by Mortara this season lmao
7:13 well that was a cool drift
You should do the video about IndyCar which we all know is a better "racing" series but a comparisson would be a great video.
Precision driving with no possibility to exceed the limits is boring.
Watch AI racing if you want to fall asleep.
Occasional oversteer, errors, pushing the limits, overcooking an overtake - they are exciting.
Formula E looks pretty cool tbh - F1 is all about the whole money theatre - not just the racing - whereas FE just looks like super intense and fun driving.
If only the cars didn't look like shit and the circuits were not surrounded by a wall that makes all of them look the same...
I'll be honest, the thing that really ruins FE for me is it being a spec series. If it wasn't it would be a lot more interesting.
@@sebber7992 who cares what the cars look like? wtf kinda complaint is that. that's even worse than the sound complaint.
@@username_mcusernamefaceit's only spec chassis. Powertrains and rear suspension can be developed
@@sebber7992 true
Portland is my home track, so I know lots of stats about it. The Formula E cars best lap times from last year's race would get them passed in some SCCA classes.
I like this comparison video, and agree with the overall conclusions. I’ve never driven F1 or FE, but have driven many other gas cars including F2000, and for the past 10 years was driving EVSR electric race cars, and I love how much quieter the EV drivetrain is, I can hear the tires so much better and get more cornering performance by hearing when grip starts to go away.
I’m not interested in a series that has tracks in converted car parks, gimmicks to try to make it more exciting, and cars that require a bigger focus on management rather than racing. That’s why I watch Formula E instead.
Well done lol
Had me in the first half, not gonna lie 😂
I learned so much about Formula E today. Thanks 🏎️
Was pretty cool to hear the balance between the two makes. Everything has major variables that play into this. F1 is just full out nuts and fuel is easy to work with right now. Electric still has the weight and charging or battery swap issues but at least the electric car weight is always the same. Id like to hear if the weight of the F1 car effects driving as the fuel weight is removed or sloshing. Either way cool video, thanks for making it.
I went to Formula E race in Portland last year, it was my first interaction with the series.
As an Indycar fan I was really interested in the lap time comparison between the two categories. I figured they would be somewhat comparable however, the FE car was 12 seconds slower. it was also slower than a Indy NXT Car, GT3 car, and Trans Am car from 1984.
For a series that bills itself as the Premier Electric racing series I expected something Faster Minimum 1:03.
A lot of that is just down to no aero and the tyres they run. Di Grassi said you could easily find 5 seconds with slicks, actual aero and activating the front powertrain for AWD. Also, because its a battery you can't take weight off for a quali lap which hurts laptime.
Next year they're getting AWD and softer tyres (but still all weather). I think aero as well is getting cleaned up a bit. Probably find around 3 seconds from that.
Then 2 years after that is Gen 4 which is when the tech will really be up there. Talk is doubling the power to 800hp, AWD and two aero kits (High and Low downforce). That could see it floating closer towards Indycar lap times. Though weight and tyres likely still holding them back.
I don't really see how watching a race with different (but not technologically more advanced) tires and aero makes it more interesting. Sure, it shaves a few seconds off the lap time, but it's not driver skill doing that, it's just the removal of some grooves and adding a couple of wings.
Agreed, the lack of speed doesn't take anything away from the driver talent. I'm just used to seeing a 58-65 second lap time, that's what my brain is used too. I expected to see the cars carrying the same speeds through the corners, and braking earlier than they did, it just wasn't as exhilarating of an experience for me. I will say though the Cars are quieter in person which made the whole experience nicer to watch. @@Curt_Sampson
Could you do a detailed video on that Alonso v Russell incident. I'm sure you could explain it in better technical details. Why it wasn't a brake check, and how a harversting Alonso lifted and downshifted, effected a speeding Russell, and why he lost control! Was it Alonso's fault or should have Russell reacted better? Even so was it normal for a car to lose so much control the way it did?
Havent watched FE since 2018 and I remember when they just got enough power in the batteries so each driver had one car. Its was fun guessing when divers would come in to swap cars cause you couldn't charge a car the way you'd fuel one. But the idea that you could run out of power in a race was so much fun and it was doubled when each driver had 2 cars.
It also made the pit stops seam less like a driver getting serviced by a team of 20 but a test of driver foot speed watching them go into pits and jumping out and getting a new car and speeding off cause they got so aggressive in driving and spent almost all their energy.
And the faster you pushed the more power you had used. So some would spend all their power to make room to switch cars later or hang off to switch so they could just pelt the cars.
Watching the leader board show every drivers power, it was a instant show of whos pushing who in duels and watching the top three slowly tickle down to the Lowe power percents was nerve racking. F1 is amazing and cool.
But FE is alot more fun.
8:09 almost got me with the Assetto Corsa footage, only noticed it bc I’ve seen the video
I really don't like limiting the power, especially in formula E. They should make the race short enough so drivers could just give it the beans instead of having to lift and coast so much. I know F1 does that aswell, and that shouldn't be so imho.
Honestly my feeling for a while has been that F1 cars now have way too much grip relative the amount of power they have, it makes advantages in the car much more apparent. Not that driver skill doesn;t matter in F1, but i tend to feel F1 intentionally or otherwise emphasises the car too much.
street curcuits are just ass imo. for drivers and spectators. you cant even see far
7:13 That drift is CRAZY
Another great video Scott! Always very factual and informative while still entertaining 👏👏
Great video Scott, FE for me is exactly what I like about racing :)
Glad to have you in Diriyah - I actually like the track and have driven their quite a few times during track days and done some less than legal laps when no one is watching lol.
It made me enjoy watching Formula E.
Great job at the off-road games Scott.
I'll be honest, main reason I don't watch Formula E IS the fact most of the tracks are street circuits. I just don't like 'em. Otherwise the racing does seem very interesting. I'll try to watch the ones on road courses this year.
at least watch sao paulo, this may be a street track but it's sao paulo too
weird, I'm the opposite I love street circuits like what the v8 supercars use here in Australia
@@GarageSupra it's defo a preference thing. I did a league race on iRacing on Belle Isle on the Porsche Cup. Bloody hell that was stupidly troublesome.
Idk I just never liked them. In F1 I find it dumb that 2 meters wide, 5.5 meters long cars are racing in the narrow streets of Monaco.
Try to watch the Portland race. That was absolutely wild last year!
@@GarageSupra Ah yes, the series called supercars... that doesn't actually use supercars.
It's definitely a lot quieter.
F1 cars have semi-automatic sequential gearboxes. No gearshifting is required at all in FE cars as they have automatic transmission.
Electric cars dont really need an automatic transmission or any gears. The only gears they need are forward, backward, and neutral
12:03 '"to stop a shunt" what is that ? I don't know what that mean.
A shunt means going into the wall. If you break even a little too late you'll crash
@@AidanXavier1 thanks you a lot, like I'm french, I don't know at all the expression or some word. si thx for this answer.
I’m thinking about getting into watching a secondary racing series other than F1. I’m thinking about either F2, Formula E, or Indycar. I do live in Indiana and have been to a lot of races as a kid, but I’m not sure how interesting it is. Any thoughts on the most interesting other series?
I think it was interesting when Nyck de Vries went to F1 and it didn't work out for him sadly. I don't think it was more difficult for him as there were many factors involved and not all his fault. Glad he got back to Formula E. Love both formats but I do think they need to add other options to make F1 more closer for teams. I really like the qualifying in Formula E. It would give the smaller teams a chance of a fluke P1 as it's a 1 lap chance.
I was never that interested in F1, until I saw the FE race in NYC and Cape Town, and then I started getting interested in both sports. I am a bigger fan of Formula E, though.
Man, this video went through more thumbnails than a paddock going through tires on a race week.
The headline states "...Formula E is Harder Than Formula 1". In the video you asked the question, is Formula E more difficult to drive than Formula 1? Your answer was "In short, no." So... which is it?
Harder to enjoy without getting bored.
I got all the comments you mentioned, and for me would be good to know your opinion on the Nyck DeVries who was a Formula E champion but a lot of issues in F1
Nyck won FE in a season where due to a rules issue, performing well was punished - he won few races, and finished 9th the season after when the rules were corrected.
I love the sound of a screaming NA engine behind my head. Nothing can replace or replicate that. It is more fun to drive a slow cat fast than to drive a fast car slow.
All of us have suffered through the era of hero-F1. When will it end?
This video made me appreciate more formula e, good video
How awesome would it be to have a street legal two seater akin to these formula E cars?
The Ds e-tense prototype 2 Dr coupe that Carlos the boss of stellantis drove on a few race circuits is the closest yet.
Shame stellantis won't nut up and fkn build a road legal version of it. He seemed damn impressed with it on a real track. 😏
@@4literv6 i had no idea that was a thing! Ds as in citroen? I'll check it out regardless
Formula E cars also preform a lot more overtakes due to the chassis being 1.7 Meters wide instead of 2 Meters on Formula 1 cars, Monaco is a good example with 197 overtakes in Formula E and only 4 in Formula 1 (2024), if a few more technologies are invented that can make the cars thinner and shorter we can easily have some more entertaining racing going on in F1
is the music at 7:39 jort storm by charlie slimecicle??
2:17 it was genuinely impossible to tell on the Street Circuit chart whether the red-and-white flag is Monaco or Indonesia, both countries have held Formula E races and their flag look the same 😮
Indonesia didnt held FE race this year. Some say because of this year is political election year, but the reason never reveal
11:56 lol it says breaking barriers just after you mentioned a shunt
Hey Scott, do you think you could get to test drive an IndyCar someday? Since there will be two british drivers on the IndyCar grid next year with Callum Ilott and Louis Foster, maybe one of them could offer you a ride 🤓...
Other than that, that was an interesting video!
You picked the worst corners for the "it's not about safety" argument. Might as well have included Tamburello of Imola
I wish FE had only 2 rules: Must fit in a certain box, and must be under a certain weight. We would see some wild battery, motor, and aerodynamic development!
F1 now days has nothing on rally, Indycar, GT3, V8 supercars or even slot of amateur race series. It's a pay to play sport. These manufacturers teach these guys to race, from f3 to f2 up to F1. The cars almost drive themselves
Shows FE racing on an abandoned concrete airport: "They drive on real street circuits"
TBF an abandoned parking lot is technically part of a civilian street.... not a purposed built race track.
There's a really interesting story unrelated to Formula E about that place, they tried to open that airport for years and just couldn't do it. So many people used it for so many things in the mean time to keep money for it coming in, Formula E was kinda late to the party on that one.
Also, 95% of F1 fans will tell you there are way too many street circuits, they all suck with the possible exceptions of Singapore and Azerbaijan, and there need to be a lot fewer of them.
@@limbeboy7 What civilians are driving around on an abandoned airport like its a street?
If safety was the most important thing when it comes to racing, there wouldn't be racing. It comes down to allowable risk.
I agree that racing shouldnt be sacrificed for safety, but halos and tire barriers dont really affect racing
@saltyaphid3195 and you have a reasonable view on the matter
@@saltyaphid3195The Halo adds weight
@deathtrooper2048 oh no itll make the car 0.1 seconds slower as if you can even perceive the difference
@@saltyaphid3195 That's a lot for one component considering that some teams in F1 were removing paint for weight reduction 💀
And there’s 7 different winners in F1 before the summer break wild
With regards to run off on tracks, my idea would be to keep the tarmac run off, but have a gravel gutter on the edge of the track
Bruh he literally has #ad in the Description of the video, so that is why he is talking so positive about it…
Not even a minute into the video, I love your choice of drivers we don’t want to see ❤
I wonder if the small circuit and chaos of FE help the driver when they race in WEC especially through traffic
It does at some point
There are very rarely lapped cars in Formula E, but racing in tight packs against cars with significant straight line speed differences brought about by varying energy management must to a small extent be a transferable skill for WEC
instant torque in formula e vs not so instant torque in f1
i'd really like to watch more FE but i just don't know who to watch or where to start... could yall give pointers for a newbie to get into it?
Viewing all depends what country you're in if you want to watch live, the new CEO has stuck it behind a paywall in countries including the UK, where you need a VPN set for the US. Alternatively, every race in FE history is available in full on their website, with new ones added after a few week's delay. The best season (IMO), season 7, is there in full on their youtube channel, if you love motorsport enough you could call it binge-worthy. The best races to watch are Buenos Aires S2, Mexico City S3 and S5, Cape Town S9, Rome S7 (race 1) and S8 (race 1) , Monaco S7, Berlin S7 (both races), New York S5 and S8 (race 2), Portland S9, and Sao Paulo S9 and S10)
Lol @ the message on the hoop:
Let's be careful about which barriers we try to break, those walls don't look like they have much give 😳
One thing I didn't hear about was the difference in steering wheels and the multitude of settings that can be made corner to corner. I imagine that an experienced F1 driver is making far more adjustments then a rookie and more than a Formula E driver has options to in a Formula E car, which would make driving a F1 car far more difficult. I would love to hear more about that, how much difference it makes and what the different adjustments are made by drivers corner to corner.
You'd be surprised. FE has a ton of wheel settings. There's a good video on their youtube which goes through the steering wheel and just how many different modes that can be changed. Its very similar to F1 on that side as its a very technical series.
@@lewis8552 That's good to hear. Thanks!
Guy sparked a whole outrage from the title alone lmao.
I was expecting a war in the comments tbh
This is a fantastic watch
A race anyone can win is far better than giving the trophy to the same team all the time.
To me, Attack Mode, battery management and the more narrow and sharper circuits + less predictable winners make FE more interesting to watch than F1, but i still like both, maybe F1 more because i've been watching it since the 2014 season, stopping at around mid 2017 and only catching up to it in 2021 (it took that long). That feels like forever
Just to say it, as i'm currently more oblivious to the situation in FE, my favorite teams and drivers are
Formula 1: Lewis Hamilton and Minar- i mean, Alpha- I MEAN, Racing Bulls
Formula E: Félix Da Costa and Porsche. More homogenized
It sounds like you would really enjoy the C2V snow racing where car control is at a premium.
You know there are only 2 new F1 world champions in the last 10 years.
Well as a beer league sim racer I can second the hypothesis having raced and crashed in both. F1 cars are the sweetest cars to drive, which is why they are the pinnacle. In real life though, those wheels require a very sharp mind to race with.
I wish there was a way of separating drivers from manufacturers - like if each driver had to race each car - one per race.
So Max would end up racing with each manufacturer's cars at least once through the season.
That way you could split up the manufacturer's competition from the driver's competition,
and hopefully have a clearer picture by the end of the season - who actually is the best.
Nobody wants to lead, because of battery manegement. There are so many overtakings, because drivers are forced to take a longer route twice a race to get extra power. So they get overtaken when they drive the long way and then regain their position because of the extra power or the driver in front takes the long road. That doesn't make it more exciting, it makes it random and stupid, especially, when there is a yello flag.
Formula E is not racing, it's energy manegement.
BTW i love the Caterham footage, i will never forget stigs lap with the 500.
Excellent insights.
"Breaking Barriers" seems like a really questionable slogan for a fast car driving close to walls.
Why did you change the thumbnail from earlier with the split top down view?
If you want to make "go fast" a cultural thing you need to make amateur racing a " thing" . If not your warbling is pointless . You will soon dry up.
This video really change my mind about formula E, i really need to also watch it
You can find all the races un the official app or site
you didn't cover the energy thing in Formula e cars...
You liked the car.
I'm not much of a fan of street circuits....with the exception of Monaco. You can get the same things done on a racetrack. You can get some gravel instead of asphalt for the runoff. You will also have more safety.
Not to mention The tracks in the formula E is much slimmer, smaller and more narrower making it difficult to try to get ahead the rest of the other drivers aswell
It would be cool to see a video on GT500 cars
Its not just more drivers winning races, there is WAY MORE actual racing. F1 fans get excited about 3 drivers in the mid-filed that battle it out for a few laps, when NONE of them has any shot at winning that race. Its not weird for there to be 10-15 lead changes every race, in other open wheeled leagues. I want to like F1, but I can’t stay awake almost every race.
Max would still be the champion, if F1 was TEN TIMES more competitive than it is, and the racing fans would be the real winners.
The first corner is usually the highlight of every race. The most exciting thing that can happen is for Max’s engine or transmission to blow. That isn’t a good product.
F1 fans coping is crazy
"That battle for 15th place was crazy! F1 is truly the best motorsport! It isnt boring, i love the engineering battle!"
Many thanks!
cool video! ADR is kinda weird though
When are you putting up your Offroad Games video?
great video,
but when will you make a video about pro drifting especially about dmec (drift masters european championship) such a good competition and imo the most exciting motorsport to watch.
just look at some highlights of drift masters round 6 and you will get why i say that, just insane.
I worked as hospitality staff in the Ricciardo suites at this past GP in Melbourne and was very happy to see Verstappen and Hamilton DNF and Sainz win it fairly comfortably. Viva España 🇪🇸
Hey Scott, did you ever drive a rally car? If yes how would a similar comparison between Rally and Formula series look like? Maybe in a future video ;)?