http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0O3V8pJj0E#t=177 First race in history and quite nasty crash between Nick Heidfeld and Nico Prost.
Just watched the highlights - Prost should face a ban for that move - terrible. I think the plan quick Nick had will be the norm here; wait behind the leader conserving battery power till the last lap then pull out. Overall I didn't mind the event. I'm sure it will improve in the coming races, and next year. Not so keen on the gimmicks and the forced pit stops to change cars. It would have made more sense to come up with a car design whereby they could change the batteries. I'm sure this could have been achieved in around the same time (2 minutes) given a nice efficient design.
Absolute shocker there by Prost! Swerving into someone, disgraceful really what if the nico had got seriously hurt or worse!?
The battery is 300kgs and an integral part of the chassis, I'd like to see a design where you could change it in less than 36 seconds (that was our best time in testing). Personally I thought the race was boring, but then my car did retire on lap one! Its a bit long if you ask me. Two shorter races with no pitstop, so the public aren't aware of the 2nd car would be better I think. I'm looking forward to Malaysia, especially after the disappointment of yesterday.
Was a strange one, noise of the cars got grating after a while, fanboost is a shocking addition and chnaging cars half way through was just mental. Hopefully it'll approve though...
So you can change the batteries in a reasonable time? I suppose some sort of powered gantry to drive under, whip the cover off, lift old one out and new in, secure and connect it, cover on and go in under a minute would be exciting to watch. Seeing them strapping into totally different cars is not good. This would have more relevance to possible future road cars too. Nobody is going to swap their entire car, but they may swap the battery at a refuelling station. Two shorter sprints is a good idea though. 2nd in reverse finishing order?
Few snaps from the weekend. Personally it was really disappointing as we had the pace to win the race, but a small issue in qualifying meant we were delayed by 7 minutes so we couldn't get a lap in. Pole was in the bag unfortunately as we'd been p1 in fp2 and would have been p1 in fp18 if it wasn't for traffic. Beijing is certainly a place I don't want to go back to! The people smell, they're mostly retarded, the smog is horrendous and the food is shite!! It also seems very strange to go all that way for one day of running. I'm sure it'll get better as the season progresses. Looking forward to some nice English food today, might even go to the Chinese tonight!!
