Britpoint

I too think slow zones are generally a good idea. They're not for all situations, and drivers also simply need to remember to respect the flags properly, but slow zones are also extremely sensible, especially when there are workers on the outside of fast corners. They're fair, safe, effective and easy to enforce. They would be a welcome tool in any Race Control room.

Former F1 doc Gary Hartstein made a good point in one of his blogs: double-waved yellows were being shown in the danger zone. They mean "slow down and be prepared to stop". If Jules was going fast enough to aquaplane, he wasn't obeying that. This is not a criticism of him in particular - none of the drivers slow down enough for double yellows, because if you're the only one who obeys them properly there's a huge disadvantage when nobody else does. As Hartstein says: human beings are on track and at risk in double yellow zones. Before we start looking at knee jerk safety reforms, get the drivers respecting the safety systems that already exist. Get them obeying the 'spirit' of the law ("how slow must I go to keep everyone safe?") rather than the letter ("how many tenths must I slow by to avoid punishment?").

It could be that the weather wasn't inhibiting it as they started the race, but when that new front rolled in the situation changed Possible... But once the situation changed and heli couldn't fly anymore shouldn't they red flag the race until it can?  Yes, although it's quite possible those two points overlapped anyway. Cars were only just starting to go onto full wets when the incident happened, and then there was a significant time getting Jules to the medical centre before the helicopter was called upon. It's entirely possible that for the duration of the live race, it would have been able to fly. Purely speculative of course. I certainly agree that if at any point during the race the director gets a call saying the helicopter is grounded, the race should be neutralised.

It could be that the weather wasn't inhibiting it as they started the race, but when that new front rolled in the situation changed

It's the weather that's in no condition to airlift him. The heli can't fly so that''s why he's in the ambulance under police escort. :(

Wow. Just wow. Silly season got pretty silly all of a sudden.

That last twitter quote actually makes me take the report less seriously. It feels like all the "insiders" on NeoGaf who say things like "Oh EA are making FIFA a WiiU exclusive, you can ban me if I'm wrong!" If you're willing to put your credibility on the line over a transfer gossip rumour then I have to worry if you value your credibility enough to begin with!

Capability of the cars is only half of it. The other reason they don't want to run on circuits is they tend to be out of the way. If you race in a city centre, you can get interest from people who are in or around the city centre anyway as part of their normal lives. If you put it out on a track that people have to drive to, you're only going to attract people who are interested anyway. Given that FE doesn't currently run support races, I don't think it would be an attractive event to go to a circuit for right now.

You're certainly right about the formation lap! Normal circuits should definitely wait a while. The cars are too slow to be exciting on them, whereas 80mph can look pretty quick inches away from a barrier. I'd like a couple of seasons on street circuits only first; let the series get a following, let the cars develop a bit, and then start phasing in some road courses. I reckon the music during the race could be OK but their choice of it wasn't great. The trouble with playing music is you'll never satisfy everyone's tastes. I did like it during the lights sequence - it was a good substitute for the crescendo of revs we usually hear.

A promising first race! Glad to see a good number of cars make it to the finish and some close racing throughout. I liked how close the cars could run, I liked the ebb and flow caused by the differences in the way they used their energy, the pit stops worked OK and the cars looked like they were going at a decent pace. The lack of noise is a small issue - it just lacks a bit of theatre caused by the roar of an engine. Also the track layout wasn't good - I'm surprised they could overtake as well as they did to be honest. The chicanes aren't the best but the tight 90 degree lefts are worse. FanBoost is pointless, lets replace it with P2P. It's going to be fascinating to see how this evolves over the course of a season.

Lap 20 and nobody's spoken of FanBoost. It's just too limited and not enough of an advantage to make any kind of difference in the race. They'd be better off replacing it with a few Push to Passes for everyone. There's been some surprisingly good racing considering the tough circuit layout. Franck Montagny really impressing.

I love that show. In a similar vein: YuyushikiKiniro MosaicI've not seen Zankyou no Terror although have heard OK things about it, I may check it out once it's all aired. Another that I can recommend from this season is Aldnoah Zero. 

New recommendation! Sabagebu. Or, "Survival Games Club". It's a comedy about a bunch of students in an airsoft club, basically. The main girl is a bit of a sadist; something different from your usual comedy protagonist and is a lot of fun. ^_^ Some good action scenes as well as it shows how the characters imagine their fights would look if they were real. So there's blood and things explode... but everyone's fine afterwards.

Really hoping so. I mean, we're talking 30 seconds to swap cars, max (probably), but it just doesn't see right for racing... I don't see it as too different from a driver change in WEC. Although I do still hope it gets replaced by something better, be it better batteries, wireless recharging or battery swaps (perhaps using something similar to the tech Tesla have developed).

I am a little bit worried about the speed in Formula E. According to Autosport magazine they were doing about 105mph down the main straight at Donnington with race power. A Formula Ford would have 20mph or so on that, Hopefully it won't be a big deal and it will improve as the series evolves. But in the meantime... I just hope the circuits are built with that in mind so you don't notice that lack of performance too much. I don't want the series to be instantly dismissed in its first year because they can't take on GP3 cars.

Lottery tickets are £2 ;) ...Can you tell I don't play the lottery? ;)

I get that. My point is more that although it's a ridiculous idea, the advantage gained should be so small that it's also not a big deal. It's like... buying a lottery ticket every week is a ridiculous waste of money considering the utterly minuscule odds of ever winning it, but it's only a quid a week so you're probably not going to miss it.

While the fanboost is one of the least 'fair' artificial race gimmicks I've ever seen, it's also likely to be one of the least influential. 5 seconds of extra power during the race? That's nothing. In F1 you get DRS once, maybe twice per lap if you're close to another car.Many series have mandatory pit stops with gimmicky tyre regulations.IndyCars get 10 push to passes each raceBTCC uses success ballast.All of these are artificial gimmicks with a much more significant effect on the race than a single 5 second power burst, and many of them are highly successful in improving the racing. Again, I don't agree with 'fanboost' where I can accept these as it's not a fair system; drivers can miss out because they don't have enough Twitter followers and it opens the door for discrimination. But it's a very small advantage in the scheme of things.

I'm very excited about Formula E. Electric cars need to be more publicly accepted and they need better technology; motorsport is the perfect place for this. It has a strong team and driver lineup (not everyone needs to be an F1 world champion to be a good racing driver) and they're starting with a sensible spec series at first before opening up the rules to constructors in following seasons. This is a series that isn't trying to run before it can walk, is very smartly running in city centres instead of on circuits in the middle of nowhere (one of the things that killed off A1GP) and looks like a solid foundation for the future. I'm not a fan of the 'fanboost' system either, but it'll probably either be a) not a big factor in races so it'll be easy to ignore or b) so bad that it gets quickly dumped. I can cope with either of those. As for criticisms that the cars are a bit slow and the battery range isn't all that, bear in mind this is only their first ever season. The first Internal Combustion Engine races looked like this: I think Formula E will be OK.

I recommend eating some cheese before bed. You'll have such weird nightmares you won't have time to dream about DiRT. ;)

There are many thousands of issues over the course of any game's development that are thoroughly reported and fixed. Posting the list of stuff that was reported and fixed would be impractical as it would be a hundred or so times the length of the patch notes.

I'm trying to figure out what kind of medium is in those boxes on the TV. They're too thin to be VHS... is that a DVD player on the bottom of the TV? But then why have the VHS!? I imagine all rally drivers have to worry about such things.

Yes mate, do such things as these. IMO Brotherhood is significantly better! ^_^

I'm looking forward to this series a lot. Electric cars really need a motorsport series that people can be interested in and can serve as a test bed for new technology. The lineup of teams and drivers is really good. I'll be going to the London ePrix next year. ...although I wish they weren't calling them 'ePrix'.

Well I can't be 100% certain, but they're both pretty steep inclines aren't they? My suspicion is that gravity is moving the weight more over the rear wheels resulting in a loss of front grip. Not the nicest handling trait in the world when you get it for sure, but don't think it's something we'd want to 'fix'. :)