With some interesting drivers on the grid (incl. my compatriots Daniel Abt and Andre' Lotterer), I'll make an effort to follow it a bit more closely. In general, I like the concept and high manufacturer participation-but agree that fewer street circuits would benefit the series.
To anyone who is familiar with the different forms of motorsports and not only Formula 1, Formula E has possibly the strongest list of drivers, with different backgrounds and experience. In addition to the Formula 1 drivers, You have Prototype drivers, GT drivers, DTM drivers, and a good list of Formula feeder series drivers.
I think that this is a good platform and a good opportunity for Formula drivers who cannot secure a seat in Formula 1 as the series is growing and the manufacturers are getting directly involved (next season will see Porsche and Mercedes in full force). As a BMW fan myself, I'm looking forward to see how they'll do. During the pre season testing, they were the fastest a number of times. Should be a good fight with Audi, DS, Nissan and Jaguar.
However, I usually have my concerns about manufacturers getting directly involved in any kind of motorsports as it becomes what they call an "arms race" and trying to out spend each other to win the title. Organizers of Formula E have voiced their concern about this as well and they said they'll be strict regarding this subject. Let's see if they can do as such.
Regarding the street circuits - as much as I don't like them personally for the reasons I mentioned previously, you can sense that they are targeting the modern market and showing a different image, with almost everything new and not closely related to the legacy motorports, including the well known race circuits that are used for the various classes.
A bit OT: I'll be closely watching Mick Schumachers' progress in F2 net season.
I usually follow F2 due to the good racing they have, which, to me, are better than Formula 1. My first time watching Mick was in 2016 in Formula 4 where he was competitive, which encouraged me to follow him in Euro Formula 3 in 2017, but didn't have the chance to see how he won the championship this year. While I may say that Leclerc is braver and has a more daring driving, Mick has proven to learn very quickly from his mistakes, so he has the raw driving characteristics. He needs to polish them with every single race.
Looking forward to follow F2 next year if I can. Hopefully we can have some other people who are willing to follow it as well so we can have a good discussion
I decided to give it a try since the first race will be in my country (Saudi Arabia), I need to follow up with the rules to understand the race.
Formula E feels a bit different from the rest of the motorsports classes, racing wise. You may try to approach it with different attitude if you want to follow it. I can't explain exactly how or why it is different; you need to see it for yourself
The points system is similar to the one in Formula 1 which is 25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1 for the first 10 positions, while there are 3 points for the pole position and 1 point for the fastest lap. Power is limited to 110 KW during the shakedown (like a pre-free practice) with power limited to 110 KW. Practice, Qualifying and Main race have a power range of 250 KW.
The stupid Fanboost gives additional power to the highest voted for driver to be used in a 5 seconds window during the race, and now they have the attack mode or "Mario Kart mode" (really they are trying too hard) which is similar to the push to pass system overboost that is used in some forms of racing.
This is the rules & regulations page from the website, if you want to know more:
www.fiaformulae.com/en/championship/regulations/
About the first race being in Al Diriyah, I was thinking why they chose a historic place. I don't know much about the demography of Saudi Arabia, but I think that Jeddah suits the series better. Could be wrong, however.
As for Alonso, nothing is completely clear about where he'll go to from F1. He didn't say anything about Formula E, and I think he'll be more involved in WEC. But everything is possible...
