Congratulations to Porsche. With modest aspirations in 2014, the Weissach crew not only secured Le Mans but the WEC Manufacturer’s Championship a mere 12 months later.
But there’s still the small matter of the Driver’s Championship to attend to, and all efforts will be behind the Webber/Hartley/Bernhard combination to lock down a clean sweep for the trophy cabinet. While Audi are still in the hunt, it’s probably fair to say the championship was decided Texas with Webber’s aggressive move on the sister car of Marc Lieb at turn one at COTA. It mightn’t have looked like team play at work, but there was some method in the madness given #18 has been forced to play bridesmaid ever since.
It was intriguing to hear recent McLaren refugee, Kevin Magnussen’s comments on the 919 Hybrid during his test with Porsche this week, describing it as “the most advanced race car in the world at the moment”. No small praise from a guy who has been in the thick of the world’s premier open wheeler category for the last two seasons – apparently.
Even more of a shock was to see that – according to TV ratings – Formula E currently has a greater popularity in North America than Formula One. Nielson ratings recorded that the Putrajaya ePrix coverage on FOX scored a 1.2 overnight rating for the replay on Sunday afternoon – a higher rating than any F1 race achieved this year in the US, with the Monaco Grand Prix drawing a peak rating of 1.1 as the most watched race.
Given that Formula E, BTCC and MotoGP have all recorded a drop in audience numbers on ITV4 this year it will be interesting to see if the premier electric series gains momentum as it heads to Uruguay and most of the rival racing series pack up for the winter - or summer, depending on your geography.
Trent Price, eRacing editor @realtrentprice
Ernestro Nigro, Managing editor @TheF1Poet
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