Square pegs and round holes
New wings, liveries and driver changes have made cursory indents in Formula E headlines over the past few weeks, but surely the calendar clash in the 2016/2017 calendar (pitching the Nurburgring round of the World Endurance Series against the Montreal Formula E double header) has been the speed bump neither series wanted to have.
A few ‘TBA’ dates that litter the 2016/17 Formula E calendar have reportedly left a few World Motor Sport Council members less than impressed and as such, would unlikely be swayed in granting the fully electric premier series much wriggle room in event of a date clash.
With over 50 percent of current (and most high profile) Formula E drivers competing in the WEC (Sebastien Buemi, Mike Conway, Stephane Sarrazin, Nico Prost, Nelson Piquet, Nick Heidfeld, Loic Duval, Lucas di Grassi and Sam Bird) in competitive machinery in both series, this forces a major recalibration. But logistically that matter becomes a bigger nightmare for Formula E than it does WEC due to the nomadic infrastructure required at FE events.
Would it force a re-think on how points are scored or potentially reverse the trend that has seen the WRC move from running specialist drivers for particular rounds to a fully-fledged championship? That would surely make a major dent in the appeal of the series given the past two title deciders have gone down to the wire.
Trent Price, eRacing editor @realtrentprice