I’d recommend watching the full replays of the last few Formula E races, especially Mexico. But today’s race wasn’t quite so exciting, so I’d just say to watch the short format highlights.
It looks like Indycar is no longer posting full races on YouTube to push the US only Indycar Gold service, which sucks. They continue to post 30 minute highlight videos, though.
May you all one day have a friend as gently encouraging as a good rally Navigator.
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oh no
I think it’s only an “oh no” if it’s not planned. But the article makes it clear that investing the money is part of the plan.
"But the significance of Formula E CEO Alejandro Agag’s willingness to keep plowing money into the series while operating at a loss — all while keeping a growing portfolio of shareholders happy — should not be overlooked. Adding the newly reported €26.4 million loss, the series has now lost more than €150 million (around $168 million) since its inception.
In other words, Agag is essentially operating the series like a Silicon Valley startup — and the strategy seems to be paying off. Not only has Formula E attracted those big-name manufacturers, the series more than doubled its attendance to 476,000 in season four, and increased its television viewership from 223 million to 330 million, according to the filing."
Comparing Formula E to other “disruptive” tech companies, $168 million invested to get yearly revenues of $105.7 million? That’s a really good business!
Just like Amazon, as soon as the business is fully funded, they can turn on the money spigot and let it come in. $26 million per year from Saudi Arabia? Look, there’s only 12 races per year. That could easily become 18 to 20 races, and get $5 million per year from those cities to host the races? That covers the yearly losses in a sigle step. From then on it’s all gravy.
Here is some AMAZING technology advancement: every crash so far at the Indy 500 and the car has NOT flipped!!!
They have put these holes in the floor with clever rims, which means that when running normally they don’t have any effect, but as soon as a car is airborne and moving sideways, they’ve designed the aerodynamics to make sure it never goes all the way over.
This is the most amazing example:
But it’s the same with every big crash yet:
I’m super impressed that the designers have thought this though and implemented it so perfectly. Wow.
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That’s astounding. I thought for sure that Kaiser was going over, but nope, little shoulder nudge, and back to shiny side up.
This is the rallycross run at Goodwood we’ve all been waiting for:
Not quite racing itself, but some absolutely astounding bullshit tricks and cheats that have been used over the years, aside from the classic “having an eight-gallon fuel line” or “Filling the frame with lead shot and then dumping it during the race.”
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Stadium Super Trucks is back for 2020! These three races aren’t a bad way to spend an hour. Some crazy action and super close racing.
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I’m digging these long, unedited videos of trucks in the desert chased by three helicopters. The speed is crazy, and the suspension setup must be crazier.
Oh yeah, there was a video I saw not long ago, it was one of those trucks racing over big corrogations at about 100 miles an hour, and the body of the truck was dead level, moving maybe 3-4 inches, while the wheels were deflecting easily 12-20 inches, massive trailing arm suspension setups just eating up the bumps without blinking. The suspension geometry and design of those trucks is just crazy to see. Astounding machines.
With the Marbula 1 season done, I guess there’s Marbula E now too:
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Last Week Tonight with John Oliver is sponsoring Marble League next month. Announced during the show last night, can be viewed at the end of this video.
#GOOOOORangers!
Because I can’t get enough of Lonely Mountains: Downhill, I’m sharing this video of this INSANELY good player. I guess there are spoilers insomuch as you can see some hidden paths and ways to get through a level, but whatever. This game is soooo good and so beautiful:
This looks really good fun, but I’m binge-playing Breath of the Wild at the moment, and I’m doing IRL mountain biking every day, so there’s not a place in my life for it at the moment. After I’m done with Zelda and a few other games in my queue I’ll check this out.
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Given the choice between real mountain biking and video game biking, I’d choose the real thing too if that was possible. Definitely check the game out eventually though. I’m having a blast playing it!
Indycar has some more safety feature news.
The new aeroscreen stopped one racer from being hit in the head with his own wheel (weird), and in another incident, a crashing car deflected away from the cockpit of another.
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It’s almost like if you prioritize diver safety, driving gets safer…
Watching the video… That could easily have been two fatalities, or a fatality and a career-ending neck injury.