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Leave a comment Posted on March 27, 2017March 27, 2017 by Steve Murray Sports

F1 2017 Australian Grand Prix: Seeing Red

It’s only been 120 days between the final race of the 2016 Formula One World Championship and the start of the 2017 season but a lot has changed. The low-downforce, allegedly passing-friendly formula of 2009 has been replaced by a new high-downforce, high-speed aero formula. The caps have been taken off engine development. Tyres are wider and have been constructed to be more durable. Basically, what you remember about F1 last year is different this year.

That includes the team in front. While it sure looked like the new rules would only result in the same old, same old, there was a new car at the head of the field: A Ferrari SF70-H named Gina piloted by Sebastian Vettel who started the newest era of Formula One with a win.

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Leave a comment Posted on November 19, 2015November 16, 2015 by Steve Murray Video Games

WRC 5 Review: Dirty Rally

One of our unanticipated annual traditions on et geekera is the review of some annual sports franchises in the fall. In the next little bit, we’ll review Football Manager 2016 (the third entry we’ve reviewed in our under three years of existence) and Franchise Hockey Manager 2 will be the latest addition to the lineup of sport reviews. But the one I’ve been doing the longest between etg and The Lowdown is WRC. After a year’s hiatus, the World Rally Championship game is back. While much has changed, a lot still stays the same.

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1 Comment Posted on April 6, 2015April 6, 2015 by Steve Murray Sports

Formula E Long Beach ePrix: Like Father, Like Son

There are a lot of stories that you can write about Formula E drivers without having seen them actually turn a wheel in anger. You can talk about the redemption of former F1 drivers like Lucas di Grassi and Sebastian Buemi. There’s the retirement tour aspect with elder statesmen Nick Heidfeld, Jarno Trulli and Stephane Sarrazin in the field. And there’s the family legacy stories with Nicolas Prost, Bruno Senna and Nelson Piquet Jr. running Formula E.

It’s the latter of which who starred in Long Beach for the first electric race on the famous street course. Thirty-five years ago, Nelson Piquet won his first Formula One Grand Prix at Long Beach. This weekend, Nelson Piquet Jr. won his first Formula E ePrix by dominating the race at Long Beach.

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Leave a comment Posted on March 17, 2015March 16, 2015 by Steve Murray Sports

Formula E Miami ePrix: The Heat of the Urban Jungle

After two months off, the most electrifying electric motorsports series in the world was back in action last weekend. Following the two-round stint in South America, it was the first of two rounds in the United States of America as the teams took to the streets of Miami for the fifth round of the championship. While there was some hot weather, the hot action was left to late in the day when Nicolas Prost made a pass in the dying laps to score his first Formula E win.

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Leave a comment Posted on January 12, 2015January 11, 2015 by Steve Murray Sports

Formula E Buenos Aires ePrix: A Race No One Wants to Win

When Formula E was announced and the race format detailed, everyone thought that the series’ biggest challenge would be the battery life of the cars. After the championship’s fourth round in Buenos Aires, it looks like the longevity of the suspensions will be the biggest curveball thrown at teams and drivers.

What started as a fairly straight forward race quite quickly degenerated into chaos when the safety car came out after the race’s first suspension failure. After that point, there were four leaders who ascended to the top in a cloud of debris with the final one being Antonio Felix da Costa who scored his first Formula E race win.

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Leave a comment Posted on December 15, 2014December 14, 2014 by Steve Murray Sports

Formula E Punta del Este ePrix: Survive, If You Can

Say what you will about all-electric racing technology that’s been rushed to the race track, spec cars, one-day race weekends and cramped little street circuits, Formula E knows how to put on a show. Once again, Formula E showed that you don’t need 700 horsepower to put on a show. All you need is low downforce and drivers willing to fight for position.

In a race that saw the safety car make its way onto the circuit four times for various incidents, it was Sebastian Buemi who survived the crashes and mechanical troubles that plagued the field to win his first Formula E race.

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Leave a comment Posted on November 25, 2014November 22, 2014 by Steve Murray Sports

Formula E Putrajaya ePrix: #SamBoost

For the second time, the FIA’s new green motorsport took to the streets in an attempt to show that motorsport doesn’t have to be all loud noises and high-octane to be a spectacle.

After a so-so first outing that was only highlighted by a massive accident in the final turn, Formula E returned with a trip to the streets of Putrajaya, Malaysia, that saw battles throughout the field. Well, except at the front where Sam Bird absolutely dominated the day’s running to win his first ePrix.

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Leave a comment Posted on September 22, 2014September 21, 2014 by Steve Murray Sports

F1 Singapore Grand Prix: Stop. Spanner Time.

Just when you thought that none of the luck at Mercedes was going Lewis Hamilton’s way, his championship chances got a massive boost in Singapore. When the cars formed up on the grid, it looked like it was going to be another week of Hamilton slowly chipping away at Nico Rosberg’s championship lead. Instead, Rosberg suffered a massive failure before the formation lap. That handed the win and the championship lead to Hamilton.

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Leave a comment Posted on September 16, 2014September 13, 2014 by Steve Murray Sports

Formula E Beijing ePrix: Debuting with a Bang

The first ever race for the first ever international all-electric motorsports series got off with a bang. I mean that in both a literal and metaphorical sense too. For all the worries about the potential issues with Formula E, they put on a pretty good show despite the pit stop and car change nonsense. However, the race started and ended with literal bangs thanks to a Turn 2 incident on Lap 1 and a final turn incident on the final lap.

The result was that 24 laps and 19 corners of a race lead for Nicolas Prost was thrown away with one dangerous move that took him out of the lead and nearly injured Nick Heidfeld. That let Lucas di Grassi through to ink his name in the record books as the first ever Formula E race winner.

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Leave a comment Posted on July 21, 2014July 20, 2014 by Steve Murray Sports

F1 German Grand Prix: Home Town Heroes

It may have been a poorly attended race and the slowest dry weather F1 race at Hockenheim but that didn’t mean that the home fans didn’t go home happy. Despite the various controversies during the run up to the race, it was still home country driver Nico Rosberg who sent the fans home happy by dominating the German Grand Prix.

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