[BloggerMathai]

Diriyah E-Prix, held during 28 - 29 January 2022

Let me preface this post by saying that I was one of “those guys” who would say that racing isn’t real racing unless it’s a screaming V10 or V8 flying past you at max revs. After actually witnessing a Formula E race first hand and that too from the front row of the grand stand, I humbly stand corrected.

The last few years I’d been missing this event due to travel around the holiday season and also obviously Covid but this year all the planets aligned somehow and I would be a fool not to go. The 2022 season of the Formula E calendar kicked off with the inaugural races; Round 1 and Round 2 at Diriyah and understandably there was a lot of media coverage the preceding weeks leading up to the event. This is my short post on the first race of 2022 season held on January 28th 2022.

The Venue
The Formula E stage in Saudi Arabia is held in the historical city of Ad Diriyah, which used to be the capital before it moved to Riyadh. You can read a brief history of the city on the website of Diriyah Development Authority
I believe there are some tourist attractions in the Heritage village similar to Sadu Village which I posted about in TeamBHP (Journey to the "Edge of the world" - Saudi Arabia) including traditional mud houses, a museum and a restored mosque. Should add it to my list of things to see while I’m in Saudi Arabia.

Getting there
The organizers suggested taking advantage of the free shuttle buses to and from the venue. I suspect that the intention is to streamline traffic in and out of the city, which I’m thankful for. The ride was stress free and very comfortable.
I parked my car in the allotted parking lot in King Saud University and headed to the booths where we received color coded wrist tags which indicated what ticket we had paid for and our access privileges. There were at least 2 dozen buses or more transporting visitors and we quickly hopped into one and were on our way.

Allianz E Village
The first area you access once you get off the bus is Allianz E Village. It was set up like a fair ground with lots of booths, selfie centers, kids play areas and other attractions. We took a walk around the place and most of it was targeted at the younger demographic, i.e., play areas with cardboard helmet making sessions, go-kart runs and small games. We gravitated towards a Formula E Racing Sim booth that featured the same track that we were actually at.

Stage being prepared for the concert

The line to get in was fairly small and we happily joined the line. Once they take down your name and details, the usher leads you towards a vacant seat.

I quickly found out that getting into a prone position where your feet are almost at chest level wasn’t a joke. The lady helping me out saw this and offered to adjust the pedals and steering so that I wasn't crunched up like a shrimp! Even then, the experience was quite different from my previous ones on other racing simulators.

In addition to the aforementioned race position, the central support struts for the overhead bar felt like you had an A pillar directly in your line of sight. I wonder how long it takes race drivers to get used to this view. I don’t even have a car freshener hanging from my IRVM, that’s how much I don’t like obstructions.

First lap was a disaster but I managed faster times in the 2nd and 3rd laps

I got 3 laps round the track and the result was abysmal to say the least. There were prizes from the sponsors for those who got the best lap times and I didn’t even wait around coz I knew my times were at the bottom of the barrel.

Up close with a Formula E car
There was a car parked outside the Saudia exhibit and I went in for a closer look. It was amazing to see how low and wide the car was how much material was used for channeling air through the body. The rear diffusers were in exposed carbon fiber and massive! The brake discs, however, were smaller than I expected. Maybe electric Formula cars have regen as compensation?

The Track
The course runs through a residential area and we walked through inner streets to get to Grand Stands 1 and 2. I don’t think many of the houses were occupied or maybe the residents moved elsewhere for the weekend. We did see one person sitting on the terrace, sipping on coffee and working on a laptop while glancing at the stream of race goers headed to the stands. I might go to Diriyah in the off season to see what it looks like without all the FIA scaffolding and banners everywhere.

A Taycan Turbo S taking guests around the track. Other Porsches on track were a Cayenne (Medical Car) and a Panamera GTS (Race Director)

As you might be aware by now, the race is held at night and illuminated by an array of powerful LED floodlights that run the entire length of the track. This also means lightshows are instantaneous and awesome as you may have seen in some of the videos online. I also managed to take a short clip of the track lighting during the opening ceremony. Definitely imparts a party atmosphere when combined with the music and cheering crowd. You can read more about the track [here]

Warm Up
We got to the stands a couple of hours early and secured front row seats in Grand Stand 2 and the view was just around the corner entering into the Attack Mode Lane. The warm up lap was a good opportunity for me to take pictures without much blur coz once the race started it was tough to track focus on a fast moving car with my 11 year old camera.

Contd...

[BloggerMathai]

The Race
Getting a very close view of the power boost from Attack Mode and the acceleration exiting the corner was really exhilarating. Each time the cars whooshed past us it felt awesome and any feelings I previously had about not hearing an IC engine revving were quickly washed away. If you are not familiar with Attack Mode you can read about it [here]

The sound of the Formula E cars resembles a Sci-fi craft more than any real vehicle. If I were to compare it, I would say watch the Speed Cycle scene from Star Wars or any futuristic movie where you have levitating vehicles. Despite being slower than Formula 1 cars, they do seem to have similar acceleration and it was exciting to see the drivers battle it out over the course of the race. Cars apparently run till they run out of juice and by the time the Mercedes cars crossed the finished line, most if not all cars were down to almost 0% battery power.

Team Mahindra
It was nice to be attending an International FIA event where you had a team from your own country. We cheered for the two Mahindra drivers, however, Roland crashed out in the initial stages of the race and Sims finished 14th in the Diriyah stage results.

Mahindra overall have a decent record and you can read more about Mahindra Racing [here]

Post-Race Celebrations
The past few years, as the Kingdom has been opening up and trying to shed its legacy conservative image, music concerts have sort of become de rigueur for international events, hence there were quite a few musical acts lined up for the post-race concerts on both nights.

We headed out from the track soon after all the cars crossed the finish line and walked back to the entry point which divides the area into the track and activities areas. We could see that the crowds were already queuing up at the booths to get in front the stage. Friday’s headliners were Wyclef Jean and James Blunt. None of my friends and I were too keen on either artist so we headed back home to some much needed warmth. If you’re interested in seeing what the concert looked like, I’ll be adding some video clips that some other attendees had shot that night.

James Blunt

http://youtu.be/_R8oV2P7gxE

Wyclef Jean

http://youtu.be/wkoB6VMLLz0

Finally, I conclude my post with a few photos and a video summary of my Formula E experience in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia. Thanks for taking time to read through my account.

http://youtu.be/Z0iA0pbIpNU

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[Haroon]

Thanks for sharing the wonderful experience. In fact after seeing the electric Audis in Jeddah up close, fly past at high speeds during the Dakar 2022, I also shed my inhibitions on the E race cars.

I heard some murmurs that in 3-4 years, the F1 may also move from Jeddah to Riyadh.

[das.sui]

Wow.. thanks for sharing... I got hooked to Formula E midway last season.. The championship changed hands so many times that it was almost a joke. If someone thought F1 2021 was one of the best season of racing again mainly for those top two drivers I say try formula e.. this was way ahead in terms of excitement and and just pure racing. The last few laps when the batteries almost at the end of their cycle.. phew quite fun..
I was amazed to see the number of overtakes in a track like Monaco .. and ohh boy the last few laps. Adding the link here

https://youtu.be/tVivUWvhUZQ

Courtesy ABB Formula E Channel.

The only grouse I have is that the format of race and qualifying is just so random. This years qualifying felt like some league matches.. head to head and knockouts .. absolute crack

[Samba]

Thanks for sharing this! It's informative with some really cool pics.
I was not much well-versed with Formula-E, unless my friend gifted me a LEGO technique set to build a Jaguar Formula E car. From then I did some research on this and it's quite interesting.

Lego Jaguar Formula-E car with Jaguar I-Pace.

[BloggerMathai]

Originally Posted by Haroon

Thanks for sharing the wonderful experience. In fact after seeing the electric Audis in Jeddah up close, fly past at high speeds during the Dakar 2022, I also shed my inhibitions on the E race cars.

I heard some murmurs that in 3-4 years, the F1 may also move from Jeddah to Riyadh.

F1 moving to Riyadh! That would be awesome!

Originally Posted by das.sui

Wow.. thanks for sharing...
The only grouse I have is that the format of race and qualifying is just so random. This years qualifying felt like some league matches.. head to head and knockouts .. absolute crack

Lol! yeah, they changed the qualifying format again this year

Originally Posted by Samba

Thanks for sharing this! It's informative with some really cool pics.
I was not much well-versed with Formula-E, unless my friend gifted me a LEGO technique set to build a Jaguar Formula E car. From then I did some research on this and it's quite interesting.

Thats neat! My son and I love Lego Technics sets too. Will check out my local shop for these kits.