Skip to main content

Formula E - Attack Mode explained

By
Recently, after one of the heartbreaking Formula 1 races,  I was watching highlights of a Formula E race when I came across an interesting concept called the "Attack Mode". Now for those of you who are unfamiliar with Formula E, it is a sister series of the more traditional and popular Formula 1 (F1) car racing competition. The difference is that the Formula E cars are battery powered electric vehicles. This series was started in 2011 to promote cleaner, environment friendly cars with the same spirit of competitive racing.

For those of you, who are bored by Formula 1 and its Drag Reduction System (DRS) which gives a free overtake if you don't hit you speed limiter, this is an innovative way of bringing "action" to racing.

In standard racing mode, all the cars are limited by a maximum power of 200 kW. So, during the race, all drivers are at the same level in terms of battery power. This increases the emphasis on driving skills rather than machinery/technology/engineering. From season 2018-19 onward, to make the racing more competitive, the organizers have come up with this great concept of "Attack Mode" wherein a driver will get additional 25 kW of power i.e. 12.5% increase in power for a limited amount of time. But there is a catch!

To get into the "Attack Mode", a driver needs to press a button on the steering wheel to arm the car and drive through an activation zone "off the racing line". When drivers leave the faster racing line and take a longer, slower route to get into the Attack Mode, they may lose track positions! And then, when they get into Attack Mode, they can use that extra power to try to get back the positions they have lost and possibly mount an attack on the drivers ahead of them.

Furthermore, the drivers have to execute a minimum number of Attack Modes in a race. Also, there is an upper ceiling on the duration for which you get the power boost as well as the maximum number of Attack Modes that can be used. Another interesting point is that this information about minimum, maximum number of Attack Modes and the duration of power boost is released by the organizers, only 60 minutes before the race. So, there is no overnight strategy decisions. Everything from racing preparation to race strategy with Strategy Plans A, B, C, etc need to be made in 60 minutes! And of course you don't know the strategy of your opponents so it is quite possible that they may have already trumped you in those crucial 60 minutes!

This is a nice video which explains the Attack Mode


In conclusion, qualifying will not be as much important now as the race. And even in the race there will be more importance to driving skills and strategy rather that just engineering. I only have one challenge for the Formula E organizers. Fit that Activation Zone at Monaco and I'll leave F1 :P
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Changing Nature of Reality Shows in India

By
It's been almost two decades since the modern day reality shows started in India. And the nature of these reality shows has changed drastically during this time. "Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC)" is no longer a show just about knowledge, "Indian Idol" and "Sa Re Ga Ma Pa" are no longer just singing shows. They all have become entertainment shows. This post is an attempt to find out the reasons of this transition, analyze the current nature of these shows and assess their impact. Reasons of this change Competition from TV Serials / Soap Opera TV serials or Soap Opera as it is commonly known is very popular among the Indian masses. India being a country where family ties are very strong, for a long time, the main theme in most popular TV shows has been "family drama". Additionally, there is no dearth of TV channels, actors, producers and the crew. TV show and film production is a major employment generator in India. And so the episodes of serials a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Local domain name resolution using /etc/hosts

By
The /etc/hosts file is a powerful mechanism for managing the information about hosts in the local network in the absence of a local DNS server. Setup We have 4 VMs in the local /24 network. The following are the details: vm-1-ubuntu-16-04 - 10.0.1.11 vm-2-ubuntu-16-04 - 10.0.1.12 vm-1-ubuntu-18-04 - 10.0.1.21 vm-2-ubuntu-18-04 - 10.0.1.22 The VMs are reachable via their IP address but not by their hostnames. This is problematic because we have to remember their IP addresses everytime we want to access these hosts. It is would be much simpler to remember and access the servers by their hostnames. For that we need some sort of mapping between the IP addresses and their corresponding host names. There are 3 common ways of achieving this mapping. Setup a DNS server which handles resolution for your local network. Use an existing DNS server of the local Internet Service Provider (ISP) or any other higher level ISP. Note that a public static IP address is required for this s...
Post a Comment
Read more

Manage system hostname with hostnamectl

By
This article explains the simplest method to set hostname and Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN/fqdn) of any given system using hostnamectl Check that hostnamectl is present on the system by typing it in a shell. You will see output similar to the one given below. In case hostnamectl is not found, it is a good idea to install it. sudo apt update sudo apt install systemd-services Verify the static hostname given above using the following command: Also verify it by checking /etc/hostname file Change the hostname and set the desired hostname by running the following command and authenticating with the password. hostnamectl set-hostname <hostname> Start a new shell session or reconnect to the server to see the change in the hostname Again run above steps to verify that hostname has been changed correctly. Configure FQDN While the above process may suffice to identify the host in the local network, it is not enough when the host is to be identifi...
Post a Comment
Read more