Well, this was even more of a surprise than Porsche pulling out of P1 at the end of this season:
This means that Audi and BMW will be the last holdouts by 2019; if any of them also withdraw, the future of DTM is in doubt.
So what do you think? What, if anything, can be done to save DTM from total collapse? If anyone has an idea, please let me know.
First Audi left LMP1 for Formula E. Then Porsche is going LMP1 for Formula E. And now Mercedes will leave DTM for formula E. So far for the next season there will only be Toyota for next years WEC excluding private entries. Formula E is slowly killing motorsports.
I hope they dominate Formula E anyway.
No, FE is the future. These brands going in will help the evolution massively. Don’t think of this as a negative, but as a positive.
I’m with @Nivracer here. While Formula E may be good for motorsports if you want to try motorsport as a career, or if you’re interested in watching the drivers of the sport rather than the machines… but it may be the final nail in the coffin for the internal combustion engine being thought of in a good light, or even existing for much longer. So to me, personally, there is nothing positive here; just the beginning of the end of the one thing in life that I truly love; the internal combustion engine.
I have to agree with you. However, although Formula E is where the money lies (according to the manufacturers), it’s not as fast or exciting as you’d hope, primarily due to the lack of power and noise. The link below shows exactly why FE will never become my favorite form of motorsport:
You do realize that electric cars will never make an “engine noise,” right?
yup and that’s part of why EVs feel soulless to me.
my head can see all the benefits of EV, but my heart doesn’t
Honestly Hydrogen ICE’s seem to me like the best bet for motorsport in the future… Still sounds good, still has power, still has range, but no Dinosaur Juice killing Polar Bears. It seems like the tech companies have indoctrinated the public into believing that Electricity is the best (so that they can make money).
Anyway, Motorsport is looking in a pretty sorry state if Formula E is the future.
EV’s being pushed so much is not because of the money, it’s because hydrogen is just inferior in many points compared to electricity, especially when it comes to the current issues with oil.
It’s horrible when it comes to storage, and producing it is either very energy intensive to the point you are better off using the electricity directly, or it requires you to use hydrocarbons, not fixing any of the issues with the current fuels.
The issues with batteries are getting worked on, they’re only going to get better and cheaper with time.
sad for DTM, but FE’s competitiveness and races are phenomenal viewing. close to bike racing levels. the lack of ICE’s may lack some sole, but so what? the passion of the drivers more than makes up for it
Problem is: WHERE is the electricity coming from?
Most of it still comes from coal and gas, or nuclear.
Not very eco friendly.
Unless most of the electricity used to power the car comes from coal, which most developped countries are moving away from, it is still cleaner than gas powered cars.
ICEs are extremely inneficient compared to modern power plants.
coal and gas Electricity are horrendously wasteful, but Nuclear? when done properly, that is very efficient.
Agreed, Nuclear is great. If done right…
Just ask those that live in the town of Pripyat. Or… oh, right…
outdated soviet infrastructure with little to no safety protocol. yes, every nuclear power plant is just like that…
I live right next to a Nuclear Power Plant
The only one in Africa to be exact… (To be fair, we do not have the people with the right skills in the country anymore, so it is probably a safety risk. When it was commissioned, South Africa was still developing Nuclear Weapons and thus had trained people in the field, but now we just get whoever applies.)
Sadly, it is. A lot of incidents happen with nuclear plants because of shoddy maintenance and generally speaking, people not caring. I know of a reactor fairly close to me in New York had radioactive steam venting to atmosphere for almost a month before a stuck valve was found and repaired.
I consider nuclear power to be not only viable, but the only way. The only problem with them is how carelessly they are handled.
As for Chernobyl… they were simulating a blackout power-failure in a minimally staffed reactor, with most safety systems manually shut off? As a test? Following a test? On a reactor that was in an extremely unstable condition because of said earlier tests?
I know Russia’s standard protocol of “Boss said so, so do it, Period” during that era… but I’m very open to the idea that this was not an accident.