A boy's "galloping" adolescence may not have touched the steering wheel, but he must be familiar with "Need for Speed".
Although in those days, people who liked racing games had few other options other than Need for Speed. The two of them raced up and down the screen on a computer, and instantly felt that they had reached the peak of their lives.
But most teenagers will still smash the keyboard to end the game, chafing at how they did not set others a few laps.
Who isn't a racing driver yet?
This is also why, two days ago, when the 20-year-old Zhou Guanyu won the first virtual F1 Grand Prix championship for Renault Team, the entire media "exploded".
"As long as it involves e-sports, Chinese players can't sit still."
In fact, active riders around the world are not idle during the "stay-at-home" period. Before the official virtual race, many athletes sat at home and practiced the game, and The Race All-Star Race also attracted active drivers.
On the surface, everyone is happy, but not everyone can laugh.
The driver received the dead wages, and the organizers were scolded with the lid of the pot, but the "dads" who should have lost the most seemed to be completely out of this matter.
It still starts with a bat...
After the spread of the coronavirus, it quickly became a public event of a global nature. The NBA decisively announced a suspension of league games.
However, people have been slow to wait for an official decision on F1, and F1, FIA, AGPC are torn between interests and pressures. In this way, from the positive test results of mcLaren team staff to the organizers finally stopped the race, FIA and F1 "put on the pot" for two days.
The fans who stayed up late at the scene and waited for the official announcement broke their mouths and scolded, accusing this of a "coward's game". To tell the truth, the F1 official is too hard to fight this time, even if it is scolded, it will never cooperate. After the free media took over, F1 became more and more like a businessman, full of thoughts about making money, so that many viewers felt that the current F1 smell of copper. The overall financial situation of the tournament in the past two years has not been very optimistic. That's why F1 didn't want to shut down or even refuse to empty the game – as a second stop, the Bahraini organizers had decided to emulate the recording of many variety shows now, leaving the audience empty and instead broadcasting online. But F1 officials said no: "Then there is no way to sell tickets." ”
F1 Group's revenue probably includes broadcasts, advertising sponsorships and hosting fees for the organizers of each tournament. According to the contract, the organizer's income only comes from tickets, and it is also used to pay for operating costs and F1 hosting fees. If bahrain station does not have ticket revenue, the operating costs can be supported by government funds, but the hosting fee paid to F1 is lost. In other words, even if the government's hand is borrowed to run empty,F1 may still not earn the hosting fee. Therefore, F1 must not set this precedent, and hopes to cut a little more profit in each detail. In addition to not receiving the hosting income, if the competition cannot be carried out as usual, the related advertising and sponsorship costs will be reduced accordingly. In short, for various reasons, F1's revenue this year is definitely going to shrink sharply. Now that nasdaq-listed stocks have also fallen in half, the financial situation that has just gained momentum has been poured cold water on the hood.
In desperation, the current Bahrain, Vietnam, China, until the 6.12-6.14 Canadian pre-event have been postponed or cancelled. At present, according to the latest news from the F1 official, it is expected that there will be more extensions of F1 sub-stations, and when to restart is currently far away. There are also optimistic expectations that the revised schedule is expected to eventually run 15-18 games. However, with the official postponement of the Tokyo Olympic Games, whether F1 can restart in the summer has become a question mark, and it is not extravagant to run a few games.
Logically, after the suspension of the event, the team itself will also suffer huge losses, not only without advertising sponsorship, but also without the opportunity to compete for the end of the season F1 to distribute the prize money. But now, after losing the powerful marketing tool of F1, car manufacturers can still laugh? Take Ferrari, which has been the most scolded in the past two years, which has won only 17 of the 102 races in 5 years, and is obsessed with helping fans to realize the "wofa ethane" fancy. Does the brainless operation on the track and the opening of the "Confusing Behavior Award" have an impact on the market performance of this listed company? No, Ferrari's sales have grown by almost 45% in five years.
The only thing Ferrari has done right in F1 is probably to "give up 2020 and specialize in 2021". In response to this abandonment of the car to protect the coach, Red Bull Racing consultant Marco also sent a congratulatory message: "All teams are actually facing a loss of revenue, if we cancel 5 Grand Prix, we will lose $100 million." The good news is that if the implementation of the new rules continues to freeze in 2021, there will be a significant reduction in costs. In other words, with the blessing of two insurances, "suspension" and "postponement of the implementation of the new 'budget cap' regulations", the depot not only has nothing to lose, but even saves money.
For sponsors, the media promotion value of the annual F1 event is far greater than the team's live performance. You know, "Mei Ben" signed a framework contract, this year's inexhaustible rights and interests can continue to be used next year, at least the car is also pasted with the sponsor's logo, still has a strong publicity. For a long time, such a publicity system has formed a fairly mature system, and a sudden suspension is not enough to uproot it. Of course, the annual money of one or two hundred million US dollars is probably a water drift, and this is true for everyone. In this case, the smaller the loss, the greater the win. Instead, it is a small team that ranks low, and the higher the opportunity cost, the higher the sunk cost, and the more deadly the loss it bears. In addition to the publicity effect, another big head that needs to be paid by manufacturers is the driver's salary. But once the players don't play the season, they get the "dead wages" in their hands. In this way, the main investment of the depots this season is the maintenance cost of the team, and the cancellation of the event has saved the owners a lot of money.
After talking about the money spent on the surface, let's look at the technology research and development in the back. To put it bluntly, the essence of F1 is to fight for the comprehensive technical strength of major groups, but also to pave the way for subsequent mass production products. The fact is that the so-called "new models" of major OEMs have been invested in research and development 5-10 years ago, and the latest technology of the current design is also preparing for the next 10 years. With the adjustment of policies in various countries, most OEMs have stopped investing in the research and development of traditional engines, and for F1, which pursues engines to the extreme, under the restrictions of rules, the overall performance of research and development improvement is almost imperceptible. Coupled with the impact of the secondary structure of the new car of the car factory, this highest specification of motorsport, in recent years, the wind direction has become an "innocuous" topic such as displacement and vehicle weight.
Maybe it smelled a business opportunity, and FE appeared at the right time. "Initially, two parallel top-of-the-line racing events made Mercedes feel a strain on resources." Said Andy Coville, head of the engine division at Mercedes. In 2017, Mercedes began preparing for this season's official participation in the FE World Championships. At the beginning of the development, Mercedes' engine division in Brickworth was divided into a number of people involved in the FE project, focusing on the efficiency of the electric motor, the converter and all control systems, the accuracy of the parameters, torque output tuning. Within the Group, the heavyweights of the two projects, F1 and FE, are completely parallel. Mercedes even began hiring outside talent to fill the F1 team gap. Originally, according to the plan, the hybrid system of the Mercedes F1 team this season will learn from the technical research and development of the HWA team in the FE field, which is mercedes's "factory team" in the FE field.
Not only Mei Ben, Porsche, or the Volkswagen Group behind it directly decided to abandon F1. Fritz Ensinger, head of Porsche Motorsport, recalled in an interview with the media: "The 1.6-liter V6 engine is already on the string, and we were even involved in regulatory discussions between the FIA and Liberty Media, the majority shareholder of F1. However, in the final decision-making stage, the group still voted in favor of Formula E.
We often say that a century-old depot is the best at business. F1 is currently the highest standard of motorsport, which is true. But the hundreds of millions of dollars in ticket money thrown at the participating players every year have also turned the entire event into a money-burning game. In contrast, FE's annual cost of 20 million euros to participate in the competition is so low that it is simply a "welfare bureau". Electric vehicle competitions do not need to refuel, the regulations do not need to change tires, batteries, aerodynamic kits and chassis are still provided by the organizing committee. The parts that manufacturers need to do themselves are electric motors, transmission systems, bodywork, electric systems and so on. Make the point: all other components of the fleet's vehicles should be identical.
In other words, FE provides automakers with a standardized and replicable technology development platform. More importantly, the natural advantages of the electric vehicle platform determine that the technical transition cycle between racing and mass production vehicles is particularly short, and some software technologies can even complete mass production within 6 months.
Not only that, FE can also provide: the improvement of the reliability of the three-electric system brought about by the high load demand for electricity, the improvement of the coordination of the kinetic energy recovery system, the balance of the cruising range and the acceleration performance relationship, etc. And that's not all! While developing racing technology, efficient electric results are also feeding back into the field of civilian vehicles. The Audi E-tron FE05, which participated in the performance last season, condensed the latest technological achievements in the group's core components such as motors, frequency converters, gearboxes, suspension systems, and power management software. Speaking of the 2018-19 season, Hainan Sanya Station, which contributed the second longest straight road in the whole season, also has something to say: the local humidity is 85%, the air temperature is 30 °C, the climate is high temperature and high humidity... This extreme condition is not only a rare life experience for racing cars and drivers, but also a "high-standard test field" for manufacturers to accumulate data to promote mass production of technology. Regardless of how enthusiastic veteran manufacturers show for motorsport, selling cars is always the right thing to do. Each stop is a street race FE, providing a diversified driving environment, maximizing the distance between the fans, allowing them to pay more attention to the actual driving needs of consumers, and efficiently and quickly catalyzing the driving quality of electric vehicles.
So there is really no need to feel sorry for the car factory", "tens of millions of waves, can not hear the sound", "businessman" every step out of the ground: ultra-low investment, stable technical returns, showing the world that they caught up with the "electrification" of this car, and finally ran to the door of the consumer to earn a wave of shouting. Not only is it not a loss, but it is also quite cost-effective.
Of course, there are still F1 die-hards who criticize FE speeds as too low, lithium battery technology shut down, and lap speeds that have not improved. This leads to a long time in the future, battery technology directly determines the core pricing of manufacturers in FE. If one day FE decides to open battery research and development, the game of carrying is probably no longer the car factory, but the struggle between battery suppliers such as Ningde Times, Panasonic, LG and so on. As far as the current competitive landscape is concerned, most car companies still stay in the ternary lithium battery, BMW and some high-end models in Europe have chosen lithium iron phosphate technology, Mercedes team engine head Andy Coville said that the team hydrogen fuel cell, not only clean energy, its long-term performance is also superior. Battery factories waiting to join the battle have also proposed a deadly plan - lithium-sulfur batteries, but research and development is still in the confidential stage and has not yet been fully launched.
In this general trend, bernie Ecclestone, the former head of F1, also said suddenly: "If it is based on reason rather than emotion to make decisions, I will choose FE." He acknowledged that the "silent" event will have more opportunities for commercial expansion in the future. Former F1 driver Jerome de Ambrosio agreed: "I think in 10-20 years all cars will be powered by electricity. "And he's now the front-runner in the FE standings.
With the death penalty imposed on fuel vehicles by medium-sized automobile manufacturing powers in Europe, the United States and Japan, FE has become the touchstone of the future pure electricity market without suspense. However, for the big manufacturers who have been dominating the F1 head team for many years, FE is because the format is too friendly, so that they have no sense of superiority after bidding farewell to the "European motorsport".
In the first season of FE, there was only one renault manufacturer team, and now in the sixth season, there are 9 complete vehicle manufacturers in the player list: Audi, BMW, Citroën, Jaguar, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Nissan, Mahindra. The strength of the squad dwarfs F1, and there are still many car companies waiting for opportunities in the future, which also allows FE to be officially upgraded to the World Championship from next season. At present, the manufacturers who join FE have basically come up with decent pure electrical products. This relatively fairer competitive environment makes the "Plum Ben" from F1 have to play 120,000 points of spirit.
Completely different from the established competitive landscape of F1, Audi has almost become "FE's most successful team". The efficiency advantage of more than 90% makes Audi recognized as having the best FE kit, and the leader of the group's FE Formula E team, Alan McNiche, also called out bmw directly before the start of the season as a direct competitor. In the pre-season tests of the 2018/19 season, BMW topped the full-speed chart and was the fastest model on average for long-distance running. "BMW is what we're focusing on right now, and they're the main targets we're going to chase." It was clear that BMW and Audi were having a great time at FE and Mercedes felt "isolated".
That's true of teams, and so are drivers. Roland, who is now playing for FE Nissan as a former Renault F1 development driver, has a personal experience: "F1 is simply dominated by a few good drivers from Hamilton, Vettel and Verstappen, while FE provides a more level playing field and increases the competitiveness of the race. On average, FE drivers are clearly better than F1. Any rider from F1 to FE will find the race more difficult here. "The competitive landscape on the racing track is reshaping, and whether F1 is suspended or not is not the biggest concern in the minds of manufacturers.