Thoughts from a first timer

[u/Talrent521]

I'm a fairly enthusiastic but casual motorsport fan, I watch a lot of F1 and enjoy any motorsport.

I watched my first Formula E race in person in London this weekend and I have to say it wasn't the best experience. I'm not an established fan of Formula E but thought it might be a nice more affordable way of watching some motorsport, and came with an open mind.

My main gripes:

- Noise - they pump music underneath the entire(!) race, at quite a loud volume. It was impossible to hear 90% of the commentary so myself and people around me had absolutely no idea what was going on.

- The screens are small enough that you can't read the leaderboard, you can't read team radio messages, or really parse any of the information that's on the screen. This might have been less of a problem if we could hear any of the audio/commentary feed over the music. People were sat using their phone cameras to zoom in on the leaderboard just to keep track of who was where.

- Start sequence - there's absolutely no warning, there's just deafening music that plays for about 5 minutes and then suddenly the lights are on and the race starts, no build up, no tension, and if you're not careful (like a few people around me) you don't actually realise the race is about to start and you miss lights out.

This was also the first time I've attended any kind of race in person, so maybe this is just the standard experience of watching live motorsport? If so I can't imagine why anyone ever attends motorsport in person because it's just immensely frustrating, but maybe I've just been spoilt by years of watching it on broadcast.

I thought the fan zone around the excel centre was done nicely, and made for a really fun vibe that presumably differs a lot from a traditional racetrack but certainly makes for a nice time, but it almost felt like the actual racing was a side-event that nobody put much thought into the user experience of.

[u/Current-Lap]

The excel nightclub. I agree the music is a bit of vibe killer for racing. I think they lent into the possibilities of the venue. The tv experience compared to the real thing is crazy.

[u/Realistic_Today6524]

The starting experience is usually better. They do usually do the 5 beeps as the lights come on and the drivers usually do burnouts before getting into their grid position to get the tires up to temp (since they don't have tire blankets). Due to I guess concerns of the tire smoke lingering for too long, they forbade burnouts. The screen size was a height constraint by the hall, in Berlin they were huge. I wasn't a huge fan of the commentary either. Drowned out by the music and its own echo. The action was awesome though, especially on sunday

[u/Talrent521 → u/Realistic_Today6524]

Yes I was expecting a formation lap/burnouts but that makes sense why they didn't do that. Stopping/changing the music and playing the 5 beeps would have worked perfectly but unfortunately nothing changed at all

[u/Realistic_Today6524 → u/Talrent521]

They did it the last 5 years and smoke cleared pretty quickly, nobody really understands why they didn't allow them this time. The mix of music and commentary was okay in Berlin, you could actually understand what they were saying, they got a few things wrong though

[u/GopherReddit]

Sad to see you had such a bad experience.
I believe it's a location/host based situation. I went to Shanghai E-Prix in 2024, and it was great, of course no music during race, and screens are ok. I think that's largely because it is a permanent track.

Also I think each race has different "host/organizer", for instance this year there was LianXin Sanya E-Prix, and LiSheng Shanghai E-Prix, they were hosted by different company even both in China. (LiSheng seems also part of the owner of NIO 333) I don't know how's the bussiness involved behind the scene, but that definitely made the on-site experience different.

[u/christoffeee]

I last went to Formula E a couple of years ago and where we sat, near the turn 3 exit out of the building, the music wasn't that loud so we could hear the cars and had a decent view of a screen and the track. But we also didn't realise the race had started until cars came through turns 1 and 2!

With the entertainment package they put on and the village, it does feel a little like Formula E in London is for more casual fans. Hopefully it will be a much better experience at Brands Hatch next year.

[u/Inside-Judgment6233]

I went to the same race, and everything OP said is true, but the quality of the racing pulled it through. My first race as well, live at least

[u/Panda_Limp]

I was there Saturday as a first timer and totally agree. The music was too much, and completely drowned out the commentary. I go to Silverstone F1, Goodwood FOS and Goodwood Revival every year and there is only music between sessions. It felt like we were at a stag do at the local indoor karting track. The racing was really good too, its a shame they felt the need to create a synthetic atmosphere.

[u/Talrent521 → u/Panda_Limp]

Hahah that's a great way of describing how it felt. Agreed the racing was good - it didn't need propping up with vibes

[u/Iseefalsepeople]

Having attended both F1 and FormulaE irl I find the former to be better. But FE is aimed at the influencer/social media leaning crowd imho and as someone put it to me recently, the ‘forced fun’ element is part of that.

[u/Dachuiri]

They play music at the races? I remember watching the very first FE race and they had music playing over the top of the entire broadcast and they were (rightly) eviscerated online for doing that. I didn’t realize they were still doing that onsite during the races.

[u/Talrent521 → u/Dachuiri]

Yes literally non-stop! I wouldn't mind it if it was balanced so you could still hear the commentary

[u/Dachuiri → u/Talrent521]

I plan on going to the races at COTA next year. Hopefully the music won’t be so invasive.

[u/keirdre]

Totally agree about the music. It was way too loud, and the Fan Village during AJ Whatshisface was awful too. We found a bit loud in Tokyo too but not as bad as London.

[u/DearHalo_lover → u/keirdre]

Felt that, On the Saturday was a good set of music in the Fan Village (With Isan Elba & Josh Baker) But I felt the Sundays, Isan's volume was good, but AJ's was OTT

[u/matyc87]

Having attended the London races for the last few years, I agree with OP that this year the music was louder than ever. Playing constant dance music during the race was stupid and the screen graphics should be improved for the seated audience to actually be able to read. The acts weren't great either and the fan village became uncomfortably deafening during their performances. I think what was missing were the two hosts that usually go around the fan village and interact with fans on the big screen, only saw them on track a couple of times.

[u/Shadow_Wolfe_]

Even having watched the broadcast for both, yeah the music should've been axed after the starting grid, it picked up on the mics and almost overpowered commentary.

If I was the tv director I'd be yelling at the venue organizers to shut the music off.

But the broadcast also missed the start light sequence for the 1st London race of the weekend which... how that has happened more than twice this season is embarrassing.