- Hey, on this episode of "WheelHouse", we went to New York city, and we're watching some
freakin' Formula E. - Hell, yeah! (hoots) - Thank you. - [Woman] Am I gonna get in the episode? - Maybe, if you sign a release. Formula E might be one
of the most polarizing motor sports on the planet. But my mission today is
to get you stoked on it. The ABB FIA Formula E Championship is an open-wheel racing series. 11 teams field two cars each
for a total field of 22 drivers which includes some former
Formula One drivers. They race around short circuits, and the first driver to
cross the finish line after 45 minutes, plus one lap, wins. I love Formula E and frankly want more
people to watch it with. Here are five reasons you
should be watching Formula E. Reason number one to watch Formula E, these things are electric. That's right, they run on lightning. (growls) Lightning!
(bolt blasts) (farting) Lightning, lightning, lightning. Look at me, I'm James (fake laughs). All cars have a baseline
power of 200 kilowatts which is about 270 horsepower, but they're good for a
2.8 second zero to 60 and a top speed of 174 miles an hour. That's pretty sick. (farts)
All right, so. One thing that I really love
about any sort of racing is the sound, and Formula
E is definitely different. It's not like a roaring engine 'cause they don't have engines. They have electric motors, but I'm actually pretty impressed with how loud they are going around. They're not like ear-splittingly loud where you need ear muffs. (electric motor whines) But they have a very unique noise. They kind of sound like the
Covenant from Halo driving. (machine hums) That's a reference, Halo 3, the best one. I don't wanna hear about Halo Reach. The cars have a limited battery capacity, and the drivers have to
manage it to finish the race. There's no swapping batteries
in the middle of the race which they kind of actually used to do. They used to pit and then jump
into a second identical car half way through, they
don't do that anymore. The teams have to closely
watch their car's energy levels so they won't run out
of juice before the end. One example of energy
mismanagement happened in February at the Mexico City E-Prix. An early red flag for a
crash extended the race by one lap, and the
Nissan team miscalculated how many electrons they had left in their figurative electricity tanks. The Nissan driver (driver exclaims in foreign language) who were running in third and fourth place ran out juice at the
beginning of the last lap, and they ended up in 20th and 21st, a very disappointing finish because of a relatively simple mistake. (driver exclaims in foreign language) The second reason to watch Formula E, it's a straight-up video game. (funky music) Drivers can get an extra boost
of power during the race. It can happen in two ways. The first way is called attack mode which is an extra 25
kilowatts that's picked up by driving through an
activation zone on the track. 25 kilowatts is like 30 extra horse power. You know in a crash team racing, the little boost areas before jumps? It's kind of like that. The activation zone is
off of the racing line. So the driver has to give
up a little bit of lap time and maybe even a position
to collect the power boost, but the boost itself could make
up for it later in the race. They don't have to use the
power boost right there. They can save it and use it later. Every driver has to activate attack mode a set number of times at each race. How many activations they are
and how long to boost last, is different at every track, and the officials don't announce them until one hour before the race starts. And that gives teams a
very limited amount of time to strategize how they're gonna
use that to their advantage. The second way to get a power bump, and it's a big point of
contention among Formula E fans, is called fan boost. Fans vote for their
favorite drivers online during the six days before a race and up to five minutes
after the races has started. So the drivers won't
even know if they'll get that power boost until they're already in the heat of battle. The five racers with the most votes get 40 to 50 kilowatts more power to use just for five seconds during
the second half of the race. That's like 50 to 65 more horse power. That's a lot. Formula E is the only racing series that has anything like this. Spectators can tell when
the drivers are using one of the power boosts
by the color of the LEDs on the car's safety halo. When attack mode is
engaged, it lights up blue. When fan boost is engaged,
they light up magenta. That way the fans can see each driver's race strategy in action. Attack mode has been a crowd pleasing addition to the series,
but a lot people think fan boost is an unfair popularity contest that dilutes the true spirit of racing. My honest opinion, I
think it's kind of corny but also kind of cool. Obviously, they want more
fans to engage with the sport. That totally makes sense. But imagine if the MBA lowered
one team's hoop a few feet 'cause more people voted for them. There's Stoffel Vandoorne, a.k.a., my bro. Just kidding, we haven't met. Fan boost is a new idea. So I'm willing to see how far it goes. If it doesn't work out in the
long run, we'll just scrap it. For now, it's kind of cool. Reason numero tres, to watch Formula E is that skill matters most. Formula E is one of the
only big racing series left where the driver matters
more than the car. Look, I love Formula One. But the best drivers can't win if they're not in the best car. I mean, sometimes they can, but only if the best cars crash out. In Formula E the cars are
almost exactly the same. The batteries are all the same. And there are price
caps on the power train and chassis components
to keep manufacturers from trying to outspend each
other to build a faster car. (reggae music) Something cool about Formula
E is that they let the fans walk onto the grid before the race. There's really no other racing
series that I can think of that let's you do that. Pretty rad. It's very hot, by the way. I'm sweaty, just sweaty right now. Come here. There's mechanics checking
tire pressures right here. We can see the breaking system. Honestly, the breaks are a lot smaller than I though they'd be. Teams provide their own motors,
inverters, and gear boxes, and can tweak the
suspension just a little, but they all run the
same Michelin Pilot Sport all-season tires even down to
the same exact tire pressures. They've got tires that
really resemble more what you'd see on your own car. They're very skinny. I'm pretty sure the tires on
my Mustang are about that wide. Other racing series, the
slicks have very fat profiles. These cars handle more like your car would than say other high
profile open-wheel cars. This makes the racing incredibly close. And it means the power
boosts I talked before are that much more important. Formula E has a ton of passing. That's even more impressive
given the fact that all the races are run on
narrow street courses. Reason number four, the tracks. So the crazy thing about
Formula E is that all, all, all of their courses are on street courses which is, I think, different from any other racing series in the world. So what we're gonna do
is take a lap in a BMW i8 and see one of these three
courses is all about. (upbeat music) The street courses are
only one to two miles long, and they're really, really narrow which makes passing pretty hairy. Dude, thank you. - Good, man. - [Nolan] That was awesome. (lost signal beep) I think my phone fell back there. My phone is in here somewhere. - [Man] I will check the back for you. - All right. My phone is in the safety car somewhere. We'll see (laughs). (lost signal beep) These courses are so narrow. It's insane that they're
gonna have like 20 plus cars on the track at the same time. There's a lot of action
while being in drama, and the results are super unpredictable. There have been like 12
different winners in 15 races so far this season. It was insane. There aren't too many other
racing series out there that can go a whole season
without a clear winner right up until the end, and
Formula E is one of them. The stakes are super high,
and it keeps the suspense up in every single race. (upbeat dance music) You know, it's pretty funny being in the pit lane here, being in the VIP areas that we've been so graciously afforded. A lot of side-to-side cheek kissing. A lot of fancy people stuff going on. Definitely don't feel like I belong here 'cause a, you know, I'm
just a small town boy in the big city. I think what's so cool to me
is how many people are here. I didn't know that there
was such a strong fan base in Formula E. Oh, no. - [Man] It's the Michelin Man. - Thick. (plays back in slow motion) Thick. That's weird. That's inappropriate to
say about the Michelin Man. Anyway, as I was saying, it's so cool to see so many
different kinds of people out here supporting this sport. I can't imagine that it's
easy to be a new motor sport. Any kind of sport. What if they made up a
new kind of football? They brought it here. Where the hell is Alex? There he is, there he is. There's Alex. It's so exciting to imagine where the sport will go from here. I'm really excited. (chill music) Reason number five to watch Formula E. It's a weird one, and
it also involves gaming. Formula E recently launched the Formula E Live Ghost Racing mobile game. You can download it on your phone and drive in actual races
against the actual drivers. The game takes data from
the races and uses it to recreate how things actually went down. To my knowledge, nothing like this has ever been done before. It's still a work in progress. And they're developing PC and VR versions for the near future. I've heard mixed reviews
about the quality of the game. But I think it's a
really interesting idea. We all know that driving
sims are a realistic way to gain real racing
skills without a real car. 'Cause like Grand Turismo
Academy has proved that. Formula E is definitely
pushing the development of electric cars forward,
but with this sims stuff, they might be developing drivers, too. Ding. The racing is honestly super exciting. (motors whine) They sound so cool. It's so awesome. A single car by itself, hmm. But like all of them at the same time? You guys gotta come to this. You gotta hear it for yourself. It's really cool. Formula E, put me in a car. I'll do good. I'll lose some weight. That might be an issue. I'll hit the treadmill. (lost signal beep) Yo, big shout out to today's sponsor Gunk. That's right, they're
a company called Gunk. Gunk wipes are a brand new, waterless way to clean grease, grime,
and dirt off any surface. These massive wipes are
the largest on the market. Plus, it's dual sided. It's got a scrubby side and a soft side. (sniffs) And they smell like oranges. (sniffs) Tough on grime, but not on your hands. Gunk wipes have better
scrubbing performance than the other guys with
no scratching, no rinsing, and no residue (sniffs). Oh, another huge thing
I love about Gunk wipes is that they don't have isopropyl alcohol. So the moisture will not evaporate while it's in your toolbox. Gunk de-greasing wipes are
available now at Walmart, AutoZone, Advanced Auto Parts, and Amazon. I think it's a great product. Check Gunk out in the link below. Get Gunk! (sniffs) (lost signal beep) It's one of the coolest racing experiences I've ever been to. I think there's a ton of
potential in the sport. I can't wait to see how
big this thing can grow. Plain and simple, it's just really cool. Not only am I a believer in Formula E, but I'm also a believer that
New York pizza is better. (big band jazz music) Rented some bikes. We're gonna ride down to
the World Trade Center. - [Man] What happened, you got lost? - Yeah, oh yeah, Alex here crossed traffic in probably like 15 cars. He took a right, and I totally lost him. For a second, was a little scared. I thought I was gonna be lost in New York like Kevin McCallister in "Home Alone 2". (big band jazz music)
The video is littered with errors.
Out of all the examples he could've shown us about swapping car mid race he had to chose Bird failed pit entry lol
Is this video an accurate representation? This is why I am here. This video gave me a serious interest boner and I want to watch Formula E now.
Good video in general I think. Always good to have YouTubers vlog about FE, it attracts more fans.
Fucking cringey thumbnails.