The level of energy deployment necessary for a good race on a proper road course is made possible by Formula E’s still relatively new Pit Boost fast-charging, which I think is one of the most underrated technical developments in racing recently. Not only does it reduce the amount of in-race management, increase the strategic options, and create great mid-race jeopardy, this level of fast-charging seems among the most likely of all current technologies in motorsports to have massive consumer benefits.

Either way, the FIA has moved to end the saga that dominated preseason headlines by updating the testing regime to measure compression ratio at both cold and hot temperatures, and they’ve moved up the timeline for doing so to June 1.

The teams have unanimously approved the measure. Many of them said as the saga bubbled along that they didn’t care if it was decided one way or the other, they just wanted clarity on what was and was not legal. Now they’ll get it, and we’ll see if Mercedes can get their stuff into the window in time, but they seem to believe they can — if it was ever over the line in the first place.

Fernando Alonso’s life should be made into an opera. How can a driver have his career ruined so many times by one company’s engines and then agree to stay in Formula 1 until he’s 50 years old to run with them again?

Previous generations of Formula E rules have only allowed completely new homologations for mid-rule-cycle Evo updates to the whole platform. Now, instead, the series will give each team allotments of development tokens for specific systems that they can deploy as needed for joker upgrades. This is not only less expensive than having to develop and homologate whole new cars while suffering with the flaws of the current one until the Evo, it means teams will be bringing different updates at different times, which will inject some surprise into the field.

The problem is that drivers now have to rev for around 10 seconds in order to spool up the turbo to prevent lag on the getaway, since they no longer have an MGU-H to spin it up. But they also have to avoid over-charging their batteries while doing that, in addition to managing heat, dropping the clutch cleanly, and all the other usual difficulties of standing starts. Drivers are reportedly messing up one in 20 of their practice starts, which means that statistically someone will do it in a race every time. That’s not just a competitive problem; that’s a safety issue.

The thing is, there are rules changes that could mitigate the problem. I think the most promising would be allowing some battery energy deployment on the start to compensate for turbo lag, which is currently not allowed, but what the heck are electric car motors for if not accelerating!? A less invasive change would be increasing the time between the cars parking in formation and the start lights coming on. Ferrari, mysteriously, is blocking the rules changes, which suggests they’ve got a good PU solution to the turbo lag issue, and that’s fair enough, but we can’t be having crashes on the start in every race.

And you know what? If Mercedes didn’t figure out what it was going to do in case it got caught, that’s their own fault, much as the other PU manufacturers not figuring out how to do this was their own fault. And the regulatory mess is the FIA’s own fault! This is automobile racing in its purest form.

I am sure the FIA will figure out how to firmly close this loophole in due time and make everyone’s race cars as slow as everyone else’s. That is also nothing to whine about. Everybody out there is trying to make you go slower, not just the guys in the air-conditioned box. You have to beat all of them.