E for excitement - electric hot wheels gain traction
Environmentally friendly cars make their debut and a dramatic crash in Beijing adds to impact
Well, who would have thought it, electric cars are interesting. Ever since Clive Sinclair tootled around the streets of Britain with his C5, electric cars have had something of an image problem. Despite the best efforts of Tesla, fans of sports cars have rather looked down their noses at electric or hybrid hot wheels.
Imagine everyone's surprise then when an actual electric racing car formula turned out to be, well, rather good.
Formula E got under way with a bang in Beijing. To be more accurate, it finished with a bang as leaders Nick Heidfeld and Nicolas Prost came together at the final corner. Heidfeld was launched into the air and landed upside down in his crumpled heap of a car.
Once he'd managed to wriggle out, he and Prost had a frank exchange of views while Prost Snr shook his head in the pits. The win, by the way, went to Lucas di Grassi, another former F1 driver.
In a way, who won the first race doesn't really matter. What does is the idea of motor racing powered by electricity gaining traction. There was a lot of media attention on the track that weaved its way through the Olympic Park. Many nations took the event live, and news reports lapped up the drama on the last lap.
There are big names backing the series. Alain Prost is not the only household name involved. Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio is a backer as is Richard Branson, who is involved with Virgin Racing.
Of course, the fact that it's an official FIA formula really helps.
Let's be honest, it's not Formula One. Top speeds are lower, at 225km/h. Drivers need two cars, because the battery isn't strong enough to last a whole race. But a pit stop that involves hopping into another car and trying to get away as quickly as possible has to be entertaining.
Although the second season will be an open formula, at the moment the chassis, power train and batteries are being provided to the teams. Some big names are involved, including McLaren, Williams and Renault.
The idea as the championship progresses over the years is for teams to make significant improvements in battery performance. That, of course, should filter down to electric road cars which still have some way to go to overtake the internal combustion engine.
As the noisier, less environmentally friendly F1 cars strut their stuff in Singapore, there will be one mainstay missing - Luca di Montezemolo stepped down as chairman of Ferrari after 23 years.
This column often talks about the politics that is rife between teams, but it's easy to forget the machinations that go on within the teams themselves. Di Montezemolo finds himself cast adrift after falling out with Sergio Marchionne, the boss of parent group Fiat.
Di Montezemolo turned around Ferrari when he joined and helped usher in the Michael Schumacher era. Ferrari as a car maker has never been more profitable, but that's not been enough to save the man who organised the 1990 World Cup.
Ferrari have had a shocker of a year after several seasons of going backwards. The car and the engine are not up to scratch. Not even the brilliance of Fernando Alonso can hide that fact. Di Montezemolo hasn't been able to get the team back on the right track, and sometimes it's all seemed a bit too much for him - remember his strop in the pits in Bahrain?
Firing various people such as former team principal Stefano Domenicali and engine boss Luca Marmorin has only served to scare off potential recruits who might be able to put right this mess.
In the end it was Di Montezemolo who walked the plank. The big question is whether all these recriminations will see the departure of Alonso - a man they really can't afford to loose.
