Tag: Formula E

Swiss driver extends his points lead in the centre of Paris while title rival di Grassi crashes out

Paris, 20 May 2017: 

The FIA Formula E Championship returned to Paris for a second ePrix around the iconic streets of Les Invalides today, 20 May, and it was points-leader Sebastien Buemi who secured a fifth victory of the season for the Renault e.dams squad.

Buemi had taken pole position earlier in the day, and fended off the challenge of Jean-Eric Vergne who drew alongside the pole-sitter on the run down to turn one. After this initial challenge, Vergne’s Techeetah car came under attack from DS Virgin Racing’s Jose Maria Lopez, giving Buemi just enough breathing space to manage the gap.

The opening stages of the race were high-pressure and close-quarters, with the top 14 drivers within just ten seconds of each other after five tours of Les Invalides. Behind the top three, Mahindra’s Nick Heidfeld repeated the rapid start he made a week ago during the Monaco ePrix, making up ground and challenging the front-runners.

Having qualified down in 14^th place, ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport’s Lucas di Grassi had a lot work to do to try and score vital championship points. He didn’t make progress early on, however, and was battling for 15^th with Andretti Formula E’s Antonio Felix da Costa. As the two were swapping places on the narrow city streets, contact was made at turn eight and both cars spun into the run-off area. While di Grassi was able to continue, it was the end of da Costa’s race, and as the marshals recovered his stricken car there was a Full Course Yellow period, prompting almost all the drivers to dive into the pits and make their mandatory stop and car change.

Brazilian driver di Grassi was then hit with a drive through penalty for not respecting the minimum pit stop time, which dropped him to last place on the circuit.

There was another disruption on lap 30 with a safety car deployment, as Vergne, who had been matching Buemi’s pace throughout the middle phase of the race, crashed into the barriers on the exit of turn 14 as he tried to close the gap.

The Frenchman’s retirement promoted Mahindra Racing’s Heidfeld to a podium position, and he crossed the line in third for the second consecutive race. It was also a strong race for Heidfeld’s stablemate Felix Rosenqvist, whose fourth-placed finish brought the team its strongest points haul to date.

Nico Prost was the highest-placed French driver in fifth, rounding out a strong showing for Renault e.dams who now lead the team standings by an impressive 75 points.

Andretti’s Robin Frijns enjoyed his best result of the season in sixth, while Nelson Piquet Jr was seventh having benefitted from last-lap heartache for Daniel Abt who was forced to retire with mechanical issues after having made up a lot of places from his starting position.

Tom Dillman gave the French fans more to cheers about with an impressive Formula E debut in eighth, with Mitch Evans and Stephane Sarrazin rounding out the top ten.

For the second year running, the ePrix ended behind the safety car, as an attempt at setting the fastest lap ended in the barriers for Lucas di Grassi, who after this weekend now has a 43-point deficit to Buemi.

Sebastien Buemi said: “The most important thing for me was to pull away after the grid positon we got. You know when the brakes are cold, the first few corners are a bit of a guess for everyone and Jean-Eric Vergne was very aggressive and tried to pass me, so I tried to delay the braking as late as I could, just to stay ahead. I consumed maybe a little bit more energy than I was expecting to use, just to make up a little gap. I lost a bit of time in the Full Course Yellow and obviously in the restart when he [JEV] crashed I was having a nice time as he was putting me under pressure. Then we had the Safety Car and Jose [Maria Lopez] had a great race today, he was really, really quick and I had to push quite hard at the end of the race just to make sure I could build up a bit of a gap.”

Jose Maria Lopez said: “You can see from the beginning of the year that we had a good car, but my experience was not enough to be competitive. But we worked hard in the race, it was a circuit I liked, the city and everything and I think that played a part as well.”

Nick Heidfeld said: “The start in Monaco was about taking the outside line and just braking late, but here the car off the line was just fantastic – it was like a rocket! It was a lot closer here than in Monaco where I couldn’t keep up with the top two guys, but here I could. There were a couple of backmarkers who got between us as the restart and that meant unfortunately I could not get near them, but we had the same pace and more energy.”

The FIA Formula E Championship will be racing again in three weeks’ time, with the double-header Berlin ePrix coming up on 10-11 June.

eom/Fia press release

Paris, 18 May 2017: Following the second edition of the event around the architectural co

mplex of Les Invalides, a short distance from the headquarters of the FIA, Formula E is donating a zero-emissions glycerine generator to boost charging infrastructure and leave a lasting legacy to the city of Paris.

The Formula E concept was initiated by FIA President Jean Todt as a means to demonstrate the potential and drive the development of sustainable technologies, become a platform to increase global uptake of electric vehicles and contribute to the fight against climate change and inner-city air pollution.

By welcoming the FIA Formula E Championship to the streets of Paris, Mayor Anne Hidalgo aims to increase public awareness of sustainable methods of transportation and promote car manufacturers’ continued investment in electric mobility and alternative energy solutions.

This is in line with the vision of Alejandro Agag, Founder and CEO of Formula E, who wants to make the switch to electric cars make sense for consumers – more efficient and more affordable.

Formula E and event organisers have decided to donate a zero-emissions glycerine generator to Paris after the chequered flag falls on Saturday.

The generators are based on standard production diesel engines that have been adapted with Aquafuel’s patented technology to run on glycerine. The fuel itself is a by-product of the bio-diesel production process, and it’s so clean you can drink it.

The unit can be used as a fixed generator to provide electricity and heating to existing buildings – or as a mobile generator to provide power at events, or to power electric vehicle charging stations.

The generator will be entirely automated and can be synchronised to the French grid to feedback any energy production surplus. It will be tailor-made for the needs of Paris, and will be delivered in August 2017.

Anne Hidalgo would like to express her thanks to the FIA Formula E Championship for this generous donation, and reinforce the push that Paris is making in the transition to clean energy and the fight against climate change.

eom/FIA press release

Mexico City, 2 April 2017: Lucas di Grassi is the first driver to interrupt Renault e.Dams’ run of six consecutive wins – three at the end of season 2 and the first three of the current championship. At the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City, the ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport driver took his first win in this championship at the end of a day that was really action-packed and exciting for him and the team.

It would be hard for any motor racing series to provide a driver with such a mix of opposing feelings as experienced by the Brazilian driver today. After a poor qualifying which saw him line up on the third from last row of the starting grid, he had to pit immediately after the start to change the front wing, damaged in a collision with Sarrazin, so that no one would have bet on his winning. However, the German team did not lose heart, even though it had also seen its other driver Daniel Abt lose his pole position, having to start right from the back, because of a rule infringement relating to tyre pressures. It adopted a brave strategy, bringing Di Grassi in for the car change as early as lap 18. From then on Lucas was superb, driving in magisterial and effective fashion reaching the finish line with far less energy left than all his rivals bar one.

That one other driver was Jerome d’Ambrosio who actually changed cars two laps before the Brazilian. Passed by the ABT driver when they were still battling at the back of the pack, D’Ambrosio found himself in second place when the leaders, with Lopez in front, ahead of Heidfeld and Vergne, came in for pit stops. The Faraday Future Dragon Racing driver repeated the display of defensive driving that he’d put on at this track last year and kept ahead of the pack almost to the very end, until he was overtaken by Vergne and then finished out of the points with barely a single kilowatt left in his car. The French Techeetah driver took a bitter-sweet second place, because everything seemed to be in place for his first win, but strenuous resistance from the Belgian meant he was unable to exploit his full potential, although he proved to be a rising force who could play a major role in this championship.

Sam Bird made it to the third step of the podium, having put in a gritty drive, always among the front runners. There was suspense for the Englishman right to the end because of an investigation for an unsafe release: however, the two second penalty handed out did not affect his final result. It was a good weekend for DS Virgin Racing, with Lopez coming home sixth: however, the Argentinian cannot be that pleased with the result given that he was leading for much of the time, dropping to third at the start of lap 35, after he spun at turn 1, which put him out of the running for the podium.

The biggest loser on the day was undoubtedly Sebastien Buemi. The Swiss had only arrived in Mexico City the previous night, along with Lopez and Sarrazin, all three having taken part in the FIA WEC Championship prologue at Monza. He managed to score just a single point for putting in the race fastest lap. He started from sixth on the grid and it looked as though he would be able to haul himself up the order to a point where he could be in the fight for the win, but a spin just a few seconds after Lopez’s saw him drop to the back of the pack. For Renault, a fifth place for Nico Prost was not enough to make up for the disappointment of a day that didn’t live up to the team’s capabilities. Delight in the Jaguar camp, with Mitch Evans fourth and Adam Carroll eighth, while there were opposite emotions in the Mahindra squad, which looked to be heading for a good points haul until a close scrap in the closing stages prevented Heidfeld and Rosenqvist making it into the points. There was disappointment also for NEXTEV NIO, with Oliver Turvey sidelined with a technical problem when leading, while Nelson Piquet Jr. drove conservatively on his way to ninth place.

The final point up for grabs went to the debutant, Esteban Gutierrez, who finished tenth. The local hero – over 36 thousand spectators turned out at the circuit named after the Rodriguez brothers – endured a difficult maiden qualifying, but then produced a calculated performance to fight his way into the points. After four races, Buemi now has just a five point lead (76 to 71) over Di Grassi in the Drivers’ championship, with Prost third on 46 and Vergne closing in on 40. In the teams classification, Renault e.Dams still has a solid lead on 122 points, even though the gap to ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport, now on 91, has come down by 20, with DS Virgin Racing third (43) and Techeetah fourth (41.)

The next round of the championship takes place on 13^th May, with the second Monaco ePrix being the first European race of the season.

Quotes of the top three drivers

Lucas di Grassi

“What an incredible change of fate, but actually that’s what Formula E represents, there are such ups and downs. You can have a bad weekend or good weekend – the level of the drivers is so high. Somebody crashed into my back, broke the rear wing and there was a safety car. I managed to open a gap, keep on just using regen, just trying to be as energy efficient as possible, just focussing on my race as much as possible until the last corner and then just celebrated like crazy. For me it was one of the best races of my life, in terms of how I drove, how energy efficient I had to be, so I’m very pleased.”

Jean-Eric Vergne

“I have very mixed emotions, I think this race was ours – 100 per cent. What D’Ambrosio did was totally unacceptable, he just doesn’t know how to defend, he crashed too many times into me, forced me to go off the track – so I’m not a fan. He changed direction many times, so I’m very frustrated but on the other hand I’m happy that I’m here for the championship. We started very far away but I know I’m in the right team with the right car to win the championship. I think we’re coming back a little bit better and we’re getting stronger every race as a team.”

Sam Bird

“It was a good race for TV and for Formula E – a race like this was fantastic; all the drama, lots of things going on, ups and downs, you don’t know what’s going to happen next. I think it’s really good for the championship. I was happy with the move I pulled on Jerome. I watched the battle between Jerome and JEV and I was in the mix as well. The team have done a good job, we struggled in FP2, to come back with a third place is pretty strong.”

eom/FIA press release