2400 words and 6 weeks later here we go!!! Post London

Hey guys 😊 

6 weeks ago, Formula e headed to the final weekend of the season, and I was so  excited to be there again for the 4th  year in a row. That location being London. Unfortunately though, not as accredited media ☹. Tbh though I did think at the time; is this too late for accreditation? But there is always next year!!!

 Now on to the blog

Nico Mueller is an  Andretti Driver  next season replacing Norman Nato; his departure from ABT being officially announced a few weeks ago. It was announced last week [27th August] also, that Taylor Barnard will replace Jake Hughes at McLaren for Next season, with Hughes moving to the Maserati MSG Squad.

Now I’m not gonna lie, this has surprised me a bit. Is it so Nico can fully prioritise WEC when formula e clashes? Is it so he can split programmes, does he want a change? Who knows. But what I will say, is that Nico is one of the nicest guys in the paddock, and if he does decide to leave at the end of the season, it’ll be a big shock. But anyway. Not speculating what will happen, but yeah. According to Sam Smith, it will most likely be a move to one of the Porsche powered teams [Andretti or Porsche themselves] which I am kind of surprised about. Peugeot have since announced that he is leaving the team at the end of the WEC season, so I think it’ll just be a formula e programme.

All 3 championships were decided that weekend, not a first for fe standards!!

For the second, maybe even 3rd, year in a row. This is just more proof that Formula e is so unlike other forms of motorsport that I will not mention but we should all know by now what I am referencing. I always enjoy formula E events, and they’re so enjoyable for me and many other people. This year marks my 4th ePrix weekend and my 7th in total. I honestly put London on all my year calendars, and in my diaries as soon as the date is announced. That is how much I enjoy being there!!!

Cassidy leads the championship. Could he finally do it?

Being a Cassidy fan, I really hope he can do it. After last year, he deserves it, in my opinion, more than anyone else, but it is formula e. Surprises can and will happen at some point. It wouldn’t be a championship deciding weekend if there wasn’t a twist or turn in the book.

Just look at last year!!!

Jaguar lead the teams championship, and the manufacturers championship. 

Could it also be a clean sweep for Jaguar? The Oxfordshire based team could have claimed all 3 titles with them in the lead of the teams and manufacturers championships too. It will be interesting to see how this pans out, as Porsche and Jaguar are very close in terms of points and things like that. I saw the maths earlier in the week, but didn’t screenshot it

Now on to the predictions for the races, and also the championship

Race 1

1.       Cassidy

2.       Evans

3.       Dennis

Race 2

1.       Bird

2.       Cassidy

3.       Wehrlein

Drivers championship

1.       Cassidy

2.       Evans

3.       Wehrlein

[boy I was ssssssssssssssssssssssssssoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo wrong]

Teams championship

1.       Jaguar TCS Racing

2.       Tag Heuer Porsche Formula E Team

3.       Andretti Formula E Team

 Sorry for not uploading this I was so busy in the lead up to the weekend,  and I was busy packing for London, forgot to type it the week I got back, and have been busy ever since with work, so lets get the weekend wrap up underway. Starting with FP1.

As people know, I was travelling to London on the Friday, so I only managed to catch the last 10 minutes of the track action.  But it was awesome,  nonetheless. I stood at the DLR entrance with a few other friends I knew, and then after the session, went to the west entrance to meet up with James and a few other people. We got chatting, and then who else to come and quickly say hi, but Jenn Babbington, envisions GC. Its always lovely to catch up with Jenn, Leon and the whole team, as everyone is always up for  a chat. Was lovely on the Friday night to also go out for a pizza with James and Rich, James’ PA, as well as the usual suspects of Kels, mum and Lizzie. Will definitely think about doing it again next year, as it was so nice to sit and have a chat about things.

Then the race days came thick and fast. Race day 1 started with FP2, which to be completely honest, I missed most of, as I was in the queue for wristbands for the track invasion for the podium. So yeah. Sorry for that ha ha.

Qualifying

Groups:

A:

·         Cassidy

·         Wehrlein

·         Rowland

·         Dennis

·         Frijns

·         Hughes

·         Bird

·         Buemi

·         Mortara

·         Sette camara

·         De vries

B:

·          Evans

·         Da Costa

·         Vergne

·         Guenther

·         Vandoorne

·         Nato

·         Mueller

·         Fenestraz

·         Ticktum

·         Daruvala

·         Di Grassi

Advancers from both groups:

·         Evans

·         Buemi

·         Wehrlein

·         Nato

·         JEV

·         Mueller

·         Rowland

·         Frijns

Quarter  finals:

Evans v JEV

Nato v Mueller

Buemi v Rowland

Wehrlein  v Frijns

Semi finals

Evans v Nato

Wehrlein v Buemi

Final

Evans v Buemi

Pole

Evans

Those 3 points gained by mitch would prove to be crucial in his championship fight, moving him to 4 points behind pascal in the championship hunt. But more later on how that wasn’t to be the case.

In between sessions my friend had autographs, so whilst she went to the session, mum and I hung out in the boulevard. I will give you a full selfie list later, however, I managed to meet so many famous faces, and before Qualifying got underway, we had the papaya fan photo, and also I was chosen to film something very special for the McLaren socials, which I will leave the Instagram link for below this paragraph.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C9sBWHNMuYC/

The race itself was entertaining. Buemi got on to the podium for envision, which I was pleased about with it being envisions 2nd home race with the team base at Silverstone. We had too many safety cars, with a very nasty looking incident for robin taking him out of contention for the race victory, but he was cleared to race the next day with only a minor graze to his hand, as he had took his hands off the wheel prior to the wall contact. The only sad thing about it was that security didn’t let us on to the track in time for the podium, and we only got to see the trophies being handed out, however the Sunday was better, as we were straight on to the track when we go to the meeting point.

Formula e has always been an amazing event to attend, and London this  year was no different. The atmosphere was amazing, and I cant wait to see how season 11 pans out with the Gen3Evo and a whole load of other things like attack charge and London once more being home to the season finale.

On to the aforementioned selfie list before I forget:

·         Laney !! (yes again)

·         Sam

·         Sylvain

·         Jenn

·         Oliver Rowland

·         Katy Fairman

·         Matt and Tommy from the P1 Podcast

·         Albert Lau

·         Saunders

·         Emily Hogg

·         Sacha Fenestraz

·         Nicki Shields and Andre Lotterer

·         Charlie who does the McLaren Photography and Videography who took this awesome photo [ill insert it below the list]

·         Holly; McLarens social admin

·         Shiv

·         Lou (albeit behind the fence as she was photographing, however it is always nice to bump in to her) 😊

·         The FE Zone Discord Gang

·         And Jess on what would turn out to be her final fe weekend…

photo credits @mclarenfe on X [photo taken by Charlie]

However, enough of that for now. On to day 2.

We scanned our tickets, and went straight to the Hankook tyre wall to get our photos taken for the podium, as the queue was quieter than the Saturday as we went straight after collecting our wristbands for autographs. The system they had this year was so much better than last years, and I hope it continues to stay that way. FP3 was the same processional running, and setting things up for qualifying, but this time I managed to get seated in time for the session, and also the green light out lap from pretty much everyone. Ill insert pics down below in a second =)

Then after FP3, we sat around for a bit , met up with James and Charlotte who surprised us all with a trip from Italy for the race, and then went and took our seats for Qualifying.

Groups:

A:

·         Cassidy

·         Wehrlein

·         Bird

·         Frijns

·         Rowland

·         Daruvala

·         Ticktum

·         Hughes

·         Buemi

·         Fenestraz

·         Dennis

B:

·         Guenther

·         Evans

·         Vandoorne

·         JEV

·         Da Costa

·         Nato

·         Di Grassi

·         Mueller

·         Sette Camara

·         Mortara

·         De Vries

Advancers from both groups:

·         Guenther

·         Evans

·         Vandoorne

·         JEV

·         Cassidy

·         Wehrlein

·         Bird

·         Frijns

Duels

Quarter Finals:

Bird v Wehrlein

Frijns v Cassidy

Vandoorne v Evans

Vergne v Guenther

Advancers:

Wehrlein

Guenther

Evans

Cassidy

Semis:

Wehrlein v Cassidy

Guenther v Evans

Advancers

 Guenther

Cassidy

Final:

Cassidy v Guenther

Pole:

Cassidy.

Security let us over the bridge early for Autographs, so we watched Nick’s pole lap from behind Grandstand 1, and when he crossed the line and got pole, I celebrated with another Cassidy fan id met from Poland, who I can’t remember the name of (apologies). We also saw Jay Penske crossing the bridge, to either go and get another coffee from Costa, or go to the toilet. We were held until the Autograph sessions began, and then we were let loose up the pitlane. I went to envision first to say hi, and happy birthday, to Leon, and then headed for McLaren. I honestly don’t know why, but this was the most nervous I’ve felt before meeting Laney, and I honestly don’t know why. He is one of the nicest people in the formula e paddock,  and this meeting was no different. He came over, and I had my yearly hug. We also had a picture in Sam’s half of the garage, as Sam decided to join us, and make mum smile as usual. I handed laney another piece of artwork which made him smile, and then went down to envision. I did stop at Porsche, but Fab was busy. And you know what, fair enough!! I saw Sylvain and Jenn, and then went to meet up with a few friends from the FE Zone Discord. It was a great meet up, and I hope that we can do something similar next year.

Then 5pm approached, and it was time for the season finale!!! I’m not gonna lie; as a Jaguar fan, this hurt. Nick had to retire his car due to damage, and Mitch had to, in effect, slow down the pack, as he otherwise would have been disqualified for failure to use all of his attack modes properly [art 16.3 and 16.4]. All of this meant that at the end of the race, Pascal would be world champion, crossing the line in 2nd place. But I had something to smile about, as Oliver Rowland won his home race, in front of his home fans 😊. It was a special podium too, as he brought his daughter Harper on to the podium with him.

Then after the championship podium, we met up with James and the gang again, moaned about Jaguar for a bit, gave hugs and said our goodbyes, and then went back to the hotel. Mum wanted to go to McDonalds, so I said id like a 20 chicken nugget share box. All to myself… Yep… but anyway. ill quote the tweet i tweeted in relation to that in a second

"Drowning in my sorrows with 20 chicken nuggets :("

We had our meals, and then went to bed to go and do some sightseeing the next day.

We had our post ePrix lie in, and then went to meet up with Kels and Lizzie. We went via the DLR to Canning Town, and then hopped on the jubilee line to Westminster for lunch. There is a fish and chip shop near the London Eye, which mum and I have eat at after every trip to London (ba last year’s ePrix), and the chips especially are very nice. We had our lunch, and then went to Green Park to go and visit the castle, and do a couple of things around the area. The king wasn’t in… but it was still nice to go and see the guards in their beefeaters and smart uniforms, and get some really nice photos of the palace with the sun out!!! Yes I know!!! Sun in Britain!!! It’s a very rare occasion.

Then we hopped on the jubilee line back down to Canary Wharf, and got the DLR to Cutty sark to go to McDonalds, and get a drink and a McFlurry to try to cool off. After we had re hydrated, and got some sugar in our systems, we went and sat on Cutty Sark pier for a bit, before going back to the hotel, for the FE Bar for mum and I, as usual, and for Kels and Lizzie to settle down for the night. It was a very fun FE Bar, discussing how the race had went, and for our chance to moan about what didn’t go so well per se. that is why I love everyone on the FE Zone discord. Mum and I can rant without being judged, and we can have an opinion. We did that, and then settled down to get up and ready for the sad journey home on the Tuesday.  

Then the sad day came. The home travel day ☹. We met up in the morning, as Kelsey and Lizzie were travelling with us, and then we got the DLR to Canning Town, the Jubilee Line to green Park, and then the Victoria Line to Kings Cross St Pancras. Perk being it was all step free from platform to platform. I never want to go home after an epic ePrix weekend, and this year was no different. Seeing  many faces I know, making memories with friends old and new. It was a special feeling that’s for sure 😊.

So after this 2400 word waffle [yes I type on word, so not only do i get the spell check, but I get the word count also] I guess all that is left to say is, if we’ve met offline after talking online this year, or we’re close friends, thank you for making another year of awesome memories for me. I can also confirm that I will be going to, hopefully not but we’ll see, the sophomore London ePrix next year!!!! I’ll be on the start finish straight near the finish line. 😊. If you see me next year, don’t be shy and Say Hello!!! I promise I don’t bite 😊 

Ill leave an album of photos down below, and yeah

London its been a pleasure once more.

See you next year!!