Well welcome back formula e. Missed ya.
What a race that was !!!
Almost a month has passed since one of the most dramatic races in Formula E history. To be honest, I still can’t believe how it all unfolded, and the result. Drama from start to finish, with a twist at every turn. Literally!!!
Well. Let’s start with FP1
Not all drivers elected to go out on the green flag at the start of the session. This makes a change, as usually everyone goes out on green, to either survey the track, or get the early laps in. this was not to be the case this time though, however having raced in Sao Paulo earlier on this year, which would have a winner of Sam Bird come the end of the race with a stunning last lap lunge on Mitch Evans, I think some drivers wouldn’t have found going out at the start of the session beneficial, or preferential.
Zane Maloney is one of three rookies, the other two being Taylor Barnard and David Beckmann, to race in Formula E this year. He also picked to leave his F2 drive with Rodin Motorsport a round early to be eligible to race that weekend. And yes. Taylor is still a rookie as he hasn’t completed a full season of Formula E yet.
Scot Elkins wasn’t able to attend the ePrix due to family issues. He was replaced with deputy race director Marek Hanaczewski
The Yellow flag was swiftly flown around halfway into the session. Turned out that Nico Mueller had clipped the wall and caused a puncture. The damage sustained meant that unfortunately Andretti had to use Nico’s joker tyre. His only tyre of the season. Whilst this is unfortunate, I do get it from a sustainability point of view why this isn’t allowed more than 1 time.
What I also found really cool, was that when a driver activates attack mode this season, the rear wing LED’s turn Magenta as soon as attack mode has been properly activated. I think that this is awesome because it will be easier to differentiate between drivers that are in standard power, and drivers that are in 350kw. It makes photos look awesome too!!!
262kph top speed in 4 wheel drive!!!! Sick!!!!!! Now that is fast! Something I never thought formula e cars would be able to achieve but here we are!!!
As some of you may know, I started watching formula e at the start of the Generation 2 iteration of the formula e cars where the top speed was around 150 mph, so to see this massive jump in both speed, and technology, is amazing in itself.
Now, I unfortunately missed FP2 due to being at the gym, but I did manage to catch part of it on my way to the gym. Evans had a technical issue in fp2, which unfortunately plagued him again in qualifying. This meant he had to start from the back of the grid. We all know what was to happen then…
Qualifying went a little something like this:
Groups:
A:
Rowland
Dennis
Da Costa
JEV
Cassidy
Buemi
Di Grassi
Bird
Hughes
Beckmann
De Vries
B:
Evans
Maloney
Barnard
Mueller
Frijns
Ticktum
Vandoorne
Mortara
Nato
Guenther
Wehrlein
Advancers from both groups:
Rowland
DAC
JEV
Dennis
Guenther
Mortara
Nato
Wehrlein
How the duels panned out:
To be fair, I wasn’t expecting it to pan out this way, but its just how formula e is.
Very unpredictable, and very good to watch.
Quarter Finals
Rowland V Da Costa Rowland won
JEV V Dennis. Dennis won to set up an all British SF 1
Guenther v Mortara. Guenther won
Wehrlein v Nato. Wehrlein won to set up an all-German SF 2
Semis
Rowland v Dennis. Rowland won but only just … 0.001 !!
The margins were literally swinging to and fro all of the lap!!! Amazing stuff from Oli Rowland to advance. The 2nd tightest margin in formula e history.
Wehrlein v Guenther Wehrlein won.
Final
Rowland v Wehrlein
Wehrlein pole
Another awesome lap from pascal to claim his first, and the first pole of the season, and his second consecutive pole at the Sambadrome, having took pole in season 10 too
Then the race happened.
Where to start … I felt like this was an amazing race, but one where you’d need to have nerves of steel too.
Robin did not start due to a technical problem on the grid. It turned out to be a brake failure, as the car just wouldn’t start. Could have also been a mechanical failure, as the dash was blank
Aborted start cause of that. As per the regulations, if anyone has any difficulties on the grid, they must raise their hands, and the start must be aborted so they can push the affected car/cars off the grid. (art 36.16a)
“If the race has not started and if a car develops a problem that could endanger the start, the Driver must immediately raise his hands above his head and the Marshal responsible for that row must immediately wave a yellow flag. If the Race Director decides the start should be delayed, the abort lights will be illuminated and a board saying “START DELAYED” will be displayed. All cars will wait on the starting grid whilst the car which developed the problem is moved in to the pitlane.”
2nd time lucky they say… ha ha …
There were two red flags after that …
1st:
Red car for Jake Dennis
Possible BBW failure, which caused a red car. Red flagging the race was the only option, as the car had a battery isolation issue, and was unsafe to touch. In summary, if a marshal touched the car without the aid of the extrication team, there could be a possible electric shock risk.
As article 40.1 states:
“If Competitors or Officials are placed in immediate physical danger by cars running on the track, and the Race Director deems circumstances are such that the track cannot be negotiated safely, even behind the Safety Car, the race will be suspended. Should it become necessary to suspend the race the Race Director will order Red flags to be shown at all Marshal posts and the abort lights to be shown at the Start lights.
A very scary and big crash between nick Cassidy and pascal Wehrlein caused the second red flag. Nick got on the radio to claim full fault for the incident, and also straight away he asked how pascal was. Thankfully pascal was able to get out of the car, which if it wasn’t for the HANS and Halo, he may not have done, and the race could have had a very different outcome. Its paramount to the FIA that the systems like this were put in place, as, as aforementioned, there could have been a completely different outcome to that race. One I particularly don’t want to be thinking about either to be honest.
Mitch Evans continued his winning streak by winning in Sao Paulo, with a stunning last to 1st drive, becoming the first fe driver to execute the stat, with Da Costa in 2nd, and a very well executed race form Taylor Barnard, who finished his first full time formula e race in 3rd.
Welcome back formula e!!! didn’t miss this at all during the off season… well if you know me, I did so. And this is the reason why. Twists and turns at every corner, and also no one would have predicted this result. Also Barnard was breaking even more records, as he is now the youngest podium sitter in formula e history, adding to his tally of youngest race starter, and youngest points scorer.
So yeah.
Happy 2025 to all my readers!!! Its going to be a really exciting year for me.
I will be attending London again in July, and also I have 3 concerts planned
Oliver Heldens in Brixton in March
Chase and Status in May
And
Martin Garrix (ahhhhhh!!!!!!) in August
Full classification down below along with my socials 😊
Thank you all for your continued support
It truly means the world
Nat
Oh and also I apologise if Mexico post-race blog is a bit late. Got my sisters 16th birthday party that day, and I don’t know how many notes ill get.
Sao Paulo race classification:
1. Evans
2. Da Costa
3. Barnard
4. Bird
5. Mortara
6. De Vries
7. Buemi
8. Ticktum
9. JEV
10. Vandoorne
11. Guenther
12. Maloney
13. Nato **
14. Rowland
DNF Cassidy
DNF Wehrlien
DNF Beckmann
DNF Dennis
DNF Di Grassi
DNF Hughes
DNF Mueller
DNS Frijns
** Norman finished P6, but was handed a 5 second time penalty post race for an incorrect grid position at one of the restarts. (Stewards decision document 22.)
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