Hey guys.
Apologies for this being a week late as usual... but anywho
Tokyo, was another weekend of mixed emotions for me from a fan perspective. We’ll get on to why later. However, from a neutral point of view, it was a great race weekend. Like Sao Paulo, no one wanted to lead the race, and when they got into the lead, it was an awesome overtake to win the race.
So, let’s start this round up with practice round up:
FP1:
Track still damp from the brief shower that happened during track walk
As I will mention later on in the blog, this lead to a multitude of drivers going wide at Turn 1, due to the slippy nature of the track, and the fact that the track was still green in some areas on the main straight.
Jaguar powered top 4 early doors, with 25 minutes left of the session.
Track was still damp in various places
This lead to a number of drivers either glancing, or making contact with the wall, or sliding off track and in to the run off area due to the wet areas still left on track, and the standing water at turn 1
Yellow Flag flown for Vandoorne with 21 minutes of the session remaining.
This would then proceed to turn in to a red flag as Stoffel’s car died on him with a suspected Powertrain failure. This was fixed in time for Race day, but cased significant disruption to the session.
All cars, on resumption of session, out on green.
This was apart from Stoffel for obvious reasons really. The track was new to drivers and teams alike, so every second of track time they could get would be very beneficial. For data for the simulator, and to see how much it compared to the simulator in terms of lap time and track likeness.
Session had lots of yellows at T1 due to drivers going wide and in to the runoff area
This was probably one of the slippiest sessions that I have known fe to run; should it have gone ahead? The FIA thought so, but the drivers thought not. I could kind of see why too with the amount of times people were going off the track, and the amount of broken wings, powertrains etc. but I’m not the FIA, so you know.
Sacha stopped t1 broken wing. Turned out to be a collision with Sam :/.
Replays showed that Sacha exited the pits, and went straight in to Sam. Now, should Nissan have warned Sacha about Sam? Short answer yes. Could Sam have made the corner without taking to the run off? Short answer no. Sam slid in to the run off area, Sacha had just come out of the pits and then bang. Racing incident I felt, however, it could have swung either way. This then lead to another Red Flag, and a session extension by 5 minutes due to the earlier stoppage for Stoffel too.
Final results:
Frijns
Mortara
Guenther
Wehrlein
Da Costa
Cassidy
Evans
De Vries
Rowland
Di Grassi
Nato
Buemi
Bird
Mueller
JEV
Daruvala
Sette Camara
Fenestraz
Hughes
Ticktum
Dennis
Vandoorne.
FP2
All cars out on green
Red flag for debris at T12
Session stopped with 22 minutes left on the clock. Debris on the track is never good for cars, especially when it is accidentally run over and causes punctures. It can also contribute to driver crashes as the drivers focus isn’t fully on the task at hand, and whatever is flying at the car could injure the driver too.
Quick stoppage. Session resumed with 18 minutes to go.
It was a quick clearance as far as formula e stoppages are concerned. Which surprises me really, as red flag stoppages can range anywhere from 10-20 minutes normally.
Yellow flag flown with 3 minutes to go. Quickly put away. Was replaced at T5 by the slippy surface flag.
There must have been some oil or fluid spilt on to the track I didn’t see, as that really did surprise me. But as always, safety is paramount, and that is reflected in the rules and flags. I am thinking of doing a blog post outlining the flags and marshalling posts, and how they are paramount in formula e and motorsport in general, for safety.
Qualifying:
Group A | Group B |
Cassidy | Wehrlein |
Evans | JEV |
Dennis | Bird |
Rowland | Guenther |
Buemi | Frijns |
Hughes | Vandoorne |
Nato | Fenestraz |
Da Costa | Sette camara |
Mortara | Mueller |
Di Grassi | De Vries |
Daruvala | Ticktum |
Advancers:
Group A
Rowland
Mortara
Dennis
Evans
Group B
Guenther
Sette camara
Mueller
Wehrlein
Duels
Quarter finals
Dennis v Mortara
Evans v Rowland
Mueller v Sette Camara
Wehrlein v Guenther
Winners :
Mortara
Rowland
Sette camara
Guenther
Semi finals
Mortara v Rowland
Guenther v Sette Camara
Winners
Rowland
Guenther
Final
Rowland v Guenther
Pole
Rowland
Race:
McLaren had a weekend to forget…
It’s disappointing that that has happened, but this is the reality of formula e;
Like Sam Smith excellently said post-race, unfortunately I can’t remember which of his publications it was, this is why fe is so unpredictable. One minute you’re on cloud 9, the next you’re bottom of the pile.
Envision weren't too better either, although they did score points. What is going on down at envision?? This can happen though. One year you win the championship, the next you finish 6th or 7th. Could this finally be Jaguars year? We’ll see in London in July.
Max won!!!!!!!! YAAAAAAS.
Everything else was going so badly for me, the only thing I wanted was Max to win. And that happened. So that brought a smile to my face when all I wanted to do was sit and cry. It was a great drive from max all race, and that overtake from Oliver near the end of the race… woah!!! The only mistake max made was a tiny slip up on the podium when he slipped on a little bit of spilt champagne.
Di Grassi crashed in to Hughes…
All I’m saying about that is Di Grassi? More like Di Crashi.
Fe bar post-race:
Sam has been in the championship since the beginning, and although he had those two tough years at jaguar, he is back with laney, and he can get some absolutely stunning results with Laney, as we’ve seen from the two years prior to his move to Jaguar in season 5 and 6.
Jake needs a bit more time I feel to adjust to the championship. He has a great teammate in Sam; however, cause Sam has an engineer he has worked well with previously, and a great car, is this Sam doing what he can to get the best out of the car, and build McLaren to be a great team? Or is it Jake starting to drop off a bit? Whatever it is, McLaren are starting to look stronger than they were last year, which can only be a good sign.
This also underpins the quality of drivers that fe have, and the competition between all the drivers to make sure that their respective teams are getting great results for their sponsors, and their teams.
However, is it the car, or is it the driver that contributes to bad results? That’s the question I am gonna leave you guys with, as well as the championship standings and race results.
Nat
Race results:
Guenther
Rowland
Dennis
Da Costa
Wehrlein
Nato
Mueller
Cassidy
Frijns
Sette camara
Fenestraz
JEV
Buemi
Hughes
Evans
Vandoorne
Daruvala
Ticktum
De Vries [DNF]
Di Grassi [DNF]
Bird [DNF]
Mortara [DSQ]
Driver standings
1. Wehrlein [63]
2. Cassidy [61]
3. Rowland [54]
4. Dennis [53]
5. Guenther [48]
6. Evans [39]
7. JEV [39]
8. Bird [37]
9. Frijns [21]
10. Buemi [20]
11. Da Costa [20]
12. Hughes [18]
13. Vandoorne [18]
14. Nato [17]
15. Fenestraz [8]
16. Mueller [6]
17. Sette camara [3]
18. Mortara [0]
19. Di Grassi [0]
20. De Vries [0]
21. Daruvala [0]
22. Ticktum [0]
Teams standings
1. Jaguar TCS Racing [100]
2. Tag Heuer Porsche Formula E Team [83]
3. Andretti Formula E Team [70]
4. Nissan Formula E Team [62]
5. DS Penske Formula E Team [57]
6. NEOM McLaren Formula E Team [55]
7. Maserati MSG Racing [48]
8. Envision Racing [41]
9. ABT CUPRA Formula E Team [6]
10. ERT Formula E Team [3]
11. Mahindra Racing [0]
Opmerkingen