Category: Open Wheel Racing

Venturi has confirmed that Tom Dillmann will make his Formula E race debut standing in for Maro Engel at the Paris ePrix, as their regular driver contests a clashing DTM round at the Lausitzring.

This follows Dillmann, the reigning Formula V8 3.5 champion, getting his first taste of Formula E machinery during the Mexico City ePrix weekend, when he deputised in shakedown for Stephane Sarrazin whilst the latter attended the WEC Prologue.

Furthermore, Venturi will continue Dillmann’s acclimatisation to Formula E ahead of his race debut by running him in one of the team’s in-season filming days.

Speaking about the announcement to Motorsport.com, Dillmann called his ePrix debut a “great opportunity…to race on the streets of my capital city.

“After I was in contact with Venturi the first step was getting some running at Mexico although it was very short. But really in Mexico I learnt more from seeing how things operate in the race and how a race is run, this was really useful to experience.”

Dillmann also acknowledged that it will be difficult making his debut against “drivers [with] two full seasons’ racing” in the series, but added “for me the aim is to do a good job for the team” and “look towards season four because I want to race full-time in the championship then”.

James Matthews, Formula E editor

Lucas di Grassi has put an end to Sébastien Buemi’s run of consecutive Formula E victories, by taking the chequered flag in a Mexico City ePrix that saw drama at every turn.

When the race began, it didn’t look as though di Grassi would have much of a part to play. After qualifying in a lowly eighteenth position, the Brazilian made contact with his teammate Daniel Abt and Venturi’s Maro Engel on the first lap and had to pit to replace his rear wing.

Meanwhile, all eyes were on the front of the field, where the lead of the race was being contested by polesitter Oliver Turvey and a chasing José María López. The two were able to make their battle a private affair as the likes of Vergne, Bird and Buemi bunched up behind Nick Heidfeld in third, but despite piling on consistent pressure López was unable to find a way past Turvey.

But at quarter-distance, the Mexico City ePrix took its first twist as Turvey broke down on the start-finish straight, allowing López to assume the race lead by two seconds from Heidfeld and Vergne.

However, just as with Turvey, López’s lead was not to last. Whilst the safety car was out for Turvey’s stricken NextEV, the Abt team gambled on an ambitious strategy for di Grassi, calling him in from the back of the field on just lap seventeen.

This gave di Grassi the tall order of driving another 28 laps in his second car, but it also gave him invaluable track position: when the rest of the field pitted at the conventional halfway mark, di Grassi assumed the lead from Jérôme d’Ambrosio—who had also stopped under the earlier safety car—with half a lap back to López, now in third.

And despite having considerably less energy than the former leading pack behind him, di Grassi was able to maintain his advantage until the end as d’Ambrosio’s defence of second place acted as a roadblock for López and Vergne.

The battle for second was ultimately resolved in Vergne’s favour, after López spun off under pressure at turn one and d’Ambrosio ran out of energy on the final lap, and Vergne’s former Virgin teammate Sam Bird finished third for his second podium of the season.

Mahindra had looked set for a solid double points finish just off the podium, until Heidfeld was hit in the closing stages by Nico Prost and sent spinning into the path of his teammate Felix Rosenqvist. This allowed Mitch Evans through to take a remarkable fourth place for Jaguar, collecting his and the team’s first Formula E points.

Prost then came through in fifth despite his collision with Heidfeld, ahead of López in sixth and Daniel Abt in seventh. Adam Carroll compounded a strong finish for Jaguar with a further four points for eighth, and the final points positions were rounded out by NextEV’s Nelson Piquet, and series debutant Esteban Gutiérrez.

Championship leader Sébastien Buemi suffered a dismal race by his own recent standards, qualifying down in ninth and losing places in the pitlane to come home just fourteenth, albeit with one point for setting the fastest lap.

The results from Mexico City now see Buemi’s title lead cut down to just five points from di Grassi, with a further 25 points back to Prost and Vergne’s tussle for third. In the teams’ standings, Renault e.Dams remains ahead of Abt Schaeffler Audi, whilst Jaguar gets on the board with sixteen points, and Mahindra slumps to fifth behind DS Virgin and Techeetah.

James Matthews, Formula E editor

So far in the 2016–17 Formula E championship, events have been following a fairly simple pattern: first, the weekend will start with one team emerging as definite favourites in practice; then, said favourites will be trumped in qualifying by an unexpected maiden polesitter; and finally, the race itself will turn all that form on its head as Sébastien Buemi cruises to yet another victory.

But this Saturday, all that could be about to change, as Buemi heads to Mexico City somewhat on the back foot—well, at least as much on the back foot as a defending champion in a class-of-the-field car can be.

In case you’ve not been following the saga of 2017’s Formula E–WEC schedule clashes, Buemi will be starting his Mexico City ePrix weekend some six thousand miles away from the Hermanos Rodriguez circuit, as he attends the WEC Prologue in Monza as part of Toyota’s LMP1 lineup.

And although Buemi will not have to forego the Mexico race altogether, he will be a late arrival to the event after hotfooting across the Atlantic on an overnight flight.

Such serendipity—and not to mention the resulting jet lag—could provide Buemi’s rivals with an opportunity to finally get one over on the runaway championship leader. It goes without saying that foremost in that list of potential winners is Lucas di Grassi, who finished first on the road in last year’s Mexico City ePrix before being disqualified for a technical infringement, and desperately needs a win this season if he is to truly challenge Buemi for the title again.

Also in the mix will be Jean-Éric Vergne and Sam Bird, both of whom will be perhaps even hungrier for the win than di Grassi given the as-yet-untapped promise of their respective cars. Nor should Felix Rosenqvist be discounted—despite enduring a forgettable race in Buenos Aires—or indeed Buemi’s Renault teammate and three-time ePrix winner Nico Prost.

Beneath the podium, it will again be a close fight between the likes of Andretti, NextEV, Venturi and Dragon for the lesser points positions. So far, NextEV has been the only member of that particular group to score in every race, owing to some consistently gutsy qualifying performances from Piquet and Turvey.

Nevertheless, a solid double points haul for Duval and d’Ambrosio at the last event could prove the springboard Dragon needs for further success in Mexico—although a repeat of d’Ambrosio’s eventual 2016 victory here would be a shock even by Formula E’s standards.

But a new factor in that top ten scrap this Saturday could well be Esteban Gutiérrez. The Mexican will be making his series debut replacing Ma Qinghua at Techeetah, and although he was shown up by Romain Grosjean in his recent F1 tenure, Gutiérrez remains a driver with clear innate speed, which paired with Techeetah-Renault machinery ought to be enough to put on a good show for his home fans.

The 2017 Mexico City ePrix begins at 23:00 UK time, with full text coverage available via our Twitter account and updates on our Facebook and Instagram feeds.

James Matthews, Formula E editor

Former F1 driver Esteban Gutiérrez will make his Formula E debut with Techeetah, taking over Ma Qinghua’s seat for both next month’s Mexico City ePrix and the remaining rounds of season three.

Ma, who joined Techeetah’s forerunner Team Aguri last year, is yet to score any points in his Formula E career, and it is understood his disappointing results relative to Jean-Éric Vergne are the reason he is being stood down before the season’s end.

Although Techeetah has yet to officially confirm its revised lineup, it is expected that the team will announce Gutiérrez as Vergne’s new teammate shortly, as well as Ma’s retention in a reserve driver role.

Gutiérrez had previously looked set to replace Loïc Duval at Dragon but his management was unable to finalise a deal, and so settled instead on Techeetah following a visit to the team’s simulator.

The Mexican is also reported to have held talks with Renault e.Dams and DS Virgin after losing his F1 drive at the end of 2016, specifically to deputise should any of their respective drivers have to miss the Mexico City race for the WEC Prologue in Monza—an opportunity now unavailable, with Sébastien Buemi and José María López flying overnight from the Prologue to Mexico, and Sam Bird granted leave by Ferrari to skip the WEC launch event altogether.

But with Gutiérrez now off the Formula E market, Renault and DS Virgin are still searching for a stand-in apiece when July’s New York ePrix clashes with the 6 Hours of the Nürburgring. It is believed Renault would prefer to draft in a member of its driver development academy, although the top drivers from that pool have schedule clashes of their own in junior formulae; whilst DS Virgin has so far given no updates on who is in the frame to join its current reserve driver Alex Lynn to cover Bird and Lopez in Brooklyn.

James Matthews, Formula E editor

Header photo credit: Haas F1 Team

With crashes in practice, qualifying laps both heroic and scruffy, and a mixed-up grid fighting all through the race, no one could deny the 2017 Buenos Aires ePrix was full of surprises—and yet, for all that the result was still all too familiar.

The Puerto Madero street race began like every other round this season, with the grid headed by a driver sitting on their maiden pole position. This time it was the turn of Lucas di Grassi, who saw off Super Pole challenges from Jean-Éric Vergne and Sébastien Buemi by holding a lap together in the dusty conditions despite not having the fastest car.

But although he made a good getaway off the line, di Grassi could not hold on to the lead for long. Driving a chassis that had undergone repairs for a practice crash earlier in the morning, the Brazilian struggled with his setup and lacked the grip to fend off the Renault power of Vergne and Buemi.

On lap three Vergne moved his Techeetah into the lead, though the Frenchman remained there little longer than di Grassi before Buemi breezed through the inside of the turn one hairpin.

Once in front, the championship leader stretched his legs into a five-second lead over Vergne by the time of his pit stop on lap eighteen. Vergne gradually ate into that margin during the second stint of the race, but even with Renault power of his own he was unable to prevent Buemi from cruising home to a third straight victory and another 25 championship points.

Vergne followed Buemi across the line in second to collect the Techeetah team’s first podium, whilst di Grassi came through behind to complete the rostrum.

The podium had looked unlikely for the di Grassi as he struggled early in the race, and was passed by both Oliver Turvey and Nico Prost. But in his more stable second car, the polesitter’s confidence improved—and with Turvey dropping to sixth after being forced into an early pit stop, a comfortable pass on Prost’s inside was all di Grassi needed to take his second podium of the season.

Prost remained where di Grassi left him to take a third consecutive fourth place ahead of Nelson Piquet, who finished where he started after another strong qualifying performance saw both NextEV drivers round out the Super Pole shootout.

Dragon Racing bounced back from a poor outing in Marrakesh with Loïc Duval and Jérôme d’Ambrosio finishing sixth and eighth respectively; the two were split by Daniel Abt, the German putting in a solid recovery drive from fourteenth on the grid. Turvey dropped to ninth in the end as he struggled with energy conservation throughout the race, and home favourite Lopez put his qualifying crash and resulting back row start behind him to take tenth place.

Mitch Evans narrowly missed out on claiming Jaguar’s first Formula E points on Saturday—one of the stars of qualifying, Evans started from seventh and ran within the top ten for most of the race, but through energy saving and a five-second penalty for speeding under a full course yellow dropped to thirteenth in the end.

Also unlucky were Buemi’s Marrakesh podium-mates, Felix Rosenqvist and Sam Bird—the former scuppered when his second M3Electro refused to start in the pits, and the latter retiring early after being sandwiched between d’Ambrosio and the wall.

The 2016–17 Formula E season resumes in six weeks time in Mexico City. With his win in Buenos Aires, Sébastien Buemi will enter round four with a 29-point buffer to di Grassi, whilst his Renault e.Dams team continue to rule the teams’ standings on a mighty 111 points.

James Matthews, Formula E editor

At long last Formula E’s winter break is over, and this weekend the 2016–17 season will resume on the streets of Buenos Aires.

This will be the series’ third visit to the Argentine capital and the first race of the season to take place on a returning circuit. After the opening two rounds in Hong Kong and Marrakesh saw the likes of Felix Rosenqvist make a meteoric rise to the fore, the familiarity of the Puerto Madero Street Circuit may hand the advantage back to Formula E’s established stars for now.

That ought to make this weekend’s ePrix a very welcome event for the likes of Lucas di Grassi and Sam Bird, whose respective championship challenges have so far got off to a mixed start—a strong showing here at a track with which they are well accustomed could bring them right back into the mix.

Bird in particular seems to have a certain flair for the Puerto Madero track. The Briton has already notched up one victory, pole position and fastest lap from Formula E’s last two trips to Argentina, and in his lighter, single-motor DSV02 his chances of adding to that tally in 2017 are theoretically as high as ever.

Di Grassi, on the other hand, may not be able to directly challenge for the win on pace alone—his new ABT Schaeffler powertrain once again seems to favour consistency over raw speed, which could leave the Brazilian wanting on Formula E’s fastest circuit. But all the same di Grassi can never be truly discounted as a contender, thanks to his canny ability to put himself in a position to profit should his rivals come to any grief.

Nevertheless, even after just two of twelve rounds, it’s beginning to look like Bird and di Grassi will have to dig deeper than ever if they are to mount any assault on Sébastien Buemi.

The reigning champion has been bulletproof so far this season, able to marry his natural ability with a newfound serenity behind the wheel, and boosted by a Renault that appears to be both quicker than di Grassi’s ABT and more robust than Bird’s Virgin. Provided he can still tap into the momentum of his Hong Kong and Marrakesh wins after so long a break, it’s hard to see how anyone but the racing gods can stop Buemi on Saturday.

Behind those three you can expect to see Mahindra’s Rosenqvist and Nick Heidfeld once again contesting for another plucky podium position, and most likely battling with Nico Prost, who is making quiet fourth place finishes his habit this season. But also watch for José María López—the Argentinian may have had a scrappy start to his rookie season, but that rapid DSV02 and a probable FanBoost from his home crowd could really set his fortunes alight at last.

Lower down the order, this looks to be another trying weekend for NextEV. As was the case in Hong Kong and Marrakesh, the multiple long straights of the Puerto Madero circuit will be punishing for the team’s long-running energy efficiency problems, and even with a good qualifying position points may not be a possibility once the likes of Andretti, Dragon and Venturi come into play in the race.

Nor is there much likelihood of seeing Jaguar’s two rookies scoring their first points of the season, as both they and the team enter this weekend considerably on the back foot compared to their more experienced opponents.

That said, what checks out on paper is rarely what plays out on track, and the Puerto Madero race has not been without its upsets in the past—in 2015, for example, when António Félix da Costa sailed through the attrition of the pack to take his and Team Aguri’s maiden series victory. With such a strong field ready to pounce on the slightest opportunity, it would not take much of an incident on Saturday for the Buenos Aires ePrix to produce another result out of left field.

James Matthews, Formula E editor