Analysing all the action from Round 4 of FIA Formula E Season 8, and previewing the 5th round!
It just keeps getting better in the season! Jaguar Racing finally get the win they had been searching for. The pole does not get converted into a victory once again! A Mahinda Racing car does not finish the race once again in 2022! Racing in Rome for the first time in the season, De Vries again has a collision! But in between all of this, there was some very clean, quite fast and a well understood race from the teams and the drivers, with one trends that was visible across the grid being taking no risks on energy, except Dennis who consumed a bit extra towards the end. The race contained all features of Formula E that it has been working towards and while it turned out to be a top of the world race for some, for some it was disastrous.
LAP 1
The first lap did not have as much impact on the final outcome but did help achieve some of it. There was contact throughout the first half of the lap as drivers tried to go 3 wide into the corners, whereas in Rome, the corners can hardly safely have 2 cars pass through them side by side. And with cars sliding a bit, the effects of which were exaggerated a bit possibly due to cars not braking and turning in as smoothly on the track for almost all sessions. Mortara’s contact with Rowland spun the latter because both cars were looking to turn in and it was a rear collision, whereas Bird had contact on the side on a straight and before that also there were other collisions but they were softer, for shorter, and mostly on one side of the cars. The Full Course Yellow that came out due to Max Gunther crashing out with damage sustained previously, and the Safety Car that followed did play a role in how the race panned out.
SOME DIRECT AND INDIRECT EFFECTS
Rowland, who was 10th when the incident took place, did continue after a short pitstop but he was now at the back of the field. He did not show a very competitive pace, if compared to the leaders, but was lapping in 1:44s and 1:43s which was where the leaders were lapping as well, but he was retired early even though he seemed to not have any energy saving or speed issues. The effect was that in the Top 10, with Rowland not their, it made it easier for the DS Teheetahs and Evans to gain the positions they gained because if Rowland would have not had the collision, he could have challenged them with their pace and it could have been a fight between Mercedes, DS Techeetah, Jaguar Racing, Frijns and Rowland.
The Safety Car meant that there would be time added to the 45 minutes time, as per the new rule as there is no energy reduction unlike the previous seasons. Although the teams do have an idea about how much time would be added as there is a prescribed system for that, there is a possibility of a couple of second here and there. That factor of race time to be added and the events of the Mexico City E – Prix in mind, teams were looking to keep some energy in the store, in order to ensure they are able to maintain position and finish the race if the race does get extended by one lap, it seemed. So, when Evans crossed the line to start the Final Lap, then all teams decided to push on the Final Lap utilizing all of their remaining usable energy.
THE STRATEGY AND THE PACE
Jaguar Racing and Envision again shone out with their strategies. Envision’s strategy for Frijns was good but Frijns’s car was not. It was sliding and not behaving according to steering input for the whole Qualifying session it seemed. In the race, although it looked to not always affect him a lot, it was not the most driver complying car it looked like. There was a general issues of cars not being very smooth when turning and there being sliding, with cars also having to negotiate the violent bumps but Frijns’s laptime were generally the slowest ones of the Top 3 finishers. Frijns intial race pace was strong and the way he chose to challenge Vandoorne and place himself in front by overtaking Vandoorne and then getting Attack Mode as very smart and could have gotten him the victory if not for Evans who made it more complex.
Mitch Evans is fast but the Jaguar showed its true potential today with it not only being fast but very fast, as Evans was able to make several positions due to the pace advantage he had to those ahead of him. lapping frequently in the 1:43s and even 1:42s, but what made that pace so effective was the powertrain efficiency as he had more energy left in his car even after putting much faster lap times than those ahead of him. This also suggests some good regeneration. The pace was very good. Evans wasn’t the fastest on track, although, Di Grassi was lapping very fast throughout but he never was able to create as mega challenges. His pace encourages what could be a better fight in Round 5.
One driver who was lacking pace individually was Alexander Sims. He wasn’t way off the pace but he wasn’t doing very well either. There was this phase at around the halfway stage for some 6 -7 laps where Sims was not posting lap times even close to a 1:43.000. He was slower, and also lost a couple of positions around then before gaining back quite a few towards the end, one of them courtesy Dev Vries’s retirement. He looked to be doing something like saving energy but the exact reason is only known by the team. His teammate was posting laptimes about a second faster.
NOT ROWLAND’S ROUND
He again had issues on his final fast lap of Qualifying, this time sliding and rotating. Then in the race was hit from the back. Then although showed good pace, was retired by the team due to damage. He needs a refresher and again, the pace was there but he had unfortunate form of luck and was also again not being able to have the car go around smoothly in the qualifying.
BIRD’S CAR’S BROKEN FRONT
Bird drove 26 and a half laps without the front – right wheel cover part. Now although there wasn’t much effect on his performance, it surely would have produced some sort of drag on his car, but that wasn’t as visible on his performance. This was interesting as it shows that the front – wheel covers or fairings are not as necessary on tight street tracks at the moment.
ROUND 5 BRIEF PREVIEW
It is a double header and so there will be another Rome E – Prix within 24 hours. The performances from Di Grassi, Wehrlein, and Rowland are encouraging. The bottom two teams were nowhere near the pace of the others in the race and that might be some miscalculation by them or the effect of the longer than usual lap, but they were also under-consuming hugely, so they will be looking to figure that planning out. The Qualifying’s importance will be higher in Round 5 with more teams having a better idea about the track and the strategies could also get more extreme. Avalanche will be one probably not looking to play extreme after their failure in Round 4 with Jake Dennis. A lot of questions will have to be answered by the teams and drivers for their own peace and benefit.
|ELECTRIC RACING GETS MORE AND MORE ELECTRIC|
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