Analysing and Reviewing the Monaco E – Prix, which was Round 6 of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship in 2022. Strategy played a crucial role and there were some top notch performances.
“EVANS!!!” – Although Mitch Evans finished second in the race, he was the most successful driver of the E – Prix as he took pole position and then second place! Vandoorne was again one with his car as he and his team executed another brilliant energy management and race pace management strategy while Vergne and his team finally came up on terms with a more stable strategy plan and a decent race! Another retirement for Mahindra Racing, a nightmare again for De Vries. Buemi finished in points making up a total of 14 positions (9 through racing overtakes and the rest due to retirements) to finish in the points. Gunther managing a finish while NIO333 and Dragon Penske have another non – points race. Porsche is again out to find some luck, and ensuring everything works fine for them which it didn’t at all in the Monaco E – Prix as Sims gets good on a clean race for Mahindra!
QUALIFYING
The Fastest Lap time was the only laptime that broke into the 1:29s, and that lap was set by Mitch Evans in the Final, who also set the second fastest lap of 1:30.001 in the Semi – Final. The third fastest lap was also set by hip, in the Quarter – Final. The fastest lap in the Group Qualifying was also set by him. The track temperature was mentioned to be the same throughout by FIA Formula E, but it seemingly discards slight variations below half a degree. The air temperature was very volatile with the temperature dipping by 1+ degrees Celsius from the start of Group Qualifying till the end of the Duels.
The Mercedes drivers did not make errors in the Group Qualifying but it was only Vandoorne who was able to keep up the pace with the chosen car setup from the team probably aimed at allowing the car to rotate more easily. Vandoorne was rotating his steering wheel quite a lot and seemed comfortable with the steering – lock and sensitivity. Nyck not so much and hence, got eliminated in the Quarter – Finals. The two Porsches were also rapid. It was Evans who was able to get the most out of the Jaguar. On the bubble, and in 5th position in Group B was Oliver Rowland who has been facing braking issues, quite visibly, in the previous rounds on fast qualifying laps which cause the lock-ups so while the team works on that, the Qualifying pace is still not found.
The drivers suffered a bit with getting the tyres in properly and that led to two drivers not putting in a second quick lap over the two Qualifying Groups, but the ample run – off meant they did not hamper anyone else’s laps. Also, they were the last drivers to start their laps.
THE APPROX. 50 MINUTE RACE
The race was very clean, except the Rowland incident with Lotterer, even which was not an intentional bumping from the looks but has supposedly caused severe damage to the wrists of both the drivers. The only other incidents were a couple of drivers not braking on time and bumping into others in certain tight corners and during Yellow Flag and Safety Car introductions.
The race pace of most drivers was consistently good, with the gap not being more than a second between almost all drivers next to each other in positions. The race could be summarized by the manner of overtakes. The hotspot was the section from the final turn till Turn 3. The Attack Mode led to most of the overtakes as drivers looked to optimize their energy usage most times with the per lap energy usage being somewhere around 3.2 – 4% of the total energy available to finish the race. Non – Attack Mode overtakes were brilliant as they were all built up over a few laps before slipstreaming and then launching forward. Attack Mode also led to several overtakes because although the Attack Mode placement was not very disadvantageous, the closeness of the field and the timing of the activations meant that the drivers lost upto 2 – 3 positions upon activation.
The defending from the drivers was extremely strong for the late lunges but they were left defenseless when the moves came along a straight instead of where it was ending. The robustness of the cars and the fact that there was ample run – off area, an then quick marshals saw several racing laps and opportunities for everyone without disrupting the flow a lot, except the two continuous incidents after Lap 17 which led to 4 laps of Non – Green Flag processions.
The Top 3 were pretty consistently in the top positions. Wehrlein occupied the Top 3 spot until his car gave up. Evans led most laps, Vergne was consistently there after what seemed to be a more well planned and consistent race for DS Techeetah, especially on his side of the garage. Vandoorne was once again displaying the Mercedes EQ strategy which needed some luck which he got. He was not very bad on pace, as although he was not consuming as much as Vergne and Wehrlein, which allowed him to later use that extra energy to extend his lead, he was still registering similar laptimes to Evans. Evans then after Lap 10 did have to manage his energy more as although he was doing better than Wehrlein as per his team and he felt good as well, there was some disconnect as energy data showed him to have less useable energy than those behind him.
Vergne was the one most affected by overtakes out of the Top 3 finishers, in terms of his laptimes. He was in the midst of the action or being attacked (in a racing manner) very often due to the amount of time he spent in 3rd place and also the fact that he was unable to use his Attack Mode properly due to the non Green – Flag conditions. At the end, in the final two laps, after being overtaken by Evans, he got no chance to fightback due to him being pressured from the back by two drivers behind him. This also led to loss of laptime which sealed the game even further for Evans. All of this was after Vergne had been able to defend in third by utilising his FanBoost (5 seconds of extra power allowance given to 5 drivers based on voting by fans).
Vandoorne got a great restart when the Safety Car period ended and that propelled him forward quite good. He was out of Attack Mode, but the 5 seconds of FanBoost helped build about a tenth more in gap, which became insignificant at the end. Evans’ timing of the second Attack Mode activation meant that he fell to 4th place, and then having to overtake two cars to get to second place meant that even though he was faster even without the Attack Mode at the end, in comparison to Vandoorne, Vandoorne was able to safely and steadily cruise to victory.
The sit back and pounce tactic by Vandoorne was risky given how good Jaguar have been in terms of their strategy development but he drove beautifully and was not in disconnect with his car. De Vries struggled in his car once again and it just seems that not only is he unhappy in some manner with the car but also just unable to make a mark. Alexander Sims was good on consistent pace once again and finished just outside the points, in 11th position, after good race management and a race where he did not make any significant errors after struggling with the setup and more during the practice sessions.
Sebastian Buemi gained the most number of places at the end, as he finished 8th after starting last (22nd). He gained 14 positions overall. There were a total of 5 retirements in the race, but even then he made a net of 9 positions while racing on track in the approximately 50 minutes total. He made several gains throughout and never lost a position surprisingly, on each lap he was either at the same position or higher than on his previous lap which is very interesting, as it firstly means that he was very consistent and secondly that the strategy management in terms of Attack Mode activation was simply great. He took advantage of every scrap in front of him and made overtakes on two cars in a single lap as well. He was just easily driving through the grid in the race.
All in all, the race was filled with different strategies and it is evident that some teams have started to get to the peak of their strategies. They are achieving success in that manner. Some teams and drivers are failing to somehow get that connect with the car even over 2 seasons and that is alarming a bit for them, and they would be hoping that if not this season then the Gen3’s first season is the breakthrough to good times for them.
Next up is Berlin and it is even wider and one of the very technical tracks in Formula E. Some energy management tactics might change and more developed setups will be on display, meaning that there might be a different manner due to the characteristics of that track and the developmental path of the season!
|ELECTRIFYING AND FURIOUS RACING|
spielens 