Diriyah Formula E Notebook – Post Race

Pole-sitter Oliver Rowland was candid about his poor getaway in race two, telling FEN that “if I’m completely honest the first three starts have been terrible for me.”
“We need to go and have a look at that. To be honest, I think that probably cost us the win. I think I had the pace but I couldn’t control the race from second.”
Envision boss Sylvain Filippi told FEN that there was no way of using the Jaguar spare tub and getting it ready between qualifying and the race after Sebastien Buemi’s red flag-inducing group qualifying shunt. It meant that Buemi missed his first Formula E race since the New York City EPrix in July 2017.
“We’ve tried this before and between qualy and race there’s no chance,” said Filippi.
“Especially because, by the time the car comes back and you evaluate it to the FIA, you get it stripped apart so you can get a good look at it, you’ve already lost half an hour. Then by the time you get the spares out of the box you have just over two hours. As much as we can work quick and you know it, there’s no way we can build a car in two hours.”
There was some criticism in the paddock regarding the red flag for Buemi’s accident as the Envision driver was the last driver to complete that lap with the rest of the field ahead of him on quick laps. This lost laps for several drivers. Formula E had a similar incident at Cape Town last February when Edoardo Mortara’s Maserati crashed in qualifying and was collected by Sam Bird’s Jaguar and is likely to have influenced the decision by race director Scot Elkins.
The track conditions came in for criticism from most quarters in Diriyah. The track surface is laid fresh every year and with a large amount of local construction work on the perimeter of the circuit the problem of dust and debris is significant. Whereas 2023 saw an extra free practice session for the secondary brake system tests putting more laps into the track ahead of racing, this year saw less running and less opportunity for the surface to be rubbered in properly.
“The track evolution was completely different to last year, this means you cannot compare last year to this year,” Porsche’s Florian Modlinger told FEN. “The grip level at the beginning of the event was completely different in this year. I would not try to compare anything from last year to this year.”
Sam Bird explained to FEN that his race ending accident had nothing to do with slight contact with Sacha Fenestraz’s Nissan a lap before, saying that “It was just one of those things. You do nick walls occasionally in this racing, and unfortunately that was one nick too much.
“These cars are weak,” added the NEOM McLaren driver. “Seb [Buemi] has had to do a chassis change. OK, it was a relatively hard impact but not chassis change crash. Sometimes I feel like these cars are made a little bit too fragile. They need to be a bit more robust but I’m sure SPARK and Dallara look into these things for future generations of car. But its, light contact is creating big damage.”
FEN understands that there was no specific reason as to why the FIA and Formula E chose to have a longer race of one lap on the Friday as opposed to the Saturday. Some drivers questioned why the races were not the other way around but distances are defined by the data simulations of the FIA and the competitors. There is no defined rule in terms of when the longer race must happen in a double-header event.
Jaguar General Manager Gary Ekerold, who represented Jaguar on the podium, told FEN that Mitch Evans’ peculiar drop off in pace in qualifying on Saturday was an “absolute mystery.”
“He went out on his first [qualifying] lap, put it P1, so a really impressive lap time, came back and said ‘yeah, car feels great, got it all under control’,” said Ekerold.
“He then went out in the second session, came back and said exactly the same thing, he said ‘yup, I’ve gone a bit quicker that should be perfect, that should be quick enough’. We said ‘you’re P7’, he said ‘no, that can’t be’.
“He said ‘no mistakes, car felt great’, so an absolute mystery. We’ll look into that; we’ll try and understand what caused it.”
An FIA spokesperson told FEN in Diriyah that last week the issues surrounding the Attack Charge equipment in FP2 at Mexico City earlier this month “had been identified and there is an investigation currently ongoing.
“It will be trialled again once completed. That’s what testing is all about, pushing the technology to the limits to ensure its robustness once introduced in race.”
When asked if team parity with the familiarity of the attack charge infrastructure could be achieved for a possible Misano emergence of Attack Charge, the same spokesperson said:
“We are taking and we will be taking the necessary time to introduce it without rushing, so that everybody concerned has sufficient opportunity to fully understand and get to grips with it in advance.”
McLaren CEO, Zak Brown attended the Diriyah EPrix on Thursday and Friday. Brown told FEN that he would “do whatever I can do to contribute” to opening doors in the U.S as Formula E aims to expand its footprint in the country.
“I think it would be great. The Formula E calendar is now starting to settle in and I think like any new championship it moves around a bit trying to find permanent homes,” continued Brown. “With any sport the more you can stabilise the venues you go to and get some data equity the better.”
“Much like F1 we need to have a bigger presence there and on a more regular basis for fans and sponsors.”
As first reported by FEN earlier this month, discussions about a possible return to Hong Kong have taken place recently with ERT team principal Alex Hui confirming that it could take place in the near future.
“There is some discussion in the background as well to have a second race in China. And obviously Hong Kong is also a part of China with a special region,” he said.
“I think Hong Kong offers something slightly different than Beijing, Shanghai, other cities but Formula E is actively always looking for other cities to have a second race in that region. I think it’s fully possible.”
Nissan team principal Tommaso Volpe missed Saturday’s action after flying home after Friday’s action for personal reasons. Team director Dorian Boisdron took over TP status for the day in Volpe’s absence.
Further detail has been confirmed following Sergio Sette Camara’s significant technical failure in Mexico City earlier this month. The RESS from his car was isolated away from the Formula E paddock following the pre-race stoppage.
Deputy team principal, Russell O’Hagan told FEN that “following a pre-planned burn out procedure on the way to the grid the car suffered a failure from the HV (high voltage) side of the vehicle.
“We are still working with the FIA and WAE to identify the root cause of the issue. It’s not easy to determine as there is minor damage to a number of components as such it’s takes a lot of time to conclude cause and effect,” confirmed O’Hagan.
“It’s a type of failure we haven’t seen before and one we don’t expect to see again. A consequence of the failure was an over voltage supply to the 12v circuit on the car. Because of that and with no shakedown session here we have taken a ‘belt and braces’ approach to replacing 12V components for now.”
Nissan’s Sacha Fenestraz retired from Friday’s race after contact with Lucas di Grassi in the midfield pack on the first lap.
“I had a very minor contact with di Grassi, and just the steering rod just broke,” Fenestraz confirmed to FEN.
“I don’t really understand how because I’ve hit the wall harder throughout my career here in Formula E, in the past year, and I’ve never really broke that. This time, it was literally such a minor contact and the thing broke. I take completely the blame on that one. It shouldn’t happen at this level so I’m not really proud of my result today,” concluded the franco/Argentinian.
The Saudi Entertainment Ventures (SEVEN) company, a wholly owned subsidiary
of the Public Investment Fund (PIF), has announced a new partnership with Formula E to build the world’s first Formula E branded indoor karting attraction across multiple SEVEN entertainment destinations around the Kingdom.
Abdulla Nasser AlDawood, Chairman of SEVEN, said that the strategic partnership would bring “never seen before Formula E branded racing tracks within our Entertainment destinations, strategically complements our mission of creating a Multiverse of entertainment offerings that cater to the different needs of our future guests that build and nurture their skills and evokes growth.”
Al Dawood added that the deal “aspires to have the first Saudi car racing champion coming from our Formula E attraction.”
Formula E is set to get a massive media boost shortly as one of the tasks in the new series of award-winning BBC TV show The Apprentice, which begins this week, will be for the protagonists to build their own Formula E team. FEN understands that the episode is likely to run late next month but is yet to be officially scheduled.
You can get all the reaction from the Diriyah EPrix via The Race Formula E podcast with Sam Smith and Andrew van de Burgt this Wednesday evening. Envision Racing’s Robin Frijns will join the duo to analyse the events of the Saudi weekend. Click HERE for access to The Race podcasts.