You know how hard Lola Yamaha ABT is working when they trudge to a wind-swept Abingdon Airfield in Oxfordshire, UK in late January to test and try to iron out bugs that have so far been resilient to completely banishing.
Two races in and the inevitable problems have often surfaced at just the wrong times. But unlike Abingdon Airfield, that won’t dampen any spirits at Silverstone or Kempten where the majority of the teams’ personnel are based.
Lola Yamaha ABT are two races in to a long-term project that is effectively competing to at least a half-season of testing to some extent. Yes, they have had numerous private manufacturer test days before they publicly turned a wheel at Sao Paulo in December, but in reality a championship as complex and as competitive as Formula E simply does not offer the opportunity to join and make headlines.
Remember HWA (the pre Mercedes EQ) in 2018? Porsche in 2019? Even huge OEM’s take time, let alone re-born manufacturers with big ambition, reasonable resources and operational leg-ups (ABT).
The signs are there though and those positives are perhaps even brighter than the yellow pantones of the eye-catching and aesthetically pleasing Lola livery itself.
Zane Maloney has offered up two. Running fifth for a few laps in Sao Paulo was one. The other was his excellent ninth on the grid at Mexico City. Formula E’s newest driver sees a lot of positives but is typically impatient to make sure the promise turns to results.
“In terms of efficiency, we’re not, we’re not where we want to be,” he told Formula E Notebook in Mexico.
“There’s a long way to go for the team, but from Brazil, it’s a big step forward in terms of how we’ve gone about the weekend, the pace in the car, also my driving.
“I’m optimistic about the future, but it will take, it will take some time to get where we want to be. I think the biggest positive about this weekend was qualifying how strong we were, and then the biggest thing to work on is all the faults and errors and everything that we’re struggling with right now that is not pace. We need to try to sort out as quickly.”
That’s no haughty demand, rather more an ambitious driver finding his feet in Formula E and realising that the promise of this new entity is significant.
”Continuing to improve as a team is key, and we have a month now to sort out all the all the problems that we’re having, and I’m confident in the team that they keep making steps forward,” added Maloney.
“How we’re working is amazing, how the team is Lola Yama and ABT are really coming together and working well. I’m confident that that we will continue to improve and hopefully the steps are big, and we can be where we want to be soon.”
That’s no given but Maloney’s message chimes perfectly with that of Lola’s driving force Till Bechtolsheimer.
Late on race day at Mexico, a good couple of hours after the EPrix had finished, Bechtolsheimer wasn’t lording it in the Emotion Club or helicoptering out of the track. He was down in the box and in the pitlane with his team. You might be surprised but plenty of other team chiefs don’t follow that
A ten-minute chat with Bechtolsheimer among the detritus of post-race Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez was illuminating, and while it was informal and off record, the genuine flavour of it was the determination the team had to get on the points board quickly and to evidence that what they have is worthy of competitive results.
To give an appreciation of how committed to Formula E Lola is, you only have to ask Bechtolsheimer and other key members of the team about what comes after this season, and indeed during it.
Its Gen4 planning and practical initial steps are already underway and so another layer of ambition is already forming for a new entry that already feels it has found its place in the world’s pound-for-pound most competitive racing paddock.
Andy Stobart contributed to this story
