Tag: Sao Paulo E-Prix

Evans battles battery overheating en route to Sao Paulo podium

Mitch Evans finally broke his 2023-24 season podium drought in the Sao Paulo E-Prix, but admitted the occasion was “bittersweet” as he narrowly missed out on victory. The Jaguar TCS Racing driver was leading from the final safety car restart on lap …

Mitch Evans finally broke his 2023-24 season podium drought in the Sao Paulo E-Prix, but admitted the occasion was “bittersweet” as he narrowly missed out on victory.

The Jaguar TCS Racing driver was leading from the final safety car restart on lap 20 but succumbed to pressure from Sam Bird in the final sequence of corners on the last lap of the race. But while he described Bird’s daring pass around the outside of Turn 10 as “a great move,” he revealed that a loss of power in the extremely hot temperatures were key to his downfall.

“It’s bittersweet given that a few laps ago I thought it was going to be [a win] for us again,” he conceded. “But I started getting some temperature warnings quite quickly and then it kind of escalated on the last lap. I had a huge de-rate on the last lap with power.

“I had run out of power, so even if Sam didn’t overtake me there, he probably would’ve got me at the start/finish line. So yeah, [it’s] a bit frustrating with that because I had loads of energy left but I was just trying to bring it home…just a little bit shy, two corners shy. But to lose it out to Sam, he’s been through a really tough period and it’s really cool to see him back on the top step as well.”

Evans says he feels there’s not much more he could do to salvage the situation, pointing out that he’d never been put through something like it before.

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“From our side, I’m happy for the points. We did all the right steps at the right time with these crazy races to produce another race win, but it wasn’t meant to be today,” he said. “I’ve not experienced de-rate like that before in this category, with the battery, so that was quite a new experience but we knew it was going to be on the limit.

“The rate it came in was quite aggressive, to be honest. Even when I was in the lead I was under-consuming a lot. I was doing all the right things to try and manage the temp, energy and track position, so I’m a bit surprised to get the warnings, especially having that clean air. If I was in the tow or P2/P3 it would have made more sense.

“I didn’t think I over-managed. Whether I could’ve done something different, we’ll have to wait and see, but the rate it came in was so aggressive, I felt like I was in a GEN1 car on the last lap.”

Nissan driver Oliver Rowland, who finished behind Evans in third, driving with the same powertrain as Bird’s winning McLaren, pointed out that the Japanese brand had to contend with battery overheating issues, but predicting them and managing them was key to the brand’s best race result of the year.

“What’s quite tricky here is that when you have a battery temp issue, you can’t save too much in the beginning of the race because then if you have too much energy at the end, that completely screws the battery because you can’t use it,” Rowland said. “It’s a really tricky balance for us to have the right targets but not have saved too much, because you can have all the energy at the end but you can’t actually use it if your battery’s overheated.

“I think it was the first time in GEN3 that we’ve had this. It’s quite even for everyone, so to be honest, my team pretty much expected what happened in terms of overheating — and made a pretty good job of it because I started to struggle with seven or eight laps to go. I had warnings on the dash but they managed it perfectly.”

Sao Paulo win is a huge boost, but there’s still work to be done – Bird

Sam Bird heaped praise on NEOM McLaren powertrain partner Nissan after securing the brand’s first victory in Formula E’s GEN3 era in Sao Paulo. The win was also Bird’s first of the current generation of car – which was introduced last year – and …

Sam Bird heaped praise on NEOM McLaren powertrain partner Nissan after securing the brand’s first victory in Formula E’s GEN3 era in Sao Paulo.

The win was also Bird’s first of the current generation of car – which was introduced last year – and McLaren’s maiden one in the category. But while he was quick to point out the hard work McLaren and Nissan have done to bridge the gap to the class-leading Jaguar and Porsche powertrains, he admitted there’s still work to do.

“I feel like we’ve really worked well with [Nissan] and things have come on really well quite quickly. We’re not where we want to be yet but we’re definitely making some progress,” he said. “It is a huge boost, but there’s still work to be done. Jag, Porsche, Andretti, Envision, DS, Maserati, Nissan, there’s so many other brilliant teams that at any given time can be winning or scoring podiums so we need to learn from this, understand why it was really good, understand what we did well, what we did badly, and then try and score some more good points in Tokyo.”

Nissan has often been strong in qualifying trim, but less so in races during the GEN3 era. The race in Brazil featured two safety car periods, but factory driver Oliver Rowland, who also finished on the podium, downplayed their significance for the Japanese manufacturer, saying they “didn’t make much difference to our actual targets,” and, like Bird, highlighted the off-track work both teams have been doing to move forwards. He also fired a warning that Nissan are anticipating a big step forward next season when the hardware homologation cycle reset.

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“Honestly, the team are working super-hard. I think you saw last year that they had potential in a lot of races but never quite capitalized on it,” said Rowland. “I think the team has solidified its place, both McLaren and Nissan work well together and we’re able to put together a package and keep chipping away at the top guys.

“We still know that we have some limitations that we can’t really fix until next year but if we can learn to be perfect this year, when we get hopefully what’s coming next year, we can be in a really strong place.”

For Bird, the Sao Paulo E-Prix was a huge personal weight off his shoulders. Winless in the last two seasons for the first time, his victory in Brazil ended the drought and brought him within one victory of Sebastien Buemi and Lucas di Grassi’s all-time Formula E wins record of 13.

“I think this one is one of the more special because of what I’ve had to go through to get back [to winning], so yeah, this one definitely feels very special,” he said. “Also the fact that it’s the first one for NEOM McLaren.

“We had some goals at the beginning of the year about scoring some podiums. I would be lying to you saying that I thought that we could definitely win a race this early. It would have been a dream, but I didn’t imagine that, but we’ve managed it. That doesn’t mean to say that we’ve made it and we need to rest, there’s still a lot of work to do, but to score our first win feels very special.”

Bird nets first Formula E win for NEOM McLaren with last-lap pass at Sao Paulo

Sam Bird took NEOM McLaren’s first win in Formula E with a spectacular last-gasp pass on Mitch Evans in the Sao Paulo E-Prix. Bird swept round the outside of Evans at Turn 10, the penultimate corner, on the final lap of the race after hounding the …

Sam Bird took NEOM McLaren’s first win in Formula E with a spectacular last-gasp pass on Mitch Evans in the Sao Paulo E-Prix.

Bird swept round the outside of Evans at Turn 10, the penultimate corner, on the final lap of the race after hounding the Jaguar TCS Racing driver after the second safety car restart, which came about after a crash for Evans’ teammate Nick Cassidy.

It was one of two safety car periods in the race, the first coming on lap eight for debris at the first turn after a concertina of the pack claimed the front wings of Norman Nato, Lucas di Grassi, Mortara, and Cassidy — and it would be that damage that directly influenced the second yellow flag spell, with what remained of Cassidy’s win being dragged under his car on the entry of Turn 9 on lap 16, sending him into the wall.

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Much of the pre-race talk centered around “peloton-style” racing, with the field expecting to keep in the pack slipstreaming and shying away from the race lead in a bid to save energy until the latest-possible moment, and that was largely the case.

Polesitter Pascal Wehrlein broke from the field immediately, but was back with the pack by the start of the second lap, and what followed was a series of laps with him, his TAG Heuer Porsche teammate Antonio Felix da Costa, Bird and Evans all trading places at the front of the lead. The two safety car periods allowed for additional energy saving, aiding the Nissan-powered McLaren of Bird and Evans, who had both been outdone on efficiency by the Porsches for much of the race. And despite the race being extended by three laps to compensate for the safety car periods, the predicted flat-out finish materialized, with Bird and Evans the ones breaking away from the pack in the final laps.

It was a similar story behind them for the final podium place, with Oliver Rowland in a factory Nissan able to sneak up the inside of Wehrlein at the exit of the final corner.

“Peloton-style” racing and a couple of safety cars kept the field close. Simon Galloway/Motorsport Images

Bird’s win was not only McLaren’s first and his first since 2022, but it was also the first victory for powertrain supplier Nissan in the GEN3 era, while for Rowland it was his second consecutive podium after finishing third in the second part of the Diriyah E-Prix at the end of January.

Jake Dennis had climbed from 11th on the grid to feature in the win conversation in the second half of the race, but he ultimately came home fifth, behind Wehrlein, with da Costa sixth after fading late on.

Jean-Eric Vergne avenged his qualifying defeat to DS Penske teammate Stoffel Vandoorne by beating him to seventh, while Maximilian Guenther was a fine ninth despite starting from the back of the grid and served a 10-place stop-and-go penalty on the opening lap for respective gearbox and inverter changes. The Maserati MSG driver was aided by the two safety car periods, which effectively neutralized his massive penalty deficit, bringing him into the pack which he was then able to pick his way through.

Sebastien Buemi completed the top 10 for Envision Racing, on what was a tricky day for the Jaguar customer team as it struggled to get on top of tire wear issues, although his best lap time of 1m15.717 was the fastest of the race.

Factory Jaguar driver Cassidy was one of two retirements from the race, ending his 100 percent podium streak for the season so far. He was joined on the sidelines by Abt Cupra driver Nico Mueller, who retired on lap 26 with a mechanical issue, and McLaren’s Jake Hughes whose race ended on lap 31, the originally designated final lap, due to an overheating battery.

Despite his retirement, Cassidy remains the points leader, with a three-point advantage over Pascal Wehrlein, and Dennis a further 13 points back.

RESULTS

Wehrlein edges Vandoorne for Sao Paulo E-Prix pole

Pascal Wehrlein claimed pole position for the Sao Paulo E-Prix, his second pole of the year, beating DS Penske’s Stoffel Vandoorne in an incredibly tight final head-to-head duel. The TAG Heuer Porsche driver denied Vandoorne by just 0.002s in the …

Pascal Wehrlein claimed pole position for the Sao Paulo E-Prix, his second pole of the year, beating DS Penske’s Stoffel Vandoorne in an incredibly tight final head-to-head duel.

The TAG Heuer Porsche driver denied Vandoorne by just 0.002s in the pole position battle in what was the second-closest pole margin in Formula E history, after Lucas di Grassi’s 0.001s advantage in Berlin in 2017.

En route to the Duels final, Wehrlien beat Mahindra Racing’s Edoardo Mortara and Maserati MSG’s Maximillian Guenther, who’d defeated NEOM McLaren’s Sam Bird in his own opening duel.

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Guenther’s qualifying performance would have put him on the second row of the grid but it proved to be inconsequential after not only his 20-place grid penalty handed to him before second practice for changing a gearbox, but a second 20-place drop for changing an inverter before qualifying. He will take that second hit in the form of a time penalty in the race later today.

Vandoorne, meanwhile, defeated Mitch Evans and teammate Jean-Eric Vergne to set up the tussle with Wehrlein.

Evans was surprisingly the only Jaguar car — factory or customer — to make it to the head-to-head part of qualifying. His Jaguar TCS teammate Nick Cassidy dropped out of a transfer spot in the final seconds of the first group session thanks to a late surge that put the DS Penske duo on top.

In the other group session, Abt Cupra’s Nico Mueller was fastest, despite clipping the wall on his final flying lap. That meant that although he advanced to the duels, he took no further part in qualifying, handing Vergne a bye in that first head-to-head.

RESULTS