Tag: Tokyo E-Prix

Formula E brings ‘Tokyo Drift’ to life with Sung Kang

In 2006, the third installment (or sixth, if you watch them in chronological order) of what was previously a film series about street racing hit the screens. “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift” shed a light on Japanese car culture and brought …

In 2006, the third installment (or sixth, if you watch them in chronological order) of what was previously a film series about street racing hit the screens. “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift” shed a light on Japanese car culture and brought drifting into the mainstream consciousness.

While cars and Japan are a perfect marriage, the country’s capital city has never hosted a race on its streets, at least not legally. That all changed this weekend with the inaugural Tokyo E-Prix.

Actor Sung Kang, who starred as Han in “Tokyo Drift,” was in attendance at the landmark Formula E race. He blurred the line between his on-screen alter ego and real life by becoming the latest famous face to get behind the wheel of a current-generation Formula E car for a demonstration run ahead of the race.

“I got to drive the GEN3 car [and] did a little drifting at the beginning,” joked Kang, who spun early on his run. “There’s so much torque, so much power. It’s instantaneous; it’s a lot of car for somebody that is not a professional race car driver. My lunch almost came out but it’s so exciting, so fun.”

While Kang has become famous for appearing handy behind the wheel, most of the driving in Tokyo drift was handled by Formula Drift and rallycross stars Rhys Millen, Tanner Foust, and Samuel Hubinette.

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“Well, in “Fast & Furious,” the actors do not do their own stunt driving,” he admitted. “I have to give the credit to the stunt drivers who risk their lives. They’re the ones that make us look good.

“I’ve [driven] a lot of cars over the years, but this was an experience that topped it all. It’s like a car guy’s bucket list — I checked that off. It’s been a beautiful experience.”

Formula E’s debut in Tokyo finally delivered a professional street race to the city, something that had been years in the making, and was an event many believed had already happened. Kang was quick to give the event his seal of approval.

“I think Formula E being in Tokyo is so fitting. A postmodern city like Tokyo, a postmodern motorsport like Formula E, it’s the perfect combination,” he said. “Japanese people just love motorsport. There’s such a deep history here, so what better city to have a Formula E event than Tokyo? It was just a wonderful experience.”

Dennis feels updates have blunted his Formula E charge with Andretti

Reigning Formula E world champion Jake Dennis admits he’s struggling with his Andretti Porsche 99X Electric this season following changes made to the car. While hardware is locked in for a two-year homologation period, teams can develop software …

Reigning Formula E world champion Jake Dennis admits he’s struggling with his Andretti Porsche 99X Electric this season following changes made to the car.

While hardware is locked in for a two-year homologation period, teams can develop software whenever they choose, and Dennis suggests those changes have not quite been to his liking so far this season.

“To be honest, it’s been a bit of a struggle these last couple of months for me,” he said. “There’s been some changes inside of the car which really haven’t suited me and we’ve generally struggled this year so far.”

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Dennis had a win and a brace of second places in the bank at the same point last year, and this year has one win (Diriyah race one) and his Tokyo third place as high points so far, but despite leaving Tokyo with a trophy, he still didn’t feel “at one with the car.”

“Some days we’re good, some days we’re bad, and this weekend was probably the first time where I felt not at one with the car but I delivered every lap,” he said. “Fifth (in qualifying) for me felt like pole, I really didn’t think I would qualify that high up. And then in the race we’re always quick so I knew I had a chance and the grid was pretty mixed up … but the way the race played out, I achieved the maximum today.”

While Dennis acknowledges the Porsche package’s strong efficiency, track position was vital in Tokyo for him to take advantage of that.

“These guys (winner Maximillian Guenther and second place Oliver Rowland) are incredibly quick when they need to be, I do think we have the upper hand in terms of efficiency but when they want to create a gap, they can just pull those six, seven tenths which allow them to take Attack or anything like this, and with it being so difficult to overtake round here, those moments at a track like this are absolutely crucial.

He also acknowledged the role his teammate Norman Nato played in keeping him in the fight, by keeping drivers who’d already gone through the longer Attack Mode power boost line before him from swamping him.

“(I’m) pretty pleased with third, at one point it looked like I was going to be finishing P7 — everyone behind me had already taken Attack and I had taken none, so a big thanks to my teammate Norman for saving me on that one and allowing me to fight for the podium today,” he said.

Last season, Formula E’s return to Europe coincided with a strong run for Dennis, who took two podium finishes in Berlin and Monaco, before adding to that haul for in the next lot of flyaways with a string of seconds in the Jakarta doubleheader and Portland. He then finished the year with three more podiums in Rome and London and he feels that this year could play out similarly.

“We’re just battling it out a little bit at the moment,” he conceded. “I’m confident when we get back to the European stages we can find a bit more of my rhythm that I had last year.”

But he knows he has a stiffer challenge this season, with the field being much closer overall.

“It just shows how now everyone is just so much closer,” he said. “Last year it was pretty much a two-horse race between Jaguar and Porsche … whereas now you’ve got the McLarens and Nissans, the Maseratis — these guys are performing at such a high level so a bad day now is like P11, P12 whereas a bad day last year was probably P6, P5. So it just shows even though the hardware’s not changed, the software’s obviously always evolving and these guys have made a really good step.

“It ultimately makes my life harder but I think it’s great for Formula E — five different winners (so far) in Season 10 is pretty impressive. It’s not GEN1 any more where you had massive variability. It’s this excitement that FE brings and think it’s going to keep evolving. The European season now should allow a bit more overtaking — Misano, Monaco, Berlin — whereas this was always going to be a of a struggle in terms of excitement.”

Rowland stands by power-saving move that cost him Tokyo E-Prix lead

Oliver Rowland says he “would have probably been swallowed up by more people” had he not backed off on lap 25 of the Tokyo E-Prix, a move that ultimately cost him victory. The Nissan driver controlled much of the race, but needed to save power in …

Oliver Rowland says he “would have probably been swallowed up by more people” had he not backed off on lap 25 of the Tokyo E-Prix, a move that ultimately cost him victory.

The Nissan driver controlled much of the race, but needed to save power in the final 10 laps after a safety car period left his rivals behind him in better shape energy-wise. He backed off on his way to Turn 10, which allowed eventual winner Maximillian Guenther to overtake.

Rowland admits that he’d hoped to capitalize on the Maserati MSG driver’s slipstream and retake the lead before the end of the race, but while the strategy was unsuccessful, he’s not sure he would do anything different if put in the same scenario again.

“The way that Formula E is now, the slipstream’s quite powerful and I was kind of managing to under-consume and keep them behind before the safety car — but I knew that their targets in terms of energy were probably building,” he said. “Unfortunately, after the safety car the target dropped quite significantly and the lap time delta here is quite aggressive in terms of how much time you lose for the energy target coming down so I was kind of in a position where if I’d have stayed out front any longer I would have probably been swallowed up by more people.

“Of course I was trying to keep the lead when the lift … But I think he did a solid job. It’s kind of one of those things — if I did it again, I’m not really sure what I’d do different. Would I have to relinquish the lead maybe a bit earlier and stay in the slipstream? But yeah, I think we maximized what we could, but it was on the table which is a bit frustrating.”

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Despite that, Guenther says his charge to the lead “wasn’t that easy” after having to get by Mahindra’s Edoardo Mortara for second, then fend off the more efficient Porsche-powered cars of Jake Dennis, Antonio Felix da Costa and Pascal Wehrlein behind him.

“I surprised him, I guess, into Turn 10, and this opened up the race for us,” said Guenther. “I tried to pull a bit of a gap but I couldn’t really, obviously enough … But obviously it was very tight on energy. The Porsche cars, Jake in P3, were coming very fast with lots of energy from behind so both Oli and me, we had to defend hard and in the end it paid off.”

Guenther’s victory was Maserati’s first since June last year, and he says it shows the work the team has done to turn around its tricky start to the season, where it hasn’t finished on the podium before the Tokyo race, is paying off.

“Every victory is special in its own way. Obviously this one feels great because we didn’t have a strong season so far,” he said. “They’re building something pretty good I think — they made some good changes in the last couple of weeks.

“I think we already saw it in Sao Paulo, just we didn’t get so many points from starting last, but I think this weekend we transferred it into a very good outcome and I’m looking forward to the races to come.”

For Rowland, despite missing out on victory, he is looking at the positives and thinks the result shows Nissan can fight at the front despite not necessarily having the strongest package in race trim.

“It’s probably better than we imagined at the start of the season, obviously missing out last year, coming back to a team that’s kind of rebuilding, but I think the package is really strong,” he said. “I think in qualifying we have one of the best cars; in the race we have some limitations but I think it shows today if we do the job then we can still fight at the front.

“We need to keep qualifying towards the front and keeping in the mix in the races and scoring points.”