Formula E: Di Grassi critiques inaugural race, reflects on historic win
It is now almost three weeks since FIA’s new fully electric open-wheel Formula E series held its inaugural race on the streets of Beijing, China.
What initially looked like a win for either E.dams-Renault’s Nicolas Prost or Venturi’s Nick Heidfeld was turned on its head on the final corner (well, at least for Heidfeld it was) as the pair collided, sending Heidfeld upside-down and handing the winner over to Audi Sport ABT’s Lucas di Grassi.
“In the end even if it was a controversial finish to the race, in motorsport it happens this way,” reasoned di Grassi in an interview with FIAFormulaE.com. “It happened to me at Le Mans, you just have to be at the right time in the right place.”
However, di Grassi will be the first to tell you that the race didn’t go entirely to plan.
“Looking back at how we approached the weekend and how we can improve for the next one there is a lot of margin [for improvement]. After analyzing my data, because I didn’t know how much energy I was using, I ended up using very little energy compared to what I could have done in both cars.”
Di Grassi was one of three drivers, the others being Katherine Legge and Bruno Senna, who was awarded the option to use FanBoost during the race, yet found himself unable to use it.
“I used so much social networking to make it happen and I have to thank all my fans that voted for me and I hope they keep voting for all the other races, but in the end I couldn’t use it just because I didn’t know how much energy I was using so I decided not to use it.”
Di Grassi said that he was pleased with the performance of the tires during the race but thought that the Beijing street course was too slow. He also added he was not a fan of Formula E’s pitstop procedure.
“I’m against this rule that states you have a minimum time from pit entry to pit exit, there is a lot of risk – if you are half a second below this margin you have a drive-through – so there’s a lot to lose. So I ended up leaving a little bit after Nick [Heidfeld] because we didn’t want to have an unsafe release, but that meant we were behind him. If you consider this factor, we lost seven or eight seconds in the pitlane, which was crucial for the race, especially for our strategy.”
The rule exists for safety purposes, to prevent drivers from rushing out of the pit road before they have had time to properly secure their seatbelts in their second car. Di Grassi was quick to acknowledge the fact that their bad stop was a fault of the team’s, and not of the series.
Overall, however, di Grassi was able to take away the win after solid performances during testing, practice and qualifying, and he is looking forward to Round 2 in Malaysia.
“I think the teams that managed to do a good job will look to improve and people who did a bad job will try to come back. It’s different track, it’s a different atmosphere, with it being the second race everybody knows how it’s going to work. The track is very different as well, the track is much shorter. I guess we can have some surprises from people who haven’t shown their true performance in Beijing.”
FOX Sports 1 will have LIVE coverage of all 10 FIA Formula E races, continuing with the Putrajaya ePrix on November 22.
