Formula E Talk: D’Ambrosio Wins as BMW’s Collide

The second round of the FIA Formula E Championship rolled into Morocco for the Marrakech e-Prix after a drama filled opener one month ago in Saudi Arabia. Belgian driver Jerome d’Ambrosio saw the chequered flag as BMW’s Antonio Felix Da Costa lost his chance to take back-to-back victories after colliding with his teammate.

The result moves d’Ambrosio into the championship lead and makes it back-to-back wins for Mahindra at Marrakesh, with the team now second in the constructors championship.

The BMW’s had looked right on the pace again as they got both cars into the Superpole shootout, originally lining up P3 (Da Costa) and P5 (Sims), though Da Costa was handed a 3-place grid penalty, for exceeding the maximum power usage allowed on his in-and-out-laps during the group stages.

It was Envision Racing’s Sam Bird who took pole position with a scintillating lap despite having damage to his diffuser. In a bizarre pitlane collision NIO’s Tom Dillmann rear-ended Bird’s teammate Robert Frijns sending the Dutchman into his teammates car and breaking off a large chuck of his diffuser.

Because the cars were under parc-ferme conditions, Envision were not able to work on Birds car and fix the broken section of diffuser, meaning the Brit had to run with significantly less rear-downforce than his rivals.

He was still able to edge the Techeetah of Jean-Eric Vergne by less than half a tenth though and set up what looked to be a mouth-watering front row.

Vergne Move Changes Race Dynamic

Off the line Bird made a fantastic getaway and looked to hold a comfortable lead into turn 1. Vergne however had other ideas.

The Techeetah found itself under pressure from the fast-starting Nissan E.dams of Sebastian Buemi who was looking around the outside of the black and gold car. Under breaking Vergne suddenly lunged towards the inside of the race leading Envision car and attempted an audacious move. It didn’t work. Vergne collided with the side of Bird’s car and found himself facing the wrong way. Chaos would then ensue for the following pack.

Firstly, you had the big losers in Buemi, Evans, Piquet and Wehrlein who were forced to slow drastically and take evasive action by running wide around the spinning Techeetah. This dropped them all way down the order and out of race winning contention.

Things were also even worse than first thought for Wehrlein who received a hefty shunt up the rear from the Audi of Lucas Di Grassi. The season 3 champion clearly hadn’t anticipated the drastic slowing of the cars in front and was carrying to much speed to avoid a collision. Despite clear cosmetic damage, the Audi was able to continue racing without any obvious issues.

Wehrlein wasn’t as lucky. The German had to retire due to the damage sustained and he was clearly frustrated at what could have been a great result in his first outing as an FE driver.

Things weren’t much better for fellow former-F1 driver Stoffel Vandoorne. The Belgium couldn’t set a qualifying lap due to a loss of power so started from the back of the grid. Then in turn 1, despite seemingly having plenty of time to avoid any collisions, carried too much speed and locked up. This sent him flying into the side of his teammate Gary Paffett in the other HWA car.

Vandoorne would retire that lap where as Paffett could carry on for a few minutes before pulling over due to his rear left tyre coming away from the rim. All this while Mercedes F1 team boss Toto Wolff watched on from the garage.

BMW’s Flex Their Muscles

It was unclear if Bird’s car had received any damage following the contact with Vergne but what was clear was that without the season 4 champion at the front it was BMW’s race to lose.

Sims initially led Da Costa in 2^nd but then let his teammate past in the early stages. The team clearly favouring the Portuguese man to pass Bird early on and build a lead.

Da Costa did just that. He passed the race leader down into turn 4 and pushed the Envision car across the infield section. This allowed teammate Sims to get alongside Bird in the run down towards turn seven and then out-broke him on the outside line.

From there forward it seemed like a straight forward race for the BMW Andretti team as Da Costa and Sims streaked away from the chasing pack, seemingly on course for a comfortable 1-2.

Fight for 3^rd

This, at the time, left us with a tantalising battle for the final step on the podium with four drivers all in with a shout. Sam Bird, Robert Frijns, Lucas Di Grassi and Jerome d’Ambrosio.

For the first part it looked as if Sam Bird was holding the chasing three drivers up. So, when d’Ambrosio put a move on Di Grassi, the order came through for Bird to allow Frijns through to see if the Dutchman could break away and secure a podium for Envision.

However, clear of one Audi, d’Ambrosio was on a mission to pass the two Audi powered Envision cars and made light work of both Sam Bird and Robert Frijns. Di Grassi would follow the Mahindra driver through after activating his first ‘ATTACK MODE’ of the afternoon which would then lead to a crucial part of the race.

Di Grassi still had two minutes left of his ‘ATTACK MODE’ as he passed Frijns into 11 and found himself right on the tail of d’Ambrosio. But, despite having an extra 50kw of power, Di Grassi could not generate an overtaking opportunity for himself. His ‘ATTACK MODE’ would come to an end and his advantage gone.

The Audi man would keep the pressure on d’Ambrosio but, he now had the two Envision cars right back on his tail to deal with.

BMW’s Crack Under Pressure

Up-front all looked calm for the pair of BMWs’. Sims was keeping within about half a second of Da Costa with the pair almost five seconds ahead of d’Ambrosio & co at one point.

However, as the battle for the podium saw the Envisions launch their second ‘ATTACK MODE’ together, passing Di Grassi while also putting some distance to Vergne behind, and d’Ambrosio launching his first ‘ATTACK MODE’ to narrowly stave of Robert Frijns, the gap at the front suddenly vanished.

As the clock ticked over to ten minutes remaining the gap between Sims and d’Ambrosio was less than a second. D’Ambrosio had dragged the two Envision cars along with him and now for the first time the pressure was on the BMW’s.

Alexander Sims looked to respond to this immediately. He was suddenly climbing all over the back of his teammates car as his mirrors were slowly being filled with the chasing pack.

Despite the pressure from Sims, Da Costa seemingly didn’t have any more in the tank and was unable to up the pace. Clearly getting frustrated at the position his teammate was putting him in Sims went for a move around the outside down towards turn 7. Sims would lock up but still looked set to make the corner.

Responding to his teammates attack Da Costa tried to break as late as possible but, he too locked up and in more dramatic fashion.

Da Costa’s car would career into the side of Sims and push them both wide. Unlike Sims, Da Costa could not bring his car back under control and found himself buried in the barrier of turn 7 and out of the race.

Sims would re-join in 4^th but, the BMW’s had just thrown away an almost certain 1-2 finish.

Last Lap Sprint

With da Costa’s car stuck in the barrier, the safety car was deployed.

For a period, it was unclear if the race would finish behind the safety car. Thankfully though, with less than 10 seconds on the clock, we got the announcement that the safety car was coming in.

This set up a thrilling last lap sprint.

Amazingly after all that had gone on during the race it was the Mahindra of Jerome d’Ambrosio that led the race and had the challenge of holding on for just one lap.

It may have sounded like an easy job but with two very racy Envisions and the BMW of Sims who was armed with ‘ATTACK MODE’ behind him, it was anything but that.

Initially d’Ambrosio seemed to pull away from Frijns behind as attention focused on Sims attempting to pass Sam Bird. The BMW driver clearly had a large pace advantage but no matter what he did, Bird defended and was able to hold onto the last podium position.

However, with half a lap to go, the race for 1^st was suddenly on as Frijns had flown back up onto the rear of d’Ambrosio. By the time the Dutchman had caught him there was only one realistic overtaking opportunity left down into turn 11.

Around turn 10 Frijns was nudging the Mahindra around the corner and looked to make a move under breaking. It was not into 11 that d’Ambrosio felt the most pressure but the last corner, turn 12, where he locked up his front-left and ran slightly wide. This allowed Frijns right under the diffuser of d’Ambrosio as they approached the finishing line.

Despite pulling out for a run, the line came up too quickly for Frijns and d’Ambrosio was able to hold on for his 3^rd victory in Formula E but his first on track win.

Jerome has won two races previously but, they came following two separate disqualifications for Lucas Di Grassi in Berlin and Mexico.

Clearly d’Ambrosio was ecstatic.

I challenge you to find a more excited winner in 2019 as we watched the Belgium race around the circuit at almost full speed, weaving all over the place, screaming down the radio and even treating us to some donuts. Though he did almost collide with Di Grassi as he re-joined the circuit.

This victory, following on from a brilliant 3^rd in Saudi Arabia means that d’Ambrosio is the championship leader after two rounds. The Belgium currently holds 40 points, the same amount he collected across the last two seasons combined.

Final Thoughts

I am aware the main talking point coming out of this weekend will be the BMW’s collision and who should take the brunt of the blame. On commentary, Dario Franchitti was quick to point the finger at Alexander Sims which I believe was harsh. I didn’t see Sims do anything wrong. He gave his teammate plenty of room and there was no chance of a collision until Da Costa’s lock up.

Da Costa himself has come out and taken the brunt of the blame saying:

“I’m sorry – that’s a mistake and a mistake coming from me only,”

“[It’s] terribly frustrating in this story because we lost a win, we lost a one-two, and even if it was just me, Alex could have won the race.

“But because of that, I denied him the win, denied the team a one-two. I’m feeling very bad for myself.”

Away from the BMW’s I am, for a second e-Prix running, perplexed as to how Jean-Eric Vergne was not the race winner.

The DS Techeetah is currently the only car that appears to be able to hold a candle to the BMW’s race pace and Vergne right now looks to be by far the fastest driver in that field.

Had it not been for what was a slightly bonkers attempt to pass Sam Bird into turn 1 I am sure he would have been favourite for victory.

I don’t believe Vergne should change his attacking style though. Without it he would not have won last seasons championship.

However, there is no doubt that we were treated to yet another stunning e-Prix and that we should be in for an unpredictable season.

Next FIA Formula E e-Prix: Santiago Di Chile – 26^th January