FE Talk: Bird Kicks Off Season Six, But Who was Watching?

ABB Formula E is nothing if not revolutionary. From the Fan Boost and Attack Zones to the ground breaking electric engines, Alejandro Agag seems determined to tear up the motorsport rule book.

So far, that’s worked perfectly in his favour. Eleven of the twelve FE teams are motor manufacturers and with with four German giants; Porsche, Mercedes, Audi and BMW all featuring cars, it’s clearly the right direction.

But as the season got underway in Al-Diriyah, Saudi Arabia on Friday with Sam Bird taking honours for Envision Virgin, there was a concern that it’ll be all for nothing, if no-one was watching.

Sport, traditionally, is a leisure activity and whether you’re playing or watching, it’s to be done during leisure hours. The Premier League traditionally played their games on a Saturday because the fans were not working then. Even when matches happen on a Monday, Tuesday or (god forbid) Friday, they’ll happen in the evening so most 9-5 workers can go to the stadium, pub, or view it on TV.

So it’s perhaps no surprise that I’m more than a little perplexed at the FIA’s decision to run their race at 12:00 British Time (13:00 CEST) on a Friday when most of us were at work.

Now, of course, this is a little self-centric of me. The race happened in Saudi Arabia, not Manchester or the streets of Cardiff, but with motorsport still a predominantly western past-time, why make the effort to organise a Friday race if it’s not run in the evening for your largest audience.

The reason of course is simple, Saudi Arabia has a different work week; Sunday to Thursday, giving the majority Sunni Islamic population time to pray on Friday. Fair enough. Their Friday is like our Sunday and I wouldn’t expect Formula E to trample upon traditional cultures. But if that was the case, why not just hold the Saturday race, why would the orgnanisers fork out the expense of a double header if it would not benefit them globally.

Even from a teams point of view, this seems like a poor marketing strategy. Mercedes and Porsche have invested significant finance into their FE debut and both were awarded with podiums after the sterling efforts of Stoffel Vandoorne and Andre Lotterer, saw them fight to get ahead of Alexander Sims’ BMW in the closing stages. But were it not for social media clips and YouTube highlights, who in Germany would have known.

Crowds weren’t a sell out either. Local support was sparse, even during the race and the nature of the Al-Diriyah circuit does not make it easy to view large parts of the track for many.

As mentioned though, this is all from a European (and to a greater extent American) view point. Agag is no fool and while he was not looking west, he was looking East, where these electric manufacturers will be selling the vast majority of their electric cars.

Largest Audience isn’t Always the most Crucial

When I mentioned Formula E was for the fans, this was perhaps a slight oversight, like any motorsport it has to please its customers. The manufacturers. Taking place at 15:00 Saudi time on Friday was not good news for us, but it was for East and South East Asia. The race started at 21:00 South Korean time, 20:00 Philippine and Chinese time, and 19:00 in Jakarta, Indonesia. All ideal evening entertainment for the sport fanatics with not much competition.

In China (the home of champions DS Techeetah), the race was broadcast live on; Sina Sports, Weibo, Guang Dong Sports, Youku, Hupu, PPTV, Zhibo TV, Penguin TV, X-Car, Autohome, Tencent, Huya and Star Sports, the latter of which (owned by the Fox Network) also broadcasted it live in South Korea. Indonesia’s oldest public broadcasting channel; TVRI beamed it the local population, as Fox Sports served Singapore, Philippines and Myanmar. Even in India, where the race took place at 17:00, it could have made headline news for the commuters finishing work at 18:00 (had Mahindra have picked up silverware.)

As British fans struggle to get the BBC to air races outside of the Red Button, East Asian audiences can’t escape it and Formula E knows its new fans, as do the car companies that support it.

A new race in South Korea and Indonesia this season is not simply about government handouts to advertise their nation, it’s a live showroom for their growing middle class with the real prize being new consumers.

Bird Soars to Race One Success

So while I was bemoaning life at my office desk Friday afternoon, one of our fellow countrymen was romping home to victory in the Arabian desert. Sam Bird had only started fifth and after failing to make it around Edoardo Mortara into the first chicane had to watch as polesitter Sims raced into the distance.

Bird lost a position to Jerome d’Ambrosio while taking one his Attack Zone laps, retaking the place at the end of the lap. It was the move that set Bird up as a candidate for the win, as after sailing around the outside of the Mahindra on the start straight, he almost used his momentum to dive up the inside of Mortara going into the T18/19 chicane. He’d wait until the same spot on the following lap and after using his extra power to overtake the Venturi he set after the breakaway top three.

At this point Sims was controlling the race from the Mercedes of Vandoorne and Nyck De Vries, but the pace shown from Sims during qualifying was clearly lacking as Bird and Andre Lotterer caught the leaders. De Vries was first on the list as Bird pulled off the overtake at his favourite spot, but as he made the move on Vandoorne the Belgian covered, blocking the inside line and breaking late.

Vandoorne’s last minute defence instead saw him run side-by-side with race leader Sims into the chicane. The pair had run into the dirty part of the track with Vandoorne muscling into the lead ahead of Bird as Sims dropped to third. Having spent much of the race on the attack it was a change of pace for Vandoorne who was told to not use Attack Mode while Bird was so close.

With ten minutes of the race remaining, Bird finally found his way past at the chicane. Vandoorne took the opportunity to use his last Attack Mode, losing a place to Lotterer, just as the safety car was called. There was only enough time for two laps at the restart with Bird taking a comforable victory ahead of Lotterer for Porsche and Vandoorne for Mercedes.

Bad Day for the Favourites

Odds for Bird winning the race and Envision Virgin leading the teams championship were relatively low prior to the weekend, but the 32-year-old was by no means the favourite. However, odds for the champion trio of Lucas di Grassi, Sebastien Buemi and Jean-Eric Vergne not to score points were far far higher.

A dire Friday for Audi saw both cars run around below the top fifteen for much of the proceedings. Daniel Abt did little to prove Audi were right to retain him by crashing with six minutes to go after a fornt-wing failure, as even the Brazilian Di Grassi could only manage 13th come the chequered flag.

Vergne would end his day in the pits after steering issues hampered his race while Buemi’s car stopped on track after just six minutes of racing. Audi and DS Techeetah failed to score a single point as 2018 race winner Antonio Felix Da Costa had an anonymous drive to 14th. Da Costa’s lack of presence was more notable thanks to the pace he’d displayed during pre-season testing.

He wasn’t the only pre-season disappointment though as Maximilian Guenther finished 18th. The result was even more notable as teammate Sims had qualified on pole at a circuit BMW has enjoyed great success at. Guenther had been running in the top ten in the early stages, but like Sims did not have the pace to complete the race. Despite leading for the majority, Sims finished eighth after being shuffled back by Nyck de Vries on the final lap from fifth.

Oliver Rowland’s pace in the Nissan e.Dams will be ominous news for those concerned about the pace of Buemi as the Brit fought his way up to fourth ahead of Robin Frijns, De Vries and Mortara. Frijns had started 12th, but never looked backwards and like Bird came alive towards the end of the race. Envision’s clearly got a race setup that will make them the ire of the field.

Elsewhere, Jaguar’s Mitch Evans only narrowly made the points, though picked up a bonus for fastest lap. Qualifying only sixteenth it was never going to be smooth sailing, but moving forward for both cars will be a positive for the British team. Evans would finish behind ninth place d’Ambrosio, making it 8 different teams in the top ten.