FE Talk: Clean, Fair Racing as Da Costa Dangerously Dominates

Formula E is often chaotic and full of madness but Saturday’s Marrakesh ePrix demonstrated that clean, hard but fair racing is far from uncommon.

Antonio Felix Da Costa was imperious and his controlled, smart victory not only put him on top of the drivers’ standings but was a warning to the rest of the field.

Da Costa’s win confirmed Techeetah’s blistering pace which has been hidden somewhat due to team and driver mistakes in the opening rounds. The Portuguese driver leads by 11 points from Mitch Evans, who limited the damage when he should have been in contention for the win.

Maximilian Gunther led for much of the race and managed to prevent a Techeetah 1-2. Just like Santiago, Gunther held his head and took a strong podium with a brilliantly executed overtake into the penultimate corner on Jean-Eric Vergne.

Vergne himself, drove an excellent race from 11th to 3rd despite missing a practice session and being under the weather. The two-time champion described the weekend as his most difficult in Formula E yet.

It was Da Costa who controlled things for much of the ePrix and Gunther was the only man who could follow his every move.

Driving a Formula E car is vastly different to other racing cars; Pressing numerous buttons when regening and using certain modes, hitting the right numbers on your dash, listening to your engineer to manage the battery temperature and the amount of energy. All of this whilst you are trying to extract the best laptime you can and go wheel to wheel with some of the best racing drivers in the world. Gunther’s craft against drivers up to ten years older than him has quickly proved his adaptably to the Gen 2 cars.

Da Costa and Gunther were maximising their entry speed into every corner with no more than a second and a half splitting them for most of the race. Personally, I adore head to head battles like that when both drivers are on the limit and the teams are trying to outfox each other with their strategies and tactics.

At the midpoint of the race, Da Costa strategically slowed the race down and even allowed Gunther to take the lead without putting up too much of a fight. Due to the long straights on the 1.846 miles Marrakesh circuit, the slipstream effect makes a crucial difference as you can coast into the corners a lot more if you are behind another car, saving energy whilst doing the same laptimes.

When the teams are looking to finish the races with 0.01% of energy left, any kind of slipstream works wonders. Gunther then tried to slow things down, knowing what Da Costa and Techeetah were cheekily doing.

Then, Da Costa retook the lead and began to ease away, showing he had speed to spare and had everything under control.

With the tactics unfolding at the head of the race, Vergne was making moves one by one including a good overtake on former teammate Andre Lotterer in the Porsche. The battle was on between Vergne and Gunther for second place. Vergne made an opportunistic move into turn one to make it a Techeetah 1-2.

Gunther did not give in and a 10 minute scrap with both drivers pushing their respective cars to the limits made for an intriguing and intense battle between the two best teams in Formula E at the moment.

Vergne had slightly less energy than Da Costa but he is arguably the most aggressive defensive driver on the grid so it was always going to be tough for Gunther. Gunther did not do anything rash and remained patient despite time ticking away.

The German was harrying the gearbox of Vergne and forcing him to drive fast and keep a high pace. Vergne was getting tight on power, lifting and coast more just to make the finish, so Gunther tried to go around the outside a few times but could not complete the overtake.

It looked like Vergne had the job done but with two corners to go on the last lap, Gunther looked to the outside then dived down the inside when Vergne was covering the outside line. A perfectly executed ‘dummy’ move and we can expect more titanic battles between Gunther and the Techeetah drivers throughout the rest of the season.

Elsewhere, it was a day of two halves for Mitch Evans as he did not set a lap in qualifying after crossing the line two tenths of a second after the chequered flag came out, meaning he was not allowed to complete his flying lap.

It is not the first time we have seen this in Formula E and it will not be the last at the teams all push the margins but it always looks silly when it happens. Evans’ laptime that he did set (albeit invalid) would have got him into superpole and without doubt he would have been contending for victory.

A title-defining day perhaps for Evans.

Nevertheless, his recovery from 24th and last on the grid to 6th with no help whatsoever from a safety car or a full course yellow was exceptional. Jaguar played an aggressive race and it paid off in abundance.

Looking at this with a glass-half full, those eight points Evans picked up when it could easily have been nought might be crucial and more importantly, the pace of the Jaguar is more than good enough to challenge for the title.

Alexander Sims will be the driver with the most to be upset about after he was set to finish 6th but a tiny touch with Edoarda Mortara broke the steering and subsequently a driveshaft failure. Sims is now 21 points behind Mortara and his attempted overtake on Mortara will hurt. Another showing of the risk vs reward game in Formula E.

The form Da Costa and Techeetah showed was long-coming and more mistakes from their championship rivals means that they have a small lead and some breathing space going into the next rounds.

A straightforward race unattained by silly or rash moves makes Evans’ and Vergne’s performances that more impressive and there are now a handful of drivers who look set to battle for the championship.