Despite a revised program in which there were moments of apprehension due to the fire that broke out on Tuesday during the lunch break, on Friday the Formula E tests reached their conclusion, thus putting an end to the action on the track before the The World Cup starts next January.
As scheduled, the final day opened with the race simulation which was won by Robin Frijns on his return to Envision, who overtook Antonio Felix da Costa in the final moments of the 27-lap race, at least before a Safety Car neutralized the race in the final stages. The race offered drivers, teams and race management the opportunity not only to test the cars in conditions more similar to those that will be seen during the weekend, but also procedures such as activating Attack Mode, Full Course Yellow and the entrance of the Safety Car.
After the simulation carried out in the morning, drivers and teams had a ten-hour uninterrupted shift available, in which they could run freely according to their respective programs. Nick Cassidy finished in the lead, taking his Jaguar to the top of the timesheets with a time of 1:24.617, which however was not enough to beat that recorded by Mitch Evans in the first hours of the session. Tuesday. In fact, before the fire put the tests on hold, his teammate had stopped the clock at 1:24.474, thus setting the new track record. However, it should be underlined that today, as a safety measure, the maximum power of the single-seaters has been limited to 300 kWh.
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images
Maximilian Gunther, Maserati Racing, Maserati Tipo Folgore
Today, Evans then finished in third place, 86 thousandths behind Cassidy. What separated the two Jaguar standard bearers was a regular at the top of the test rankings, Max Gunther: in 2019, 2020 and 2022, the German driver had finished with the best test time, also making Maserati’s debut in world. On this occasion he was unable to repeat himself, but still placed himself at the top of the day’s scoreboard, trailing Cassidy by less than half a tenth.
Everything moved in the last hour of testing, when the track temperature did not exceed 20°C. Gunther had actually led the afternoon for a long time, setting the best time on two consecutive occasions, at least before being beaten in the final minutes by the New Zealander from Jaguar. Fourth time of the day for Robin Frijns, the winner of the morning simulation, who preceded Pascal Wehrlein. The German from Porsche managed to improve the time he had set on Tuesday morning by just a few thousandths. Behind them in Piazza Norman Nato, making his debut with Andretti, followed in turn by Oliver Rowland, who made his return to Nissan after spending a troubled Season 9 in Mahindra. The top seven in the ranking are within just 145 thousandths, demonstrating how close the grid generally is.
Closing out the top ten was Jake Hughes with McLaren, followed by world champion Jake Dennis and Stoffel Vandoorne. As we had already seen on Thursday with Andretti, it is interesting to point out how some teams, including McLaren itself, took advantage of the tests to carry out particular tests, including putting their two cars in a row to understand how much the wake effect can affect energy consumption.
Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
Sam Bird, NEOM McLaren Formula E Team, e-4ORCE 04, Jean-Eric Vergne, DS Penske, DS E-Tense FE23, Oliver Rowland, Nissan Formula E Team, Nissan e-4ORCE 04
Sebastien Buemi is outside the top ten with the other Envision, but he takes the title of most active driver of the day with 155 laps completed. The Swiss is followed by Sam Bird, who made his debut with the Woking team in these tests. Regardless of the results, it wasn’t an easy day for McLaren, who had to withdraw their cars at the same time during the simulation a few laps before the checkered flag. Problems that also extended to the team that supplies the Powertrain, Nissan, which in the morning saw Sacha Fenestraz report problems in the acceleration phase, while Nato stopped right at the end.
Daruvala’s first test in Maserati ended with thirteenth place on the final day, which allowed him to put Jean-Eric Vergne behind him, who even before mid-afternoon had set the provisional best time with a time of 1: 25.004: from that moment on the Frenchman was unable to improve, concentrating on a different program. Fifteenth time for Lucas di Grassi with ABT ahead of Antonio Felix Da Costa: the Portuguese, sixteenth, is still less than half a second from the leader of the classification. Although the times in the tests are partly relative, given that races are often won on other aspects, such as the ability to manage consumption, it is not the first time that the all-electric series has shown particularly close gaps.
Behind them is Nyck De Vries, who today had the opportunity to return to the track at the wheel of his Mahindra. Due to the fire that destroyed part of the Dutchman’s car and some instruments, the Indian team was forced to run with just one single-seater, therefore alternating the two drivers. It is important to keep in mind that Edoardo Mortara himself is also making his debut with Mahindra after leaving Maserati last summer. Concluding the ranking were Nico Mueller, Sacha Fenestraz, Sette Camara and Dan Ticktum, with the two ERTs bringing up the group.
The ranking of the last day:
Position | Pilot | Team | Gap |
1 | Cassidy | Jaguar | 1:24.617 |
2 | Gunther | Maserati | +0.041 |
3 | Evans | Jaguar | +0.086 |
4 | Frijns | Envsion | +0.093 |
5 | Wehrlein | Porsche | +0.130 |
6 | Born | Andretti | +0.137 |
7 | Rowland | Nissan | +0.145 |
8 | Hughes | McLaren | +0.210 |
9 | Dennis | Andretti | +0.231 |
10 | Vandoorne | DS Penske | +0.280 |
11 | Buemi | Envision | +0.294 |
12 | Bird | McLaren | +0.329 |
13 | Daruvala | Maserati | +0.375 |
14 | Vergne | DS Penske | +0.387 |
15 | Di Grassi | ABT Cupra | +0.466 |
16 | From the coast | Porsche | +0.471 |
17 | DeVries | Mahindra | +0.501 |
18 | Mueller | ABT Cupra | +0.560 |
19 | Fenestration | Nissan | +0.573 |
20 | Seven Chambers | ERT | +0.677 |
21 | Ticktum | ERT | +0.738 |
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