Motorsport heads to all-new territory on Saturday as the brand new Formula E series will begin. With its all-new car designed by some of the biggest names in motorsport, as well as teams and drivers with equally as big names, there’s a lot of hype and anticipation surrounding Formula E’s very first race, the 2014 Beijing ePrix held at the Beijing Olympic Green circuit.
The track is a 3.44km long anti-clockwise street circuit and is made up of 20 turns, including four tight chicanes. The circuit will pass by some of the Olympic Green’s most iconic features including the stunning Bird’s Nest stadium as well as the Aquatics Centre. One of the more unique features of the circuit is the pit lane, which does a u-turn as well as coming out in between turns 1 and 2. There are plenty of overtaking spots, unconventional for a street circuit, including heavy braking zones into turns 1, 3, 14, 16, 19 and turn 20. You can view a full interactive circuit map here.
Key contenders:
The e.dams-Renault squad were quickest on four of the five test days held at Donington Circuit, and Sebastien Buemi was the driver to set the fastest time on each of those occasions, so he must be the driver who comes in as the hot favourite to take victory in the first fully electric race. The only other driver who set the quickest time at any of the tests was Audi Sport ABT’s Lucas di Grassi. Di Grassi also set the second quickest time on two other occasions and has the most experience in one of these cars so he will come in as a strong contender in this first race. There is no reason why we should count out their team mates, Nicolas Prost and Daniel Abt respectively. Virgin Racing, Venturi and China Racing also showed good pace in the tests although Andretti Autosport were notably best of the rest at the final test. However, this was just testing, so it is difficult to judge where they all stand until we see how they all fare in qualifying trim for the first time. Dragon Racing is also a team that should not be discounted, with Jerome d’Ambrosio looked very strong at times, clocking the second best time at test three.
Midfield runners:
In addition to Virgin, Venturi, China Racing and Andretti looking relatively strong, Mahindra Racing’s Bruno Senna and Karun Chandhok both looked pretty solid, being in the top 10 in each of the five tests and in the top five in three tests. While it looks as if ABT and e.dams have the two strongest squads, it will be interesting to see who comes out in this battle, and which team or teams can get the upper-hand on their rivals in this early stage. It will also be interesting to see if any of these teams expected to be running in the middle slip backwards towards the back of the pack.
Bringing up the rear:
There were two teams in testing that consistently failed to leave the mid-pack or were at the very bottom of the times – Amlin Aguri and Trulli GP. To give some sort of credit to these teams, they are completely new outfits and will take time to get to grips with this, but although Jarno Trulli has shown some solid mid-field pace at times, neither of these teams set the timing sheets alight at Donington, but as mentioned earlier; testing is one thing, an actual qualifying or race is certainly another.
My picks:
Pole: Sebastien Buemi – it will be incredibly difficult for Buemi to be beaten I think. He seems good with the car and appears to have had an early advantage on his rivals, and his qualifying speed is generally pretty strong, as we saw in F1.
Podium: Buemi/di Grassi/d’Ambrosio – I’ve gone for three ex-F1 drivers to make up the podium in Formula E’s first race. These three looked to not only be three of the quickest in testing, but they all consistently beat their team mates too. While I think the top two looks to be pretty likely, it should be a good battle between the two, and I think d’Ambrosio will edge one of their team mates for third.
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