The 2024 Diriyah E-Prix double-header was a tense follow-up to the opening spherical of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship season, with a much bigger emphasis on shut combating and making the proper technique calls on the proper time than prolific overtaking alone.
Across a tactical couple of encounters in Saudi Arabia, NEOM McLaren driver Sam Bird and Mahindra Racing’s Edoardo Mortara emerged with the latest ABB Driver of Progress honours.
But as proof of how diverse these sorts of performances may be, Bird and Mortara earned this in several methods with races at totally different ends of the grid. The key a part of Bird’s race was an excellent old-fashioned little bit of a intelligent, courageous racecraft in the beginning.
HIGHLIGHTS: The 2024 Diriyah E-Prix Round 2
Bird’s preliminary launch was not gorgeous however his automobile positioning thereafter was. He gained floor on the surface into the primary nook which then gave him the within because the monitor went left, clearing TAG Heuer Porsche’s prior standings chief Pascal Wehrlein, then decisively picked the surface line once more for the following nook, passing Maximilian Guenther (Maserati MSG Racing) and Jaguar TCS Racing’s new-for-Season 10 signing, and Mexico City podium-winner, Nick Cassidy, below braking.
This launched Bird from ninth to sixth on the opening lap and let him arrange his race with out having made prompt progress with out worrying about extreme vitality use – monitor position being completely key. He settled into the rhythm with the lead group and used the primary half of the E-Prix to preserve vitality whereas holding station.
Bird stayed sixth for 21 laps and in that point was persistently slower than the sphere common – round 4kph down on the common pace per lap. He additionally had persistently decrease battery utilization than the vehicles on the head of the pack, however he wasn’t shedding position, or floor, simply guaranteeing no person had a better state of cost. That meant the skilled Brit may up the ante across the important part of his race, primarily between Laps 21 and 29 when he made the strikes that might safe him fifth place on the end.
Passing Sergio Sette Camara (ERT), he went from utilizing round 2.5% per lap to three%, then after shedding out to Jaguar’s Cassidy, Bird clocked his personal highest pace (230kph) on Lap 24 and the best common pace on monitor of anybody (118kph) on Lap 28 – when he overtook Norman Nato – and once more on lap 29.
Unlike Bird, Mortara was not in a position to arrange the same robust factors end with an early cost in race two.
Mortara’s close to miss
Starting down in 18th, Mortara all the time had his work reduce out to get into the highest 10 in any respect. Ultimately, Mortara fell wanting factors however a mid-race ascent meant he gave it an excellent go.
The technique was a well-known one for somebody in Mortara’s position: preserve vitality early on and see what alternatives are finally offered.
That meant Mortara stayed on the higher aspect of the common for battery state of cost early on, and no person had larger by round mid-distance. With regular battery utilization of between 2.5% and a pair of.7%, the Swiss-French-Italian gave himself a big benefit in comparison with the frontrunners – race chief Cassidy, for instance, was 3.4% worse off.
HIGHLIGHTS: The 2024 Diriyah E-Prix Round 3
The drawback for Mortara is he was not racing the outright leaders. So it was not straightforward to make use of what was a extra negligible benefit in comparison with these instantly round.
He may solely create a comparatively small window to attack, between Laps 18 and 27, however he made full use of it. Mortara’s battery utilization elevated fairly considerably, by no means lower than 2.8% throughout this part and with a peak of three.1% on lap 21.
That was an attention-grabbing distinction with different drivers who hit the same peak however a lot earlier within the E-Prix – Cassidy on lap 7 for instance, and Oliver Rowland as early as Lap 5.
It paid off as Mortara lastly began to make up floor, passing Sette Camara on Lap 17 and his teammate, getting back from a spell in Formula 1 in Season 10 – Nyck de Vries on Lap 20. Nico Mueller within the ABT CUPRA was subsequent on Lap 21, a Lap on which Mortara’s common throttle depth was 43% – greater than 10% larger than some within the race’s lead group, a sign of simply how a lot potential Mortara was asking of his powertrain.
By Lap 24, Mortara was additionally forward of Maserati MSG Racing’s rookie Jehan Daruvala and had risen from seventeenth to twelfth, however his cost would finish there. Not lengthy after that he was kind of regular on battery state of cost together with his rapid rivals, and although his peak speeds have been nonetheless to return – 226.7kph on lap 25, it was really decrease than these round him.
In reality, Mortara had one of many slowest high speeds of each driver all race. Only three posted slower peaks, and the outright quickest (Jake Dennis) was 238.8kph – a marker of how cautious Mortara needed to be even together with his greatest alternatives to make progress.
As it stands…
All that leaves de Vries high of the charts leaving Diriyah, with Mortara flinging himself up the order to place second – a Mahindra Racing one-two in ABB Driver of Progress because it stands in Season 10.
