Formula E Bird winner in Buenos Aires

Bill Boddy

Professional layabout
Contributor
Sam Bird led from start to finish (apart from 1 lap where Piquet changed cars later than the leaders) but it was not a walk in the park. He was on pole with Prost in second and da Costa in third. Mike Conway was in fifth for his first race in this series whilst di Grassi was seventh after a poor lap. Buemi had a spin on his fast lap, finishing up eighteenth and last.

The race saw di Grassi moving forward and Buemi overtaking drivers as though they had Honda engines. Bird drove steadily in the first session, da Costa had overtaken Prost. Prost had a loss of power as they came into the pits, holding up Sarrazin to the benefit of Buemi (not intentional of course).

Just after all the cars had made their mid-race stops the safety car was brought out to allow the salvage of da Costas car which had broken down well off line just before the pit stops.

Bird took a flier far earlier than expected when the safety car went in an built a small buffer, di Grassi being second, Sarrazin in third with Buemi fourth. Buemi made light work of getting past into third place but it was not until there was a quarter of the race left before di Grassi, who had been keeping Bird honest and looked like he might overtake Bird at one time, succumbed to Buemi. From then on it was a matter of whether or not Bird could hold on to the lead; he had great support from the team on the radio who kept on telling him that he had a 2% advantage over his rivals. In the end it was that advantage which proved to be vital, firstly di Costa eased off then Buemi followed suit after a final attempt at victory with just over a lap left.

Buemi clearly had the fastest car and he made use of it unlike Prost who is simply not as fast as buemi in the same car. But Bird was the driver who made more of what he had than anyone else to take a deserved win.
 
Great write up Bill Boddy! I think Birds was absolutely superb today because the back end of the DS Virgin car was terrible!

Really enjoyable race and a great track lay out. I think Formula E has 3 very on form drivers at the head of its championship right now and looking forward to the next rounds.

Love him in Formula E but I wish someone had been brave enough to take a punt on putting Sam Bird in an F1 car. He goes up.in my estimation everytime I watch him race and see him interviewed.
 
Thanks for the spoiler title. >:(

Since it was after midnight on race day and there was no thread for the race I assumed that nobody cared sufficiently to need to keep it a secret. As far as I could see I wqas the only one interested which doesn't say much for Formula E. If I need to be the first to write about a race in future the content could be a link to a private place on Facebook (if there is such a thing).

Sorry :embarrassed:
 
Since it was after midnight on race day and there was no thread for the race I assumed that nobody cared sufficiently to need to keep it a secret. As far as I could see I wqas the only one interested which doesn't say much for Formula E. If I need to be the first to write about a race in future the content could be a link to a private place on Facebook (if there is such a thing).

Sorry :embarrassed:
No mate, its great that you've given it a write-up, maybe title it Buenos Aires e-Prix?
 
Bill Boddy to be fair I think our usually bunch of Formula E writers are on sabbatical from the site at the mo. Always plenty of watchers if not writers.

And yes Formula E deliberately made sure there was hardly any Aero so we could get close racing. It manages to do it whilst still have a technology race and a tactical element in battery conservation.

I think as someone else said elsewhere you have to hope someone from F1 is watching.
 
I actually closed my laptop to watch pay more attention to the race, because it was interesting. I just keep thinking that F1 would be so much better if they reduced aero so cars could follow on the gearbox of another car
 
I forgot it was even on but have it set up to record tonight on BT Sport. I don't think the comparison with F1 is really fair as Formula E is pretty much a spec series and F1 is all about the engineering as well as the driving. F1 shouldn't follow any other series, it should lead.

Back to Formula E, I shall express my comment and wisdom after I have watched the race but it sounds like a good one.
 
Hmmmm Formula E was a spec series last year but now it's opened up the design each team has gone with are vastly different. Much more so than F1.

For instance that Virgin DS car has a 1 gear system and a twin motor whilst the Edams has two gears and a single motor. It varies up and down the grid this year as no one knew which way to go.
 
I know the tech underneath has changed but the cars are all pretty much the same, as in the Dallara chassis. Pointless fact number 372, Gian Paolo Dallara designed the de Tomaso F1 car of 1970.
 
I too forgot the race was on but I was glad to see this thread. It reminded me about the race, and this was one I would have been pissed if I had not been able to watch it. I was glued to the screen the entire way through. The eDams in the hands of Buemi is formidable, together they are the class of the field. I was very impressed with Bird's defense in the closing laps.

Pass of the race- Buemi in di Grassi
Donkey of the race - Nico Prost for not getting the most out of that awesome car
Drive of the race - Buemi for going last to second in a masterful demonstration of precision overtakes (honorable mention goes to Sam Bird for leading almost every lap in a car with a backside slicker than snot).
 
It does seem to suffer from a serious lack of advertising. I too can add my name to the list of those who completely forgot it was on.

A bit more of a push from ITV wouldn't go amiss. I hate the way they get these sports and then hide them away on ITV4.
 
Pass of the race- Buemi in di Grassi

Can I jst add in Defence of the race? Sam Bird on Buemi.

Buemi had been setting everyone up and breezing past them at turn 4 for the entire race but when he got the chance to do it on Bird, Sam had positioned his car in exactly the right place so he couldn't get through.
 
I can't help feeling that F1/Formula E maybe rather like the second level of bike racing; when it's out in the country only a few fans got to see it but when it's in the city far more go to see it because it's easy to get to. I also feel that there will be more people missing F1 to see E than there are missing E to see F1.
 
I Don't think Formula E even dreams it will get the popularity of fanbase of F1 right now but the series keeps making the right choices on lots of issues which gives it a great chance of growing into a very popular series over the next decade or so a bit like WEC is doing.
 
Anyone wanting to see an F1 race in the UK has the chance to do so by getting some expensive transport to a place out in the sticks then paying over £100 to get in to be over 50 yards from the track. This is much better value than getting a cheap day return (or maybe a tube train) to a circuit where they are 25 yards from the action paying what I am sure is nowhere near three figures in money.

Now I do pay out a lot of money going to F1 races but the average man on the Clapham omnibus thinks that I am crazy.
 
RasputinLives I see where you are coming from. Birds defense against Buemi was awesome. He positioned the car right where it needed to be. He was the only driver out there who was able to hold Buemi back. However, he didn't pass Buemi so can't win that prestigious award.

He did get an honorable mention for his efforts. However Buemi still had to execute some awesome passes all race long. His pass on di Grassi stood out to me because of the late lunge. The eDams in his hands looks like it is in a class of its own. A couple more clean weekends for him and he'll have a commanding lead championship wise.
 
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