So Formula E returns to Europe with a first time trip to race around the streets of gay Paris. The organizers have made a lot of fuss over getting a race in the French capital and even more over the track go round 'monuments of old' and 'visions of the future'. To be honest the track doesn't look too brilliant but it races round the Hotel de Ville which I'm sure will be full of visiting VIP's from the FIA. The track also goes past the Army Museum and the Tomb of Napoleon. Not the Eiffel Tower though unfortunately but I am expecting it to look fairly cool even if it can;t match going through Red Square in Russia.
So the French public can not only look forward to a glorious race in their capital but also cheering on an all conquering French team? Sadly no. Once again Ze Germans have overcome the French and against overwhelming odds its the Audi Abt team who arrive at the race in the lead of the teams championship and there driver Lucas Di Grassi who is on top of the drivers championship. There is no question that the EDAMS is the better car and that Buemi is by far the quickest in the field in that package but every weekend they combine to muck things up. Buemi (commonly known as the Moose) is really showing that when it comes to handling pressure he is far from adapt. After and awful race of moaning and complaining in Mexico City he then pulled off stupid move of the century to take himself out in Long Beach. More worryingly he was only in those positions through his inability to get qualifying right. When he is calm and focused we have seen him take pole, fastest lap and easy race win. EDAMS will be hoping that there home race is where that Buemi chooses to reemerge. God knows they can't hold out much hope for Nico Prost.
Di Grassi is laughing really because if he wins the race/title he's awesome and if he loses it then EDAMS had the better car. Lucas is fairly consistent so I expect even if EDAMS pull off a clean race he'll be there in 2nd. It will be interesting to see him mix it up though and with the usually hapless Danny Abt getting a podium last time out there are signs that the Audi Abt car is catching the EDAMS machine up. Virgin and Sam Bird seem to be improving every race too and, whilst Birdy does have the tendency to do some silly things on track, more often than not he holds his own with the front two. If Virgin and Bird are having a good day we could see a three way battle for the lead. Dragon Racing also occasionally hit their stride with Duval and D'ambrosio both showing an impressive turn of speed this season. If one of them lands pole and keeps the lead off the start it would back the race up nicely as we saw in Mexico how difficult the Dragon cars are to pass.
Other interesting factors will Antonio Felix Da Costa and Robin Frinjs lugging around last years machinery. Da Costa has really been denied some amazing results by reliability and has even been at the front in a car which shouldn't compete with the others. Frinjs too has got closer than he should and would have scored a good result but for Buemi crashing into last time out. You also have to hope that maybe being in France wakes JEV up as he really has not shown any of the talent we know he has and we know he has the car to do it.
The race will be this Saturday (23rd April) and will be live on ITV4 (I think we even get the quali) in the UK. Not sure on the international coverage.
Oh and just because I don't know where else to put it - Here's a man doing a backflip over a moving Formula E car. (Skip to 2:50 just to see the stunt).
So the French public can not only look forward to a glorious race in their capital but also cheering on an all conquering French team? Sadly no. Once again Ze Germans have overcome the French and against overwhelming odds its the Audi Abt team who arrive at the race in the lead of the teams championship and there driver Lucas Di Grassi who is on top of the drivers championship. There is no question that the EDAMS is the better car and that Buemi is by far the quickest in the field in that package but every weekend they combine to muck things up. Buemi (commonly known as the Moose) is really showing that when it comes to handling pressure he is far from adapt. After and awful race of moaning and complaining in Mexico City he then pulled off stupid move of the century to take himself out in Long Beach. More worryingly he was only in those positions through his inability to get qualifying right. When he is calm and focused we have seen him take pole, fastest lap and easy race win. EDAMS will be hoping that there home race is where that Buemi chooses to reemerge. God knows they can't hold out much hope for Nico Prost.
Di Grassi is laughing really because if he wins the race/title he's awesome and if he loses it then EDAMS had the better car. Lucas is fairly consistent so I expect even if EDAMS pull off a clean race he'll be there in 2nd. It will be interesting to see him mix it up though and with the usually hapless Danny Abt getting a podium last time out there are signs that the Audi Abt car is catching the EDAMS machine up. Virgin and Sam Bird seem to be improving every race too and, whilst Birdy does have the tendency to do some silly things on track, more often than not he holds his own with the front two. If Virgin and Bird are having a good day we could see a three way battle for the lead. Dragon Racing also occasionally hit their stride with Duval and D'ambrosio both showing an impressive turn of speed this season. If one of them lands pole and keeps the lead off the start it would back the race up nicely as we saw in Mexico how difficult the Dragon cars are to pass.
Other interesting factors will Antonio Felix Da Costa and Robin Frinjs lugging around last years machinery. Da Costa has really been denied some amazing results by reliability and has even been at the front in a car which shouldn't compete with the others. Frinjs too has got closer than he should and would have scored a good result but for Buemi crashing into last time out. You also have to hope that maybe being in France wakes JEV up as he really has not shown any of the talent we know he has and we know he has the car to do it.
The race will be this Saturday (23rd April) and will be live on ITV4 (I think we even get the quali) in the UK. Not sure on the international coverage.
Oh and just because I don't know where else to put it - Here's a man doing a backflip over a moving Formula E car. (Skip to 2:50 just to see the stunt).
I suppose we can put some of that down to the old limping in for car 2 effect though.
