Di Grassi: Everyone has raised their game

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Di Grassi: Everyone has raised their game

Di Grassi: Everyone has raised their game

Something unusual happened in Marrakesh. It wasn’t Felix Rosenqvist bagging pole on only his second race – given his previous record on street tracks, he was always going to be a contender sooner or later.

It wasn’t TECHEETAH setting the pace in qualifying – and failing to make it out in Super Pole – either. Jean-Eric Vergne had been rapid in pre-season testing, while the all-new team was experiencing a few teething issues as it got to grips with the series.

It wasn’t even Jose Maria Lopez – the only driver with any experience of the track – leaving himself on the back foot by crashing twice in practice. Hitting the wall is an occupational hazard in street racing, and while it’s unusual for a driver of his ability to do it twice in the space of an hour, it was hardly unprecedented.

No, what was unusual about the race in Marrakesh was that for the first time in the championship’s history, Lucas di Grassi was not in the fight for a podium position.

Following a lacklustre qualifying he started back in 12th – not his worst Formula E starting position but the lowest following a session that was seemingly trouble-free.

As he always does he moved up in order in the race. But unlike Putrajaya in Season 1, where he started 18th, and Hong Kong at the start of this campaign, where he lined up 19th, there was no sensational charge to the podium. Instead he came home fifth, over 10 seconds away from Rosenqvist in third.

“Marrakesh was our worst race in Formula E,” he admits. “It might have been the only race in the history of Formula E that we didn’t have the pace or the opportunity to finish on the podium. Other times I got disqualified from the race or I broke down. Marrakesh was a bad performance, and we don’t know why.”

Di Grassi and the team did what they do best and fought back in style at the next round, as he finally claimed his first Julius Baer Pole Position. He led the opening few laps in Buenos Aires, but lacked the speed to keep the Renault-powered cars of Sebastien Buemi and Jean-Eric Vergne at bay, although he still managed to claim the 15th podium of his 24-race Formula E career.

“We had some problems in the race,” he says, “but we are not at the pace of the other Renaults. I think with the Renault drivetrain they have an advantage and at the same time, we are not the clear second anymore. Last year we were clearly the second best team. Buemi was making mistakes and I was there all the time winning races and making sure I put the pressure on. This year, there are a lot of people who have raised the game a lot, pretty much everyone. We have a second Renault team, so they have four cars, Citroen has invested a lot of resources, NEXTEV has made a step, Mahindra and Faraday Future Dragon Racing has a similar drivetrain combination which is good. So we are clearly not second anymore.”

The regulations in Formula E require the manufacturers to submit their powertrain designs for homologation before the start of the season. This means the design is locked down and removes the potential for a costly development war.

However, it also means that overcoming a performance deficit is incredibly hard. There are still areas where teams can make gains, most notably in the efficient use of the battery power, which is a much a product of the correct energy management software as it is the design of the motor, invertor and gearbox.

There is also the traditional route of refining the set-up. While a Formula E car doesn’t generate masses of downforce, there are still some adjustments that can be made the the suspension, tyre pressure and wing angles that can help to maximise the potential of the car’s inherent ability.

Ahead of the Mexico City ePrix, di Grassi lies second in the points, 29 behind Buemi. This is the exact amount that a driver can score with a perfect weekend – pole, win, fastest lap. It’s a big gap to claw back, but the season is only a third of the way in and it was during this part of the season last year that di Grassi supercharged his title charge.

“If you remember Beijing last year, it was an even more dominant performance from Renault e.dams,” he argues. “They were fastest lap, pole position and won the race. So, to say if they are better or worse, relative to us, I don’t know. What I can say is, that he [Buemi] is not doing mistakes anymore. So it makes my life much more difficult. Now we have just raised the game with Audi’s involvement. We have to raise the game so we try to improve in anywhere we can and as soon as we can, to try and catch up the Renault knowhow with their four machines.”

Di Grassi’s next chance to fight back come at the Julius Baer Mexico City ePrix on April 1. Last year he was a dominant winner on the road, but was disqualified when he car failed post-race checks for being 1.8kg underweight. The team put the discrepancy down to a change of seatbelt supplier.

His rise last season also co-incided with Buemi hitting trouble, especially in qualifying, and he remains hopeful that history can repeat itself.

“The tracks are relatively the same, and we don’t really know the what the Renault weak point is, nor do we know our own to be honest. So we don’t know if with a cold race how can the tyres shape up, what we know is that they had less performance last season with the cold environments in some of the European races. So we hope this happens again, if not this is going to be a very tough championship to win.”