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With less than 24 hours until the lights go out for the 2017 FIA Formula E Julius Baer Mexico City ePrix, we caught up with last year’s eventual winner, Jerome D’Ambrosio to talk us through a lap of the Formula E track on the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
“First of all the with the start/finish line, then you get to turn one, obviously it’s different this year. It’s going to be interesting, a faster right hander but at the same time, I think we are going to have more overtaking here. As you could see from last year, turn one was an easy spot to defend, Lucas (Di Grassi) managed to overtake with the FanBoost but otherwise it was easy to take a line blocking the way for the chicane and so yeah, this is going to be different for this year. I think that is a good thing.”
“Turn two for us is not really a corner, its flat out. Then you get towards turn three, which is very technical, it is all about getting that breaking right for turn three and it is easy to get it wrong, to overshoot yourself, because the tricky bit there is that you are not breaking on a straight line but you are breaking whilst you’re still turning. Which makes breaking a challenge.”
“This year inside of turn three you’ve got walls so we are really not going to be able to cut the corner like last year. Then you have turn four, it’s all about how you approach turn three. Turn five is not a corner, it’s just the exit of turn four.”
“Then turn six is an interesting one, quite a fast one by Formula E standards. It is a corner where you can go quite wide as well, you can use all the track on the exit and just got to make sure you come back right in time for turn seven. Turn seven, eight and nine it’s really like one corner and you kind of loose the speed throughout the corners, so turn seven is quite fast and turn eight is slower and then you can get a little bit on the power but not too much. Then you get into turn nine, which is a hairpin. So yeah, that is quite technical actually, if you get turn seven wrong, you will get turn eight wrong and it is going to compromise everything.”
“Then you have turn ten and eleven, actually the most bumpy part of the track. It is very challenging in that respect. Although it is nothing special in terms of the corner itself it is just so bumpy, that you can easily go wide and make a mistake, it is quite narrow there. Then, turn twelve, again there it’s a tricky one, because you actually go quicker than what you think you can. But the wall is really close, no margin for error, it’s bumpy on the way in. So it’s quite challenging in that respect. Turn thirteen is not a corner and then you have turn fourteen. Exactly the same challenge as turn three, you are not straight when you brake for this corner. So you have got to try to get the car as straight as you can, but you never get it completely straight. Very different from last year, last year you could easily overshoot yourself and cut the chicane as you saw in the race. This year they have put a wall there so that’s gone.”
“Going into that chicane you really have to make sure and there is a wall on the inside of turn fourteen and on the inside of turn fifteen. So that chicane, you really have to keep it clean, you cannot cut it anymore. Don’t cut through it and don’t use the kerbs as much anymore, so it will be a bit slower than last year for sure. Very important to have a good exit, because turn sixteen, seventeen is all the way flat-out back to turn one.”
“The track itself is quite interesting, you know. It’s a good one, it’s a challenging one, the infield is quite technical and then those chicanes, turn one and the last chicane are going to be very different from last year. Turn one because of the shape, the last chicane because “you just can’t cut as much you use to. Overall, I think it’s a great track. There will be more overtaking with the changes to the layout. And it is very special with the infield stadium, so yeah it is great being here.”
“I don’t know if it is going to suit our car in particular, but last year it did. This year is a new car but for sure we kind of have an idea of what’s needed to be quick around here. So hopefully we can replicate a good result.”
Check out where to watch the race here >> http://www.fiaformulae.com/en/championship/tv-schedule/