Formula E News

RoKit Venturi Racing

Like many other teams on the grid, Venturi has struggled to find consistent form – particularly with it’s second car. 4 no-score races have left the team down in 6^th place in the teams’ championship. Peculiarly it leads the drivers’ championship with Edoardo Mortara. The Swiss driver has had 3 podiums – one of those including a win at the most recent round in Puebla. It was the team’s 2nd win since it joined Formula E and 1/3^rd of it’s total podiums have come in 2020-21 alone.

The other car - driven by Normal Nato - has struggled to find form for much of the season and languishes down in 23^rd place in the drivers’ championship. Nato has had one stand-out moment - a strong 5^th place finish in the second Valencia round. With the team just 30 points behind championship leader’s Mercedes-EQ, it is imperative that Nato finds some form in New York and London.

BMW i Andretti Motorsport

After a shaky start to the season where it only managed 12 points in the first 4 weekends, BMW i Andretti have scored 66 points in the most recent 4 weekends. This turnaround in form has seen the team rise from last in the championship to 7^thand only 1 point behind Venturi. This is something of an achievement in light of Maximilian Gunter’s double DNF in the season opener.

Jake Dennis provided the team with a win in round 2 at Valencia and the British driver sits in 8^th place in the drivers’ championship equal on points with Stoffel Vandoorne. A 4^th and 5^th placed finish for the team in Puebla race 1 hints at the kind of form it is capable of. It’s also worth remembering that on the last visit to New York in 2019, BMW i Andretti secured 2 podiums and 2 double points finishes – scoring more points that weekend than any other team.

Mahindra Racing

Mahindra ended a 24 race podium-less streak when Alexander Sims secured 2^nd place in the 2^nd race in Rome. Another quickly followed in race 2 in Valencia thanks to the other car driven by Alex Lynn. Those two results have been the highlight in a rather disappointing year for Mahindra however – just 34 points scored in the other 7 races.

A double DNF for Lynn in the opening round at Diriyah included a huge accident from which he was lucky to escape unhurt. Without that Mahindra could easily have been in the middle of Venturi and BMW i Andretti’s fight for 6^th in the championship. As it stands the team is 2 points ahead of Porsche and 4 ahead of Nissan e.Dams and will be aiming for the podium once more in New York and London.

TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team

Make no bones about it, Porsche should be leading both championships. Instead it finds itself down in 9^th place with just 68 points and almost no hope of winning either title. A double disqualification for the team at race 1 in Puebla – a race which Pascal Wehrlein had won – thanks to inputting the wrong codes for their tyres has to be the low point though. Wehrlein was also given a post-race penalty which dropped him off the podium in Puebla race 2.

The team lost a total of 36 points in Puebla thanks to the dramas. Porsche also suffered a double DNF in the 1^st Valencia race and has dropped points in various other races thanks to incidents and bad luck. It hasn’t been helped by a barren year for Andre Lotterer outside a 2^nd place finish in race 2 at Valencia.

Nissan e.Dams

For a team which has had 17 wins, 38 podiums and 21 pole positions a total of a solitary podium in 2020-21 is simply unacceptable. Oliver Rowland was promoted to 2^nd place after Wehrlein’s penalty in Puebla race 2 – outside that result it’s been a season to forget.

2015-16 champion Sebastien Buemi has struggled severely to be on the pace all year long and has only scored 11 points from 9 races. Buemi hasn’t scored anything at all for 5 consecutive races. The Swiss driver will be happy to be returning to New York – a location in which he bagged himself a 1^st and a 3^rd on the series last visit there in 2019. The return to London will also evoke happy memories for Buemi since it was there he clinched the title in 2016.

DRAGON / PENSKE AUTOSPORT

Dragon Racing sort of sits in no-mans-land in the championship. The team is 22 points behind Nissan e.Dams and 24 ahead of NIO 333 following a predominantly torrid season of 6 non-scoring finishes.

There has been one podium though, from Nico Muller in race 1 at Valencia and on many occasions Dragon Racing has looked to have plenty of raw pace. It just hasn’t translated into points. The team hasn’t scored points in any of the last 4 races and also has lost Muller to the DTM series for the remainder of the season. Instead Joel Eriksson – who already replaced Muller in Monaco and Puebla - will join Sergio Sette Camara.

NIO 333 Formula E Team

Despite scoring points in 5 of the 9 races so far, NIO 333 finds itself rooted to the bottom of the teams’ championship and remains the only team so far in 2020-21 to fail in scoring podium finish.

There have been flashes of promise in qualifying and the team often finds itself struggling with energy management in the races. If it can get on top of this then it could easily be an outside bet for a podium in the hands of Oliver Turvey in New York and London. Turvey is 2 points ahead of Buemi in the drivers’ championship and must be aiming to remain ahead in the final 4 races. Team-mate Tom Blomqvist will want to get a top 10 finish – the Swede has failed to score in each of the previous 5 races.