What are the main topics emerging after the double header in Jakarta? Let’s have a look.
Photo credit: Formula E Media Bank / Sam Bagnall
Although Jakarta E-Prix didn’t provide the usual Formula E chaos, it was still full of interesting moments, overtakes and situations. Which ones are the most important ones? Let’s dig into the lessons from Jakarta!
1.Tough weekend for Envision
It was meant to happen during one of the weekends this season, and it seems Jakarta was this weekend for Envision. It could be the scorching hot temperatures that were not in favor of the Jaguar powertrain, as all of the Jaguar powered cars seemed to struggle a bit during Rounds 10 and 11 (despite Evans’ P3 in R11). On Saturday, it was P7 for Cassidy and P21 for Buemi. On Sunday, it’s been P10 for Buemi and P18 for Cassidy. This weaker form this weekend meant Cassidy dropped back to P3 in the drivers standings, but he’s still only 6 points away from Wehrlein in P1. Fortunately for them, if the issues this weekend were related to the temperatures in Jakarta, the rest of the season should be more of a smooth sailing for Envision.
The problems started already in free practice on Friday, with Buemi in P10 and Cassidy in P17. The troubles continued on Saturday, with Buemi qualifying in P13 and Cassidy in P10. The first race of the weekend proved difficult for overtaking, with the amount of dust sitting on track, and it continued on Sunday as well. The regular consistency from Envision was missing this weekend, but we know the team will come back stronger in Portland later this month, and with such small gaps between P1 and P4 in the championship standings, there’s still room for Envision to ace the remaining of the season.
2. Jaguar faces its demons
Despite a P3 finish for Evans in Round 11, it’s been a tough weekend for Jaguar too. Especially Round 10 proved especially difficult for the team, considering Evans DNF’ed from the race after he was taken out by his own teammate Bird, who classified P20 after the contact. It’s already a second situation like this for Jaguar this season, after what happened between Evans and Bird in Hyderabad earlier this season. Even though Evans managed to hold onto his P3 position and stand on the lowest part of the podium on Sunday, Bird did not even start the race, due to an issue just before the start, where he was rolled back into the pitlane for an investigation from his engineers. Definitely a tough pill to swallow for a team currently in P3 in the teams championship….
After this round, a lot of chats and rumors spread around about Bird potentially not getting the seat in Jaguar for next season. Obviously, after the incident, Sam apologized to his team for the situation. Will he amp up his performance in the remaining of the season, in order to keep his seat? We guess time will tell.
3. Solid weekend for Nissan
On a much better note – Nissan had a very solid weekend in Jakarta. Although Saturday was difficult for both of the drivers, where they finished out of points, Sunday was redemption time for both Nato and Fenestraz – with Fenestraz finishing in P4 and Nato in P5. Fenestraz has been showing good pace throughout the season already, but it seems that in Jakarta, Nato found his groove as well. Can they continue this good fortune in Portland, Rome and London?
4. Maserati’s 50/50
Now, you might think we’re being tough on Maserati. Their performance this weekend has been great, with Günther winning on Sunday! Well….despite Max’s great performance throughout the weekend, Maserati is still nowhere close where it should be. First of all, human errors still plague the team, even though we’re already over halfway into the season. Mortara’s mistake on Saturday, that put him into the wall on the opening lap of the second free practice session was a reminder of that. If Maserati wants to stay in the front, both of the drivers in their team need to perform their best, considering how tough the competition is between the Porsche-powered and Jaguar-powered teams.
Günther has been on it this weekend, but will he be able to replicate this result during any other race in the remaining of the season? For now, the performance of Maserati fluctuates too much in order to bring solid results. Considering Mortara still has a lot to do to get his pace match with the rest of the pack, the following few races might prove difficult for the team. Less errors, more podiums.
5. Tough start for the newest Rookies
This weekend we’ve got two new rookies in the grid – David Beckmann in Avalanche Andretti (although he’s only subbing for Lotterer due to his Le Mans duties) and Roberto Merhi in Mahindra, who replaced Oliver Rowland who departed from the team mid season. Jakarta didn’t go easy on them, considering Beckmann finished Round 10 in P16 and retired from the race in Round 11, and Merhi finished P18 and P17 consecutively over the race weekend.
Obviously, it’s a tough job to jump into any series mid-season, but it must be even tougher to do so in Formula E. Many drivers across the season spoke about the amount of prep for each race, and the amount of wrestling with the new Gen3 required in the race, so kudos to both of the drivers for even signing up for the challenge. Although Beckmann probably won’t return for the remaining of the season, as Lotterer will get his seat back, we might see Merhi continue till the end, despite Jehan Daruvala being Mahindra’s reserve driver.
Mahindra seemed to be struggling since the start of the season, and situation like this are definitely adding up to the problems. We hope they’ll overcome their difficulties, as they’re such a staple name in Formula E.
6. Swaps in the leader-board
Obviously, coming from the lack of points scored by Cassidy this weekend, we’ve had a reshuffle in the championship standings. Wehrlein, after winning Round 10 and finishing in points on Sunday catapulted him back into P1, followed by Dennis who finished on P2 in both of the races of Jakarta jumped back into P2 in the standings, demoting Cassidy to P3. Evans remains in P4.
Right now, the title fight seems to be going on between those four, with maybe Vergne joining if he can holster up some good results in Portland, Rome and London. These five drivers are extremely close to each other in terms of points (its only 6 points difference between P1 and P3), so the rest of the season will get really intense. That’s how we like it.
7. A little underwhelming from Jakarta
To finish off, we need to say that although Sunday definitely provided a more interesting race compared to Saturday, Jakarta didn’t give us the usual Formula E chaos. Some might love it, some might hate it, but even in terms of overtakes, these two races were definitely not the record breakers we’re used to from some of the races that already happened this season.
What needs to be said tho about Jakarta, is that for the second year in a row it provided a fantastic atmosphere over the race weekend. The fans seem to live and breathe motorsports, and we’re happy to have them in the calendar! Maybe next season the racing will get more spicy? Let’s see!
These are our lessons from Jakarta, but in case we’ve missed something important – let us know in the comments down below. We’ll come back shortly with some of the drivers quotes from across the weekend, so make sure to stay with us for some more content. For now – enjoy the race, wherever you are ✨
