Formula E: Bird Flies as Buemi Dives

[Paul Jeffrey]

Sam Bird took his first win of the 2018/19 Formula E season in Chile today, taking victory is the Santiago E-Prix thanks to a mistake from pre-season favourite Sebastien Buemi.

Sam Bird took a dramatic victory in the Santiago E-Prix this weekend, taking his and the Virgin Racing outfit's first victory of the season, surviving a dramatic race as much of the field involved themselves in drama and contact around the unforgiving street circuit in Chile.

Under searing heat at the Parque O'Higgins Circuit, the race would be an event filled with bumps and bruises for the majority of the field - leaving the luckless Felipe Massa amongst others once again in the wall and out of the race - although this time the former Grand Prix winner managed to at least bag a few laps of running before his weekend came to a premature conclusion once again.

At the front of the field it would be Buemi who left the line quickest, the former champion converting his Pole Position into an early race lead ahead of the impressive Wehrlein and Daniel Abt, both drivers settling down to what would become a long duel under the punishing conditions at the challenging venue.

The lead group would slowly edge away from the following field as Buemi continued to press home his advantage, before the Red Bull Racing reserve driver made a crucial mistake heading into the 22nd lap, locking up and heading straight to the outside barriers of turn seven and into retirement, handing a surprise race lead to Bird, followed closely by the continually impressive Wehrlein in his most memorable event of his short Formula E career to date.

Bird would remain ice cool for the remainder of the race, holding off the challenge of Wehrlein and Alex Simms to eventually cross the line in first position, some 6 + seconds ahead as Wehrlein had to back down in the final minutes to conserve energy with his overheating battery - an issue affecting many of the drivers throughout the event.

Sadly for early series pace setter Simms, Santiago would be another disappointed event as he would suffer from a post race penalty that eventually dropped the Englishman to seventh in the final order, promoting Abt to the final podium position, Mortara fourth, Frijns fifth and Mitch Evans an impressive sixth for the struggling Jaguar outfit.

Santiago E-Prix Results:

1. Sam Bird
2. Pascal Wehrlein
3. Daniel Abt
4. Edoardo Mortara
5. Robin Frijns
6. Mitch Evans
7. Alexander Sims
8. Jérôme d'Ambrosio
9. Oliver Turvey
10. Jose Maria Lopez
11. Nelson Piquet Jr.
12. Lucas di Grassi
13. Andre Lotterer
14. Gary Paffett

DNF Oliver Rowland
DNF Antonio Felix da Costa
DNF Jean-Eric Vergne
DNF Sébastien Buemi
DNF Stoffel Vandoorne
DNF Maximilian Gunther
DNF Felipe Massa
DNF Tom Dillmann

Like what you see here at RD? Don't forget to like, subscribe and follow us on social media!


 ​

 

[Kurupt CDN]

With all the dislikes towards electric racing here at RD how did this article make the front page and the 24 hrs of Daytona didn't even get any coverage or mentioned here once this week?

 

[dersirromet]

With all the dislikes towards electric racing here at RD how did this article make the front page and the 24 hrs of Daytona didn't even get any coverage or mentioned here once this week?

It did, even before you posted. Also: Why should a highly vocal group of mostly irrational racing-conservatives be considered as the reference for the choices of topics?

Question for the RD staff: Why the spoilers? Just use a neutral name and picture for the title of the posts when you report races, theres always the possibility that people are interested in watching the replays.

 

[apex11]

Stunning race!! Loved every second of it.
I also think F1 should take their lead and say when a driver is using his engine map boost mode.
So in Lewis's case the whole race.
Merc in next year, full works outfit.
Few more years and F1 will be electric....... won't bother me, i love RACING.

 

[MarkR]

Watched and enjoyed the whole race. Some interesting racing incidents throughout including a couple of touring car style rear quarter taps that would have caused sim racing feuds.

The cars again looked tricky to handle on the bumpy surface, both in the braking zones and on exit. Vandoorne had just won the extra 25s of fan boost power when he lost it into the wall, just looked like he went in to the corner too fast. Either these cars are more difficult to drive or Vandoorne isn’t quite the talent he was once thought to be.

I even like the noises the cars make!

If someone made a decently priced and performing trackday car I’d buy one. They’re fast enough and so few moving parts mean that much less to go wrong.

 

[NBH]

Watched and enjoyed the whole race. Some interesting racing incidents throughout including a couple of touring car style rear quarter taps that would have caused sim racing feuds.

The cars again looked tricky to handle on the bumpy surface, both in the braking zones and on exit. Vandoorne had just won the extra 25s of fan boost power when he lost it into the wall, just looked like he went in to the corner too fast. Either these cars are more difficult to drive or Vandoorne isn’t quite the talent he was once thought to be.

I even like the noises the cars make!

If someone made a decently priced and performing trackday car I’d buy one. They’re fast enough and so few moving parts mean that much less to go wrong.

Incoming EV/FE haters watch out they attack without warning..

 

[ears]

Enjoyed the race but yeah, agree. Fewer front page spoilers wouldn't be a bad thing.

 

[protonv5]

Just drove by a coal power plant. Man, it really can belch out the sulfer smoke. What a smell. They're gonna be cranking these up more, now that electric cars are a thing. Gotta produce those killowatts! Man I can really see all the EV hype now. And saving the planet at the same time. So great. I feel really great. But I guess the emissions are not coming out of the cars, so, hey. Makes people feel better anyway.

 

[DrRob]

Hi chaps, I missed the race, because I watched Daytona Rolex 24. Did anybody find the official youtube-link to the full race? If so, could you please share it? Much appreciated!

 

[apex11]

Just drove by a coal power plant. Man, it really can belch out the sulfer smoke. What a smell. They're gonna be cranking these up more, now that electric cars are a thing. Gotta produce those killowatts! Man I can really see all the EV hype now. And saving the planet at the same time. So great. I feel really great. But I guess the emissions are not coming out of the cars, so, hey. Makes people feel better anyway.

Grow up. This is a sim racing forum.

 

[Dan Costa]

Hi chaps, I missed the race, because I watched Daytona Rolex 24. Did anybody find the official youtube-link to the full race? If so, could you please share it? Much appreciated!

keep this link in your favorites
https://www.reddit.com/r/MotorsportsReplays/

 

[Spocky]

Watched and enjoyed the whole race. Some interesting racing incidents throughout including a couple of touring car style rear quarter taps that would have caused sim racing feuds.

The cars again looked tricky to handle on the bumpy surface, both in the braking zones and on exit. Vandoorne had just won the extra 25s of fan boost power when he lost it into the wall, just looked like he went in to the corner too fast. Either these cars are more difficult to drive or Vandoorne isn’t quite the talent he was once thought to be.

I even like the noises the cars make!

If someone made a decently priced and performing trackday car I’d buy one. They’re fast enough and so few moving parts mean that much less to go wrong.

It's not an extra 25s of power from Fanboost, it's 25 Kilowatts for 5 seconds, I believe.

What happened was he took a bit more speed in to defend from the car behind (Gunther, perhaps?), got onto the marbles, and ran wide into the wall. FE cars are notoriously tricky to master, many a highly rated driver has been humiliated because of it. Even Lotterer who has become a quick FE driver was absolutely appalling at the start of his FE career.

Got to say, I'm with you about the sound. I'm more partial to the Gen 1 sound though, personally.

 

[protonv5]

Grow up. This is a sim racing forum.

Lol. Nice dig space cadet. You're pretty good at it. Oh wait. That's all you're good at.
Anyway, I thought this was a political site. You know, a green movement site. Isn't it obvious?

 

[apex11]

Lol. Nice dig space cadet. You're pretty good at it. Oh wait. That's all you're good at.
Anyway, I thought this was a political site. You know, a green movement site. Isn't it obvious?

No one here cares.
I love racing. Goodbye.

 

[protonv5]

No one here cares.
I love racing. Goodbye.

A lot of people do care. Why pretend they don't ? Anyway see ya. Too bad you're leaving. Our time with you has been dumb.

 

[apex11]

A lot of people do care. Why pretend they don't ? Anyway see ya. Too bad you're leaving. Our time with you has been dumb.

I'm going no where..... why are you in a thread about electric racing cars if you hate the idea so much?

 

[Typ190]

great race, not as good as the first two but still lots of stuff to talk about. first, of course wehrleins successful actual debut, p2 quali, well technically p3. p2 in the race, almost getting first, great stuff by him, cant believe the two leaders in the driver championship (before the race) started so far in the back and both techeetahs werent that fast either. vanndorne bottled it, he had a great chance to score some points but he failed. buemi, oh buemi, p1 and the pressure gets to him, i love how punishing formula e is with its street tracks, it really rewards consistency unlike any other racing series.
after 3 races, youre still as clueless as before the first race on who will win the drivers and cunstructors championship which is awesome

 

[MoerasGrizzly]

Hi chaps, I missed the race, because I watched Daytona Rolex 24. Did anybody find the official youtube-link to the full race? If so, could you please share it? Much appreciated!

The Formula E youtube channel uploads the full races a week or two after they've been ran.

I'm going no where..... why are you in a thread about electric racing cars if you hate the idea so much?

I should tell you a story about how I learned to stop worrying and use the ignore button

 

[BrunoBæ]

Just drove by a coal power plant. Man, it really can belch out the sulfer smoke. What a smell. They're gonna be cranking these up more, now that electric cars are a thing. Gotta produce those killowatts! Man I can really see all the EV hype now. And saving the planet at the same time. So great. I feel really great. But I guess the emissions are not coming out of the cars, so, hey. Makes people feel better anyway.

Hehe that depends of where the E-cars get their juice from.
If it was from Denmark today then about 50% of the juice would be from renewable energy (windpower).
https://cleantechnica.com/2018/01/06/44-wind-denmark-smashed-already-huge-wind-energy-records-2017/

But OK the race was run in Chile where renewable energy supply about 40%.
https://www.windpowermonthly.com/article/1455307/chile-world-class-destination-renewables

So my good man - get your facts right before you talk
Or ‎make a fool of yourself

 

[RichardHessels]

Hehe that depends of where the E-cars get their juice from.
If it was from Denmark today then about 50% of the juice would be from renewable energy (windpower).
https://cleantechnica.com/2018/01/06/44-wind-denmark-smashed-already-huge-wind-energy-records-2017/

But OK the race was run in Chile where renewable energy supply about 40%.
https://www.windpowermonthly.com/article/1455307/chile-world-class-destination-renewables

So my good man - get your facts right before you talk
Or ‎make a fool of yourself

They mainly get the juice from diesel generators, because most locations can't handle the amount of power that is needed for the event. Most inner city locations are not prepared for these kind of power requirements.