Envision Virgin Racing rounded out a successful first day of official Formula E pre-season testing at Valencia’s Ricardo Tormo Circuit.
Taking to the track alongside 10 other teams, drivers Sam Bird and Robin Frijns focused on getting up to speed with their new Audi e-tron FE05 cars, with Bird ending the morning session P7.
Using a modified version of the 3.09km National Circuit, the afternoon stint saw the pair working through the team’s testing programme, notching up almost 300km of running, with Bird ending P11 overall and Frijns just behind in P14.
Commenting at the end of the day Bird said: “Today was a learning curve as we have a lot to learn with the new car and powertrain. Obviously, we had a couple of days of running before this week, but the other teams are ahead of us with regards to set up. I’ve got every confidence in the team though that we will continue to make good progress as the week goes on.”
Frijns said: “Firstly, it’s great to be back in Formula E with Envision Virgin Racing and of course I’m really looking forward to the start of the season. The Audi package looks strong and of course being the first day we still have a lot to learn and things to get up to speed with, but for sure we will work through these over the coming days.”
Envision Virgin Racing’s Managing Director Sylvain Filippi added: “We’ve learnt a lot from today, but we have much more to work through. With Formula E competing on street circuits, it’s always hard to replicate those conditions on a permanent circuit like this, but we’re looking forward to working through our programme.”
Testing continues tomorrow (Wednesday), with the final day on Friday.
Results – Formula E Official Pre-season testing – Day 1 (Combined results)
1. Alexander Sims, BMW i Andretti Motorsport, 1:17.553s
2. Andre Lotterer, DS Techeetah, 1:17.654s
3. Antonio Felix Da Costa, BMW i Andretti Motorsport, 1:17.727s
4. Lucas Di Grassi, Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler, 1:17.732s
5. Daniel Abt, Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler 1:17.819s
6. Jerome d’Ambrosio, Mahindra Racing, 1:17.987s
7. Jean-Eric Vergne, DS Techeetah, 1:18.033s
8. Sebastien Buemi, Nissan e.dams, 1:18.100s
9. Jose Maria Lopez, GEOX Dragon, 1:18.154s
10. Felipe Massa, Venturi Formula E Team, 1:18.176s
11. Sam Bird, Envision Virgin Racing, 1:18.456s
12. Robin Frijns, Envision Virgin Racing, 1:18.690s