Tag: formula one

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Cassidy goes top after a thriller in Rome

15 July 2023

Envision Racing’s Nick Cassidy claimed another podium to retake the lead of the Formula E Drivers’ Championship standings at the Rome E-Prix on Saturday.

The heat was on in the Italian capital as the 2022–23 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship motored towards its climax. After a dramatic race, amid sweltering heat wave conditions, Envision Racing’s Nick Cassidy raced superbly to take second, confirming his seventh visit to the podium in 2023, and retakes the lead of the Drivers’ Championship.

Cassidy started the weekend just one point shy of Jake Dennis at the summit of the Drivers’ Championship standings, and heading into Sunday’s second race of the weekend the Kiwi driver leads his British rival by five points. Coming home behind eventual winner Mitch Evans, Cassidy once again executed a superb race strategy, mixing aggression and decisive overtaking with calm energy saving. 

As well as ensuring a return to the top of the Drivers’ Championship, Cassidy’s points haul places Envision Racing at the head of the Teams’ Championship going into Sunday’s Round 14.

Cassidy’s Envision Racing team-mate Sébastien Buemi enjoyed a strong qualifying. Starting fourth, the Envision Racing driver recovered from a slow start to run in eighth, looking good before slamming into Sam Bird’s stricken Jaguar, as part of an unavoidable chain reaction involving multiple cars, causing a lengthy race stoppage.  

Thankfully all drivers involved emerged unscathed from the biggest accident of the year.

QUALIFYING

Both Envision Racing drivers headed out in Group B qualifying for the opening race of the weekend in Rome, and Buemi held the second fastest time throughout the opening phase. And second is where the Swiss driver would end up, as more crucially, a crash from Jake Hughes in the dying seconds ended the session prematurely, meant Cassidy would end up ninth on the grid and have no chance to make the shootout.

It was left to Buemi to take up the challenge for Envision Racing in the knock-out phase of qualifying, and he took on McLaren’s Rene Rast as track temperatures continued to rise. After a tense duel, it was Buemi who brilliantly mastered the heat and bumps in Rome to nail the final sector progress into the semi-finals.

And in the second semi-final, Buemi went up against eventual pole position-winner Evans.It was the Jaguar driver who bettered the Envision Racing machine of Buemi to hand the former Formula E champion a fourth place slot on the starting grid.

THE RACE

At the start of the weekend’s opening race, Sam Bird snatched the lead from polesitter Evans as Buemi slipped back immediately, coming to a virtual standstill halfway around the opening lap due to a wayward Maserati. This relegated Buemi to ninth, but aided team-mate Cassidy who slipped by, finding himself in sixth by the end of the opening lap, one place behind championship leader Dennis.

On lap two the first real drama occurred when championship contender Pascal Wehrlein suffered a puncture, relegating the German driver to the rear of the pack. Back up front, Bird cycled to the lead, whilst Cassidy looked to keep in touch with the top five, as Buemi recovered a place back to eighth.

A crashed Andre Lotterer brought out a safety car on lap three, closing up the pack. At the restart the two leading Jaguar cars swapped places with Evans once more assuming the lead with the two Envision Racing cars separated by the Maserati of Maximilian Günther.

Ahead of Cassidy it was all change, and by lap seven Sacha Fenestraz split the two Jaguars, taking second place, followed by Rast who took third, relegating Bird to fourth. One lap later Fenestraz took the lead as a huge crash involving the Jaguar of Bird, an unsighted Buemi and Edoardo Mortara immediately brought out the red flag, stopping the race.

With heavily damaged cars, carbon fibre shards and debris littering the circuit, a lengthy clean up was required, and when the action got back underway, Cassidy restarted in fifth, one of just 13 cars remaining from the 21 that started.

An understandably cautious Cassidy was passed by Günther on the opening lap of the restart, as Fenestraz headed the field. Cassidy’s caution made way for bravery a few corners later as Cassidy overtook Günther to claim fifth with an artful pass.

Rast became the next target for Cassidy on lap 12, and the Envision Racing driver made a brilliant move at Turn 14, to slot in behind Dennis and apply enormous pressure as Günther continued to hassle.

With 10 laps remaining, the battle at the front really came to the boil as Dennis hit the lead from Fenestraz, Evans and Cassidy. On lap 17, Cassidy claimed third at Turn 4, setting about new second place man Evans as the top three closed up.

Entering the final five laps, Evans headed Dennis with Cassidy just about keeping touch in third and pulling away from Günther. As Evans and Cassidy took late-race Attack Mode phases, Dennis assumed the lead, only to be re-passed by Evans as Cassidy closed in and snatched second from Dennis. With two laps added to the initial 25-lap distance, Cassidy set about chasing fellow New Zealander Evans as Dennis slipped further down the field. 

At the chequered flag it was Evans who triumphed, with Cassidy close behind in second place. Günther completed the podium with Dennis holding on to fourth, losing his championship lead to the Envision Racing driver.

“At the start of the race I didn’t expect to be on the podium,” revealed Cassidy. “We had a quick car, and more than anything I was disappointed with qualifying as we had a good shot to make it into the duels, but that was what it was, and we started ninth and had a good race. I felt at the end of the race Mitch was a bit stronger than me, but it is a good result and we will regroup tonight, look at where we are and we will go again tomorrow.”

Drivers’ standings (after Rd 13):
1. Nick Cassidy, 171pts
2. Jake Dennis, 166pts
3. Mitch Evans, 151pts
4. Pascal Wehrlein, 144pts
5. Jean-Éric Vergne, 107pts
8. Sébastien Buemi, 72pts

Teams’ standings (after Rd 13):
1. Envision Racing, 243pts
2. Porsche Formula E Team, 237pts
3. Jaguar Racing, 213pts
4. Avalanche Andretti, 189pts
5. DS Penske, 149pts

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DOUBLE POINTS FOR ENVISION RACING AT THE MEXICO E-PRIX

14 January 2023

SÉBASTIEN BUEMI KICKED OFF HIS ENVISION RACING CAREER WITH A STELLAR SIXTH AS GEN3 DELIVERED THE THRILLS AND SPILLS IN MEXICO CITY

Envision Racing’s new boy Sébastien Buemi showed pace and class as an exciting new chapter for the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship kicked off in Mexico City with the GEN3 era, the fastest, most efficient iteration of the series, and both Buemi and team-mate Nick Cassidy showed that they are ready to fight for success in 2023.

Buemi drove superbly, calling upon all of his world class racecraft, mixing attack and defence with some serious pace from his Envision Racing machine, to take sixth place with the podium well in his sights.

Envision Racing team-mate Cassidy had plenty to be cheerful about under blue skies at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez. The Kiwi driver got his head down, kept out of trouble and managed to bring it home ninth to score two vital points. 

In qualifying, Buemi proved to be no slouch in the first ever GEN3 session, propelling his Jaguar I-Type 6 into the head-to-head shootout, only to narrowly lose out to eventual pole position-winner Lucas di Grassi.

Buemi would start the Mexico City E-Prix a solid seventh, whilst team-mate Cassidy got his campaign underway from 12th on the grid.

THE RACE

MEXICO E-PRIX

All 22 drivers executed a sensible start to the opening race of the season, and by the time the first lap of the 2022–23 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship was complete, Buemi found himself in eighth with Cassidy running 13th as a safety car was triggered due to a collision between Robin Frijns and Norman Nato.

The race got back underway, minus Frijns and Nato, on lap six, only for an almost instantaneous second safety car period actioned as a result of Sam Bird’s stricken Jaguar at turn two. At the restart, Di Grassi led Jake Dennis ,as Buemi looked to find a way around Formula E rookie Sacha Fenestraz. 

By lap 14, Buemi made his way back to where he started, taking seventh and hounding Fenestraz. Meanwhile, with an Attack Mode advantage, Cassidy made his way back to his 12th place to slot in behind reigning champion Stoffel Vandoorne.

Buemi elected to trigger his first Attack Mode phase on lap 15, slipping back to eighth behind António Félix da Costa. The Swiss ace engaged in a mouth-watering duel with his fellow former champion, before a third safety car was sent out as the Maserati of Edoardo Mortara spun into the barriers at turn one.

Restart number three was headed by Dennis from di Grassi and Jake Hughes, as Buemi continued his pursuit of da Costa with Mitch Evans following the Envision Racing man. On lap 26, Buemi claimed seventh place to resume his chase of Fenestraz as things started to heat up at the front of the field.

Seventh became sixth for Buemi a lap later as Fenestraz deviated to take Attack Mode. Next on Buemi’s hit list was the Avalanche Andretti of Andre Lotterer. Could Buemi reel in the German driver as the race entered the closing laps?

The answer was yes, as the Envision Racing driver slashed Lotterer’s advantage. Eight laps were added to the original 36-lap race duration as a result of the three safety car interruptions, but could Buemi make his way by and up into fifth? 

Buemi’s quest for the top five was helped as Lotterer engaged in some close quarter combat with Hughes. The squabble meant that as the race approached the final three laps, Buemi could smell a podium place as the final car in a bracing four-way scrap for third before da Costa joined the train to try and wrestle sixth from Buemi.

On the final lap, Buemi was forced to defend from da Costa, which he did artfully to cross the line in sixth, as up front Dennis won convincingly from Pascal Wehrlein and di Grassi. Not to far behind Buemi, Cassidy kept his nose clean to end up a creditable ninth in Mexico City and kick off the year with a well-earned 10 points for the team.

“My first weekend with Envision Racing and the GEN3 era, and I am really happy with sixth place,” commented Buemi. “I think we actually could have achieved a slightly better result, and we finished the race with a lot of energy remaining, and we had good pace. A small mistake in qualifying meant I wasn’t as fast as I could have been and could have ended up higher on the grid, but all in all I think it has been a very good weekend. The team has done an amazing job and to get both cars in the points and sixth and ninth is a great result. I’m full of confidence and looking forward to the next race in Riyadh.”

Drivers’ standings (after Rd 1):
1. Jake Dennis, 26pts
2. Pascal Wehrlein, 18pts
3. Lucas di Grassi , 18pts
4. Andre Lotterer, 12pts
5. Jake Hughes, 10pts
6. Sébastien Buemi, 8pts
9. Nick Cassidy, 2pts

Teams’ standings (after Rd 1):
1. Avalanche Andretti, 38pts
2. Porsche Formula E Team, 24pts
3. Mahindra Racing, 18pts
4. McLaren Formula E Team, 10pts
5. Envision Racing, 10pts