Difficult start to the season for ERT Formula E Team in Mexico
Silverstone/Shanghai - 13 January 2024
ERT Formula E Team had a tough start to Season 10 of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship in Mexico City, with Sérgio Sette Câmara unable to make the start of the race, while Dan Ticktum, despite making some good positions up in the early part of the race, eventually fell back before gambling on an aggressive energy save strategy.
The Mexico round drew a capacity crowd of 40,000 to see the first round of the 2024 season, with eight-time Olympic gold medallist Usain Bolt a high profile guest of the championship, driving the GENBETA Formula E prototype car on Friday, remarking “It’s the first time in my life I’m comfortable saying something is faster than me!”.
The first practice session on Friday afternoon proved challenging, with all drivers facing very low grip conditions. As the circuit evolved, the team worked on the set-up to find more pace in the car from the second practice session, with Ticktum finishing in 11th, just over half a second off the ultimate pace.
With the teams needing to nominate drivers to the qualifying groups for the first event of the season, the now traditional coin flip saw Ticktum allocated into Group A, and Sette Câmara in Group B.
It could be considered to be an unlucky draw for Ticktum, who was building speed throughout the session, but while set to improve on his final timed run, he encountered a large piece of TECPRO barrier on the circuit which had been dislodged, preventing him from improving his time, and he ended up last on the time sheets in his group.
Sette Câmara fared better in his session, with a competitive first run that saw him third fastest. Unfortunately, he dropped down the order as the times improved, but in a very close session and having made a small improvement on his final lap, he ended just three-tenths of a second off the best time, and ninth in his group, securing 18th on the grid for the afternoon’s E-Prix.
Unfortunately, Sette Câmara’s race weekend would end there, as a rare technical issue on the way to the grid prevented him from making the start of the race.
Ticktum made a good start and was immediately up one spot, before he was overtaken at the Turn 5 hairpin and fell back to 20th position. Over the next two laps, he progressed up to 18th following problems for rivals up ahead, and he was able to take his first Attack Mode deployment on lap three without losing a spot to the returning Season 7 champion behind him.
The team opted to take both Attack Modes early, with Ticktum taking his six-minute deployment on lap six, and again he had enough of a gap to hold position.
The race was neutralised behind the safety car on lap nine due to a crash, by which point Ticktum was now in 15th place. After the restart, Ticktum was holding position but slightly overspending energy to do so. Knowing a points-paying position was unlikely maintaining the same strategy, the team elected to gamble for a super-conservative energy strategy, to build an energy advantage in anticipation of a further safety car. Unfortunately the gamble came to nothing, leaving Ticktum as the final classified runner, but having delivered well on the energy conservation he was tasked with.
The team now switches its focus for the double-header event at Diriyah in Saudi Arabia in two weeks’ time, the circuit where Ticktum made it to the qualifying semi-finals last year, one of the qualifying highlights of 2023.
Russell O'Hagan - Chief Operations Officer / Deputy Team Principal
“Overall a challenging first race of the season where we didn’t quite hit our stride. We have some serious homework to do between now and Diriyah to understand the areas we didn’t maximise today to make sure we come back stronger. On a positive note I was pleased with how we performed operationally today, and the way in which everyone dealt with the challenges we faced constructively, staying open to exploring different solutions and delivering against them. As always it was also a real pleasure to be in Mexico and to kick off Season 10 with an outstanding event and great atmosphere.”
Sérgio Sette Câmara #3
“We didn't get to race which is frustrating, but the team are very strong and everybody's working hard. I'm pretty happy with my qualifying lap, we have a really good qualifying pace. After seeing Dan's race, he really struggled with race pace, so the team needs to work hard on the car for the race scenario, and hopefully steps can be done for the year, and we can score points in future rounds.”
Dan Ticktum #33
“It was a difficult day. Qualifying was unlucky, one of the drivers had a crash and put the barrier on the track and I couldn't avoid it, which is a shame as I think our one lap pace was good. Unfortunately the race was a bit of a disaster, we struggled with efficiency so it was a tough one today, but we'll work hard on it and hopefully bounce back at the next round at Diriyah, where our one-lap pace was also good there last year.”