ERT Formula E Team celebrates epic weekend at the Misano E-Prix
The ERT Formula E Team enjoyed one of its best weekends in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli in Italy, with Dan Ticktum securing both his and the team’s best ever result on Saturday, and then with Sérgio Sette Câmara following up with a fantastic sixth-place finish in Sunday’s race.
The weekend’s results see the team reclaim ninth in the teams’ classification heading to the next round of the championship in Monaco in two weeks’ time, a circuit where the team also enjoyed good results and put on a strong performance last year.
The team had relatively moderate expectations going to Misano, with the X24’s powertrain efficiency challenges set to be difficult to overcome, but an inventive strategy on Saturday saw the team reap the rewards in the race, while Sunday’s more traditional style of race helped the team and Sette Câmara in particular display genuine pace on his way to sixth, securing his best race result of the season so far.
In Saturday’s E-Prix, the drivers took both their Attack Modes early and stayed out of trouble at the back of the pack, unlocking pace when it was the right time to push. Ticktum and Sette Câmara were then able to work their way forward and secured fourth and sixth positions, though Sette Câmara frustratingly was dropped to 15th after he was given a time penalty for an energy overuse during a thermal battery derate, something which had given him no performance advantage.
On Sunday, Ticktum just missed out on the qualifying duels by two-tenths of a second in a competitive qualifying group, while Sette Câmara had led qualifying after his first run, but failed to improve on his second run and had to settle for 11th on the grid, just four-hundredths of a second from the duels cut-off.
Sette Câmara then delivered a brilliant race, working his way up the order with real precision, avoiding trouble and managing thermal parameters as others faltered coming home an impressive sixth, effectively recovering the result he’d lost the day before.
Ticktum had a slightly more difficult race, with an early safety car scuppering the benefit from his early race energy saving. Then in a difficult position on track, he and the team gambled on a conservative thermal strategy which unfortunately didn’t pay off enough to make the top ten.
The weekend was one of highs, somewhat unexpected but nonetheless very hard-worked for, with a brilliant strategy call on Saturday and then great race-craft and set-up on Sunday delivering equally fantastic results, with the team recovering its ninth-place target position in the teams’ championship as it closes on the half-way point of the season.
Sérgio Sette Câmara #3
On Saturday we’d finished sixth and they took it away from us, but in Sunday’s race we got it again, so that’s such a good feeling. That race was a lot harder, as it was a much more normal race, and so our powertrain efficiency started to show, but even then we managed a really good result. Yesterday, luck was a bit more of a factor in our strategy. Obviously I wanted the points yesterday, but if you told me before the weekend I’d finish sixth in just one of the races, I’d have absolutely taken it.
Dan Ticktum #33
It was a bit of a difficult one on Sunday. In ways, it was the opposite Saturday, where we had a good strategy and a little bit of luck. In the second race we were bit unlucky with the safety car; there were also no added laps so I wasn’t able to use the energy that I’d saved at the start, and I overheated the rears a lot, so an unlucky race. It was a positive race for the team and Sérgio got the strategy right and he’s done a very good job there. Overall, we scored some very good points for the team this weekend, and it was so positive compared to what we thought might happen.r it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Russell O'Hagan - Chief Operations Officer / Deputy Team Principal
A weekend of highs and lows, but where we learnt from our mistakes very quickly to perform in the races and come away with a really strong points haul. A big thank you to the drivers and team for facing those challenges head on and for shining when it counts. I am really proud of everyone and what we continue to achieve as a group.