Frustrating Monaco for the ERT Formula E Team
The ERT Formula E Team had a frustrating Monaco E-Prix, with Dan Ticktum recovering from a low grid position to finish up 13th, while team-mate Sérgio Sette Câmara recovered from an early pit stop to finish 18th.
The all-in-one-day event started well for Ticktum, with the British driver finishing sixth in the final free practice session just before qualifying. Practice didn’t go as well for Sette Câmara, who was unable to set any competitive times after experiencing a front powertrain issue in FP1, before a rear driveshaft failure hampered him in the second session as well.
Despite the troubles in practice, Sette Câmara bounced back incredibly well in qualifying, setting the sixth fastest time in his group just over a tenth away from getting into the duels, leaving him to line up 11th on the grid.
Team-mate Ticktum’s qualifying didn’t go as well, as after setting strong first and second sectors a mistake towards the end of the lap cost him dearly leaving the Brit tenth in his group, which converted to 20th for the final grid for the E-Prix.
The team regrouped well to show better pace in the race, especially in the early stages for Sette Câmara, who’d made it up to eighth place by the third lap, well inside the points-paying positions.
On lap four, the field bunched up at the Hairpin, with Sette Câmara coming together with another rival and taking on damage. A lap later, and Ticktum was lucky to avoid trouble as Edoardo Mortara crashed right alongside him at the Swimming Pool, causing a lengthy safety car period.
After the restart, Sette Câmara was sadly forced to pit to replace a punctured tyre from the contact earlier, while Ticktum was fast working his way up the field, and by lap ten he’d broken into the top ten despite having had to start the race from 20th on the grid. Ticktum was then battling hard throughout the mid-phase of the race for the final points spot as his rivals took their Attack Modes, shifting position from between ninth and 11th up until the second safety car deployment of the race, following another crash behind him.
Having delivered on a strategy to progress in the early phase of the race Ticktum was left needing to conserve energy and drive defensively to hold on to points, something which in the end proved impossible despite his best efforts, crossing the line 13th, up seven spots from his grid position, while Sette Câmara did well to recover from his earlier pit stop to finish in 18th place showing strong pace in the final stages.
With no points scored, the team reflect on the weekend with a sense of frustration but round out the first half of the season still in ninth place in the championship.
The team now looks ahead to the Berlin E-Prix double-header in two weeks’ time, where F1 Academy
champion Marta García will also make her debut with the team in the Rookie Test.
Sérgio Sette Câmara #3
It wasn’t a very positive weekend for me. There were many issues with the car in practice and could barely do any laps, but I did a good lap in qualifying out of nowhere, but sadly that was my highlight of the weekend. In the race, another car hit me and I got a puncture, and that was the end of my race.
Dan Ticktum #33
I had a pretty good race overall. The pace was OK this weekend, I could have got closer to the duels but I made a mistake in qualifying. I think my car doesn’t feel the strongest, I feel I’m lacking pace compared to my team-mate so that’s something we need to look at.
In the race we executed the strategy perfectly, which was to overconsume and try and overtake at the start which worked well, but unfortunately I didn’t have the efficiency to be able to defend at the end so I lost a couple of places and fell out of the points, but overall we did a good job.
Russell O'Hagan - Chief Operations Officer / Deputy Team Principal
It was an action-packed day here in Monaco and a bit of a case of what could have been. We had good pace, but collectively didn’t deliver against our potential the way you need to in a championship this competitive. We took our chances in the race to put ourselves back in a good position but things didn’t fall our way. We have some work to do to come back stronger in Berlin but that’s what we will do. As always it’s been a pleasure and a privilege to bring the team and championship to this amazing racing venue, thank you Monaco.