Formula e heads to its third race this weekend held at Uruguay on the Punta del Este street circuit. New faces will appear on the circuit whilst those in form from the first two races will be hoping to continue what they left Putrajaya with. Teams the Audi Sport ABT and Virgin Racing will be hoping to pull further away from the rest of the pack whilst the likes of e.dams Renault, Venturi Racing and Dragon Racing will look to finally deliver on the potential that they have showed in qualifying. Andretti Autosport have also made a rather high-profile signing for this race weekend.
2014 Punta del Este ePrix Preview
Audi Sport ABT
Series leader Lucas di Grassi has had a race win and a brilliant second place already this season. The Audi WEC driver has a three-point lead over Virgin’s Sam Bird heading into this event. Team mate Daniel Abt can leave GP2 firmly behind now and focus on Formula e, but is already 41 points behind his team mate, despite showing some strong pace. The German is a driver in need of a podium finish to kick-start his season.
Virgin Racing
Britain’s Sam Bird delivered a master-class in street racing at Putrajaya. He must surely be a favourite to deliver again here. Team mate Jaime Alguersuari has so far struggled compared to his older team mate, but did deliver the fastest lap in the last round. The team are just one point behind Audi.
Dragon Racing
What appeared to be a front-row lockout delivered just a fifth and a seventh last time out, especially as Oriol Servia struggled massively in the race. However, the team are picking up solid points, and are one team who have shown some impressive pace already, especially in qualifying. Jerome d’Ambrosio is one of four drivers tied for third place, although the Belgian is the last of these on countback.
Andretti Autosport
Another day, another F1 name in the second Andretti Car. This time Toro Rosso reject Jean-Eric Vergne is making his Formula e debut, and becomes the first driver to race both a 2014 Formula One car and a 2014 Formula e car, although Charles Pic has done some mileage for Lotus. Incidentally, Vergne is looking for an IndyCar drive, and Andretti also has an IndyCar team with one driver yet to be announced for the 2015 season. Hero-to-zero Franck Montagny will hope to not be criticised for his robust attacking which took Nick Heidfeld out last time out.
e.dams Renault
The French-backed squad is probably the biggest disappointment of the season so far in terms of race results. Despite being quickest in qualifying on both occasions this year, the team have just notched up a single podium thanks to WEC champion Sebastien Buemi’s brilliant drive through the field to third place last time out. Nicolas Prost will simply hope for a trouble-free weekend this time around. No other driver has been quickest in qualifying so far in Formula e.
Mahindra Racing
Karun Chandhok has quietly gone about his business and he has picked up some handy points so far. He looked pretty quick in Beijing but not so much last time out at Putrajaya. Bruno Senna with his massive Twitter following will hope to get FanBoost again, but he was also hope to actually see the chequered flag, something he hasn’t achieved yet.
Amlin Aguri
The second team to have a driver change this weekend is Amlin Aguri. Regular driver Katherine Legge is absent and will be replaced by Salvador Duran. Remember him? No? He achieved four race victories between 2006 and 2008 in the A1 GP series and in Formula Renault 3.5. He also won the 2007 Daytona 24 Hours alongside Juan Pablo Montoya. He hasn’t raced in anything significant for five years however, so will probably be a bit race-rusty. Antonio Felix da Costa will be looking to pick up points again, as he did last time out.
China Racing
The final team with a driver change this weekend is China Racing. World Touring Car and GT driver Antonio Garcia steps in in place of Ho-Pin Tung. The Spaniard will hope to do better than what the Chinese driver managed in his two races, picking up a total of zero points. Nelson Piquet Jr. looked racy in the last event but crashed out.
Venturi Grand Prix
Impressive speed from Nick Heidfeld really has not translated into a massive amount thus far. The popular German who received FanBoost last time out has been eliminated in both races so far through no fault of his own. He was even excluded from Putrajaya after he changed cars outside of his pit box, meaning that race cannot be used as a dropped score. Stephane Sarrazin has looked a little bit out of his depth in the series and will be hoping for a stronger performance here.
Trulli GP
Trulli are the only team yet to get off the mark. Michela Cerruti did get unlucky last time out and she was taken out by Katherine Legge at the start and was eliminated instantly. Meanwhile, Jarno Trulli produced a pretty typical Trulli-like performance, qualifying well but dropping back in the race and producing a Trulli-Train, dubbed by some as the Trull-e-Train. The team will hope to get points on the board as soon as possible.
The track
The 2.8km 20-turn circuit is situated by the Playa Brava Beach, situated just south of Maldonado. The first part of the track is a right-left chicane before a really fun-looking section before an even tighter right-left chicane. This should create some overtaking before the street circuit-style 90-degree corners. Another really quick section of the track should be great for the spectators before one of the tightest-looking chicanes on any race track. The final five corners look relatively tricky, with getting a good exit to 19 being where a lot of time will be gained or lost, and where passes into the first corner can be formed.
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