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© wri2.net – Jean-François Galeron
This is an historical date for Williams Formula 1 Team: this Monaco Grand Prix will be the 750th in the history of the squad founded in 1975 by by Sir Frank and his partner in crime, Sir Patrick Head. This accounts for races entered by Frank Williams Racing Cars in 1975, then Williams Grand Prix Engineering from 1978, but without including the time in 1976 when the Williams FW 05 cars driven by Jacky Ickx, Michel Leclère and Arturo Merzario carried the banner of Walter Wolf Racing, founded by the Canadian billionaire.
Then Williams won 9 Constructors world titles, 7 Drivers crowns, 114 F1 races, and the Didcot started going down, until it was bought out last year by an American investment fund. The staff has changed, the Williams family has retired, but the name stays and high ambitions are set by the new owners.
In order to make this 750th GP memorable, the very talented George Russell, who had subbed for Lewis Hamilton at Sakhir GP, last November, in a Mercedes, will carry a special helmet. And he has another idea to celebrate the occasion : getting into Q2 on Saturday afternoon. This would be quite an achievement !
Defending Formula E champion Antonio Félix da Costa (DS Techeetah) won his first race of the season, in style, at the end of a superb race in the streets of Monaco, on Saturday afternoon. The Portuguese started on pole for this 4th Monaco E-Prix, but he had to resist a serious customer in the person of Robin Frijns (Virgin), who led the race two or three times and eventually finished in 2nd position, thanks to a lack of power on Mitch Evans’s Jaguar in the last lap.
The Kiwi finished the race with 0% power in his batteries but could still climb on the podium with da Costa and Frijns, where all three drivers were congratulated by HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco and FIA president Jean Todt, fully equipped with masks and white gloves.
This is the 2nd win for DS Techeetah this season, after Jean-Eric Vergne’s masterful display in Race 1 in Rome. « JEV », the winner in 2019 here and double Formula E FIA champion, managed to finish 4th, the same place as on the grid, after an eventful race which saw him miss the first pass at Casino for catching the Attack Mode. The best move of the day was definitely an audacious overtaking manœuvre by Evans on da Costa at the end of the Beau Rivage uphill portion, in a very spectacular location, just before the Casino curve.
This is the 4th time, out of 4 Formula E races in Monaco, that the poleman wins at the end, but this time the scenario was perfectly written and suspense was maintained until the chequered flag. It was only interrupted for a few minutes when the one and only Safety Car period allowed all drivers to cool down, less than 15 minutes before the end, following the Mini Electric. The two leaders of the World Championship, Nyck de Vries and Stoffel Vandoorne (Mercedes), ended a terrible Saturday in respectively 20th and 22nd positions. But they remain at the top of the FE standings, ahead of Frijns, the Virgin driver, Bird and Evans, the Jaguar drivers.
Final result (provisional) :
Follow the 4th Edition of the Monaco E-Prix from home on this Saturday, May 8th.
The 7th round of the FIA Formula E World Championship will be available in clear broadcast on Monaco Info, La Chaîne L’Equipe, www.lequipe.fr and also on Eurosport 2 & Eurosport Player.
Earlier in the day, Qualifying sessions will be diffused on Monaco Info, the website www.lequipe.fr, & Eurosport Player.
Watch the Free Practice Sessions 1 (08:00-08:45) & 2 (10:15-10:45) on the Formula E Youtube page https://www.youtube.com/user/FIAFormulaE.
Follow the Monaco E-Prix wherever in the world on :
https://www.fiaformulae.com/en/live/watch
The title holder in Monaco, for Formula E, is Jean-Eric Vergne, the double FIA champion (2018-2019) in the most innovative category of world motorsport. He is « very happy to be back in Monaco, especially on the full F1 layout. The one that we used before was becoming too small for FE, with 24 cars,and I think that it was the right decision ». Just like Seb Buemi and Stoffel Vandoorne, the DS Techeetah driver has already raced around the F1 track in Monaco, during his Toro Rosso years (2012-2014). « Only the chicane will be a tiny bit different », he says, and he is not worried that there is no shakedown on Friday : « The shakedown is more for the teams, to check that everything is OK, but for us it’s not with full power, so it’s less interesting ».
JEV won Race 1 in Rome, so he has a few points behind his belt, but he is « not happy about where we want to be. But we had a win, and we are not very far away from the leaders, so I know that one day I can catch up. We focused too much on the software and not enough on the chassis, so we had some issues at the beginning of the season. We are back to basics, in order to have a good car to drive, and to deliver. We know how to win races, Monaco is happening at half-season and then we have a month and a half break to prepare the end of the season ».
Driving on the longer F1 track will make a difference : « I think that we will able to overtake at Mirabeau and at the exit of the tunnel, and sometimes at La Rascasse, but probably not at the hairpin : in F1, when someone dives on the inside there, he is likely to lose a position, or the race », JEV smiles.
Mercedes driver Stoffel Vandoorne plays at home in Monaco, where he lives. The former McLaren F1 driver, who won here in GP2 in 2015, « without starting from pole », he remembers, will be one of the major contenders for a win on Saturday, in a German team which has impressed a lot this season : « We have been every competitive at every track, we won at every event », the Belgian driver underlines. His Dutch team-mate Nyck de Vries is leading the World Championship, with 57 points, and he has already collected 48, so the title chase is more than open between both Mercedes EQ drivers.
« There will be more overtaking opportunities on the longer F1 track », Vandoorne predicts, and this will allow FE drivers « to show that it is possible to overtake in Monaco, especially with the energy save that we do. We want to put on a good show, and it will be interesting to see how our car performs here ». With McLaren F1, Vandoorne came here twice, in 2017 and 2018, but experienced frustrating weekends. He is much more hopeful about this FE race, although « Group 1 in Qualifications will be challenging », he reckons. « We need to maximize the opportunities, to stay out of trouble. I love this track, I sleep in my own bed, it’s a bit strange, but I don’t want to be too comfortable ».
He may be a rookie this year in FE, but Norman Nato, the 28-year-old from Antibes, has already accumulated huge experience in motorsport, mostly in single-seaters and endurance. He should have climbed on the podium twice already this season, after superb races in front, but each time he suffered a penalty which wasted his results. However, he is happy and confident before the home race for Venturi Racing, the one and only Monégasque racing team at international level, as Team Principal Susie Wolff pointed out on Friday.
©ACM / Folleté
« To drive in Monaco is a dream when you are a kid, even if you drive a go-kart, as I did when I won the Monaco Kart Cup (in 2010) », Norman said on Friday, in the press conference before the Monaco EPrix. « It’s great to be back in Monaco, in a Formula E, for our home race, and it’s definitely a special moment in our season. It was frustrating to lose two podiums in six races, but it’s better to finish twice in a podium position, as a rookie, than finishing 9th with a few points. I had to change my mindset over the winter, in order to be more aggressive, and it worked. We have a good car, I am improving my energy management, and I will keep pushing for podiums », Norman added. And you can be sure that he will try his best to make Susie Wolff happy, come Saturday.
Sébastien Buemi has already been crowned FIA Formula E Champion, in 2016, then Endurance World Champion and he also won the prestigious Le Mans 24 Hours. He is one of the very best FE drivers and he won two E-Prix out of three in Monaco (2016, 2017), so that he is in a perfect position to judge the interest of using the F1 track here : « I love it even better since I had to use the small track the past three times. It was not adapted any more to the field of 24 cars that we now have in FE, it was mission impossible on a 48-second lap. With our Gen 2 car, we expect to lap this year in 1 :30 approximately, which is not bad for an electric car ».
The Swiss driver is the king of FE qualifications, the one who clocked the greatest number of pole positions since the launching of the series. He loves qualifying because « we are able to use 250 kW, this amounts to 25% extra power compared to race mode. Here, I expect to reach 235 km/h at the tunnel exit. This is a big +step+ compared to race mode, when we have to take great care of the available amount of energy ».
Just like Jean-Eric Vergne and Stoffel Vandoorne, Buemi raced in Monaco aboard a F1 car, but « whether you have raced here in F3, F2 or F1, it does not change much of anything, and there is no FE driver who will discover the track this weekend », the Swiss driver adds. He is the favourite driver for Japanese car manufacturers, since he races for Nissan in FE, Toyota in endurance, and he is still a reserve driver for Red Bull-Honda.
Buemi is not happy about his season start, but he remains hopeful : « We had an extremely complicated start, but we have explanations. We had the old PowerTrain and here we can use the new one, for the first time. This does not mean that we are going to win races, but it will definitely help. The car is now homologated until the end of Season 8, at the end of the +Gen 2+ era, so we had to be cautious. I hit a wall in Ryadh, I took a penalty in Rome, I was hit at the back by Lotterer in Valencia, we have not reached the level of performance that we expected », he adds.
Based on his experience of FE, Le Mans 24 Hours winner judges that the level of competition has been raised since Porsche and Mercedes joined, and also « because the rules have been stable for a few years, which makes a big difference. Mercedes has an edge, they won three races out of six this year, and they are always at the front. This is not a series that you can dominate, because of the qualification groups, and because the levels of performance are very close, but they definitely have an edge ».
Last but not least, Buemi thinks that « there is a level of impredictability in this championship that is a bit too extreme now. There is no more logic. When I go back to endurance racing, I find a general frame which varies less, with a similar level of performance from one weekend to the other… »
Racers and fans will have to get up early on Saturday, and there is a good chance that they will go to bed very late.
The schedule for the 4th Monaco E-Prix is heavy, with 24 cars on track and a number of promotional events organized by the 12 teams entered in the Formula E World Championship. There will be ups and downs, surprises and crashes, with an amazing casting of talented drivers. One thing is already sure : spectators, around the track and in front of their screen, are going to have fun !
Here is the schedule :
8h00-8h45 : Free Practice 1
10h15-10h45 : Free Practice 2
12h00-13h00 : Qualifications (Groups 1, 2, 3 et 4, then Super Pole with Top 6 drivers)
16h00 : 4th Monaco E-Prix (45 minutes + 1 lap)
In accordance with the directives of the Monegasque authorities concerning the organization of the 78th edition of the Formula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco which will take place from Thursday 20th to Sunday 23rd of May, the Automobile Club de Monaco shall organize the event under the following conditions:
Days of Thursday 20th, Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd of May:
Day of Friday 21st of May:
Ticketing prices of each grandstand are available online on www.formula1monaco.com, on the Official Ticketing Office (44, rue Grimaldi – Monaco) as well as on the several ticket offices located in the Principality: Promenade Honoré II & Direction du Tourisme de Monaco – Boulevard des Moulins. Our staff remains at your disposal by phone (00 377 93 15 26 24) and by mail ([email protected]).
The Automobile Club de Monaco, the FIA and Formula One are applying and taking all precautionary measures (mandatory physical distancing, wearing of face masks and hand hygiene) to ensure the optimum hygiene protocol for the attendees of the Event.
All the hygiene protocol disciplines for the Principality are available on: www.covid19.mc
The 4th edition of the Monaco E-Prix will take place on this Saturday 8 of May. In accordance with the Government directives applied in the Principality, the Event will respect the following conditions:
The Automobile Club de Monaco and Formula E are applying and taking all precautionary measures (mandatory physical distancing, wearing of face masks and hand hygiene) to ensure the optimum hygiene protocol for the attendees on the Event.
The ticket offices are located on the Promenade Honoré II as well as at the Direction du Tourisme de Monaco – Boulevard des Moulins, and will be open on Friday, May 07 (09:00 – 18:00) and Saturday, May 08 (06:30 – end of the Monaco E-Prix).
All the hygiene protocol disciplines for the Principality are available on the following link :
https://covid19.mc/
Download the Guide d’application des Décisions ministérielles du Gouvernement Princier
