How will the new cars fare on this technical course?
For the second Formula E race this season, the drivers will once again be taking to the streets of Malaysia and the demanding Putrajaya circuit.
We’re arriving back with high hopes for a good race as this leg of the 2014 season was one of the best races we had the pleasure of witnessing.
During that race, we saw Oriol Servia on pole with Bird second and Abt third. As they pulled off the line, Abt’s car ‘died’ on him and his race was practically over before it had begun.
We saw multiple contact incidents on lap one, three yellow flags and two safety cars. After only a handful of laps, Legge had collided with Cerutti. During the race Brabham spun at the hairpin and clipped Heidfeld, with Heidfeld being pushed into the wall by Montagny.
Brabham spun again, Senna hit the wall, Piquet Jr nearly caused a pile up, Senna went into the wall again and Piquet Jr was crashed out by Trulli.
During that race, not a lot was known about how to conserve energy. The 2.5km track uses around 7% of the car’s battery per lap. As Malaysia is a hot and humid country, keeping the battery temperature low is a must for every team. Everyone has a different amount of gears too, which may affect the battery usage. Needless to say, then, this should prove to be one of the most interesting races so far…
During the Beijing race last month, Sebastien Buemi pretty much ran away with the entire race. Many viewers were expecting the current world champion, Nelson Piquet Jr, to still have the edge over everyone.
But how wrong we all were! The Brazillian had struggled all weekend with what looked to be reliability issues. It is way too early to say who will be on top, but Buemi and e.Dams seem to have the upper hand over everyone.
Photo: Adam Warner / LAT / FE
