Buenos Aires ePrix Race Report

The FIA Formula E Championship headed back to South America for Round Four in Buenos Aires, Argentina. After a valiant qualifying effort, Robin Frijns fought the hot Argentinian sun while searching for his second podium finish of the season. Teammate Simona de Silvestro hoped for a change of luck after complications with her car in Round Three led to a finish below her expectation. 

The Andretti Formula E Team plans to develop and progress ahead of Round Five in Mexico City on 12 March. 

Roger Griffith, Co-Team Principal of Andretti Formula E Team

“We faced another challenging weekend after three battery changes and a pretty significant crash in free practice, finishing eighth and 14th doesn’t really feel like the reward we deserve for the colossal effort that went in from everybody,” Griffith said. “A number of the developments we had come out of the Punta test last year (December 2015) prove to be very successful, yet quite disappointed with the eighth place finish with Robin. I feel like we were robbed a little bit, loosing two spots with a couple of corners to go, but that’s electric racing for you.” 

“A challenging weekend on the other side of the garage for Simona. She was on the back foot from the crash and again struggled with being able to run at the right pace and the right energy level. However, we have learned a lot this weekend and I think coming into Mexico we will be making further steps forward and encouraged by the way our development program is running.”

Robin Frijns, No. 27 Amlin Andretti Spark-Renault SRT_01E

• Started 6^th for Round Four of Formula E competition, nearly missing his first Super Pole appearance.
• Finished 8^th after loss of power led to two cars passing him on the last lap.

“The first car was a bit too cautious, I think we were a bit slow in the beginning,” Frijns said. “We thought we were limited on power, which was really the case with the first car. Then in the second car there was a safety car for two laps. That caused us to use way more energy than we had planned on which also caused us to damage the battery more because we’re using more energy each lap.

“Then with the three laps to go, the temperature was 61 or 60,  we lost all the region on the breaking in the rear from one corner to the other. We went straight off line, so on that lap I used a lot of energy because I turning wide. That made the last three laps a mess because the energy was limited and the temperature was as well. We learn from this and we will see how the next race goes.”

Simona de Silvestro, No. 28 Amlin Andretti Spark-Renault SRT_01E

• Started 14^th and finished 14^th for Round Four of Formula E competition.
• In Turn One of lap one she skillfully passed four cars in a charge to the front of the field. 

“We had a really great start, I started 14th and we made up a few positions right on the first lap,” de Silvestro said. “Then throughout the run we were struggling with temperature. We really had to save quite a lot of energy, we had some problems with the dash at the start as well. So, it was a little complicated first stint.” 

“The second stint we got held up a little bit in the pits. The second car was much better, but overall we just struggled a little bit with the car and with the energy we had to save. But you know, we learn and we will study the data and then on to the next one.”

The FIA Formula E Championship next heads to Mexico City, Mexico for Round Five of competition on 12 March 2016. In the meantime, stay tuned to Amlin-AndrettiFE.com for updates and go behind the scenes with team via Twitter @AmlinAndrettiFE.