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FE - 2016 Mexico ePrix - Preview

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08.03.16
Formula E drops anchor in uncharted waters with a round in the tenth new venue in its young life, this time in Mexico

The first North American event of the second season of this FIA Championship for single-seaters powered entirely by electricity will take place on a modified version of the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez track, a unique occasion therefore, as the ePrix are usually run on temporary track specially created on roads open to normal car traffic. This venue is in a park that was one of the sites for the 1968 Olympic Games. It is therefore a place that is an integral part of the social and cultural fabric of the Mexican capital and the enthusiastic local crowd will give this innovative championship a very warm welcome just as they did when Formula 1 returned to the venue a few months back. 

Mexico has been very actively involved in promoting FIA series and only last weekend, the Mexican round of the WRC took place a few hundred kilometres from the capital and, in September, the city will again host a round of the FIA WEC Championship. This is down to the great efforts of the OMDAI and its President, who is also the FIA Vice President for Sport, José Abed: the thanks of the FIA go to him and his staff for what they have done and will do in the future promoting sport and road safety in Mexico.

After the two races in South America, the title fight still features Sébastien Buemi and Lucas di Grassi as the main contenders, even though, after taking the win in Buenos Aires – the first for a Citroen powertrain - Sam Bird is also in the running. These drivers have pretty much monopolised the podium in this first part of the season, having amassed a total of nine top three finishes (four for Di Grassi, three for Buemi and two for Bird) out of a possible twelve. Only D’Ambrosio, Frijns and Heidfeld have managed to get involved in this scrap. Furthermore, in the last race in Buenos Aires, we saw yet again, that even if Renault seems to have a significant power advantage, the slightest thing can jumble the order, meaning the result is far from being a certainty. In fact, the inability to predict the outcome is a peculiarity of Formula E and is a significant part of its popularity, as can be seen by its global audience, which is constantly growing when compared to the first season.

The race will take place on a 2.092 kilometres long track, which drivers must tackle 43 times. It uses a large part of the oval inside the track that was used for the Mexican Formula 1 Grand Prix, held on 1st November last year. There is a total of 18 corners, the slightly banked famous Peraltada is used in its entirety even if it’s interrupted by a chicane (T15-T17,) before coming out onto the pit straight

Season 2015/16

 

 

Drivers’ Championship

Teams’ Championship

Driver

Points

Team

Points

1

Sebastien Buemi

80

Renault e.Dams

101

2

Lucas di Grassi

76

ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport

86

3

Sam Bird

52

Dragon Racing

62

4

Loïc Duval

32

DS Virgin Racing

58

5

Jerome D’Ambrosio

30

Mahindra Racing

34

6

Stephane Sarrazin

28

Venturi

28

7

Nick Heidfeld

23

Andretti

21

8

Robin Frijns

21

Team Aguri

20

9

Nicolas Prost

21

NEXTEV TCR

14

10

Antonio Felix da Costa

16

 

 

  

Mexico City ePrix 2015/16

 

Date: 6 February

Venue: Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, Mexico City

Track length: 2,092 km

Start/finish line offset: 118 m

Number of laps: 43

 

Timetable

 

Start

Finish

Session

8.15

9.00

Non qualifying practice 1

10.30

11.00

Non qualifying practice 2

12.00

12.06

Qualifying Group 1

12.10

12.16

Qualifying Group 2

12.20

12.26

Qualifying Group 3

12.30

12.36

Qualifying Group 4

12.45

13.00

Super Pole

16.04

 

Race