Several incidents in Saturday’s first London E-Prix left teams with significant ill-feeling ahead of Sunday’s final race of the 2023 Formula E season.
Notable areas of discord include a combination of incident investigations and the communication teams received on whether their cars could be repaired during two red-flag periods before the race restarted.
The most prominent incident that went unpunished was a collision between Stoffel Vandoorne and Edoardo Mortara, when the DS Penske driver clearly took out Maserati driver Mortara at Turn 1 having run deep into the corner while passing Nissan driver Norman Nato.
The incident was placed under investigation but no further action was taken after the stewards decreed that ‘no driver was wholly or predominantly to blame’.
Maserati team principal James Rossiter told The Race that he spoke to the stewards and “having been a professional driver for over two decades, I think I have quite a clear understanding of what’s acceptable and what’s not”.
“When they said no further action, I asked them to justify it,” he said. “Their justification to me, directly, was, ‘If Edo [Mortara] hadn’t been there, Stoffel would have made the corner’. That was the justification from the stewards to me.
“It did, yes [involve the driver steward as well].
“I understand that the stewards are briefed to decide on the move, not the consequence of the action, but if Stoffel’s move was to overtake Norman, and he had done it in a clear way, fine, and he’d made the corner.
“But, Edo was there, and Edo’s race was destroyed and he was spun round. It was an impact that damaged the powertrain significantly as he hit the rear-left wheel, and obviously it sent Edo to the back of the field.
“I’m very perplexed, really, on how any championship could justify that as a racing incident.”
Asked if such a judgement set a precedent for Sunday’s final race in terms of contact between drivers, Rossiter said it would.
“It’s acceptable to basically, as Daniel Ricciardo would say, ‘lick the stamp and send it’ and there will be no consequences for the actions should another car be at the apex of the corner,” he added.
In addition to this, Nissan was known to be angry with a penalty that was handed out to Nato, who was adjudged to have caused the incident that triggered the second red flag when the majority of the field was stuck behind his parked car and that of Sebastien Buemi.
Envision driver Buemi had been deliberately attempting to stretch out his late attack mode by reducing his pace, and was up to nine seconds off the regular laptimes he had been setting previously.
We have a red flag here as a collision between Nato and Buemi causes a blockage at Turn 19.@Hankook_Sport #LondonEPrix pic.twitter.com/8WeXD2JrJQ
— ABB FIA Formula E World Championship (@FIAFormulaE) July 29, 2023
McLaren team principal Ian James alluded to the FIA “taking steps forward to improve” the consistency of the application of penalties for Formula E going forward.
One of his drivers – Jake Hughes, who took a point in the final published classification that was issued only on Sunday morning – was taken out by Mahindra driver Roberto Merhi, who received a five-second penalty for the offence, which had some similarities to the Vandoorne-Mortara incident.
“Certainly, this weekend, as I’m expecting quite a chaotic race again today, will give us the opportunity to really take a look at the way things are approached and see what we can do to improve things going forward,” James said on Sunday morning.
The one change in the final classification came as Sergio Sette Camara was disqualified on Sunday morning because his team had not changed his car’s nose during the race’s second red flag, shown for the Buemi-Nato accident.
This was despite the NIO 333 driver having suffered the initial damage before the first red flag, which came after Sacha Fenestraz’s accident at Turn 16 – the Nissan driver having vaulted over the back of Sette Camara’s car.
Several cars restarted the race without front wing elements, while Antonio Felix da Costa completed the race in second place with a damaged tyre, which triggered a three-minute penalty. This is set to be contested by Porsche after Sunday’s race, should it have an 18-point deficit in the final teams’ standings.
In response to a request for clarification, an FIA spokesperson told The Race: “According to article 40.3, the FIA technical delegate has the ability to request that repairs are carried out. In that case, some cars were asked to change the front nose because some elements were either loose or the absorption impact structure was damaged and therefore they were considered unsafe.”
James, who is also the chair of the Formula E Teams and Manufacturers Association, said that “ultimately the teams are responsible for the safety of their own cars, making sure they go out in a safe manner”.
“We’ve also got a governing body there that can add value into that process. I think that there is a structure in place which works,” added James.
“There’s always room for improvement, and I do think that we need to take a long hard look at it though, as the noses are a case in point at the moment.
“We had a number of cars going out without front wings. I don’t, again personally speaking, think that’s a particularly good look for the championship, if I’m honest.”
Keyword: Formula E teams seek FIA clarity on divisive London penalties