The Cape Town Formula E field has lost four cars and two more are in doubt after Mahindra withdrew its whole quartet during qualifying and a controversial crash left Edoardo Mortara’s and Sam Bird’s cars needing heavy repairs.
Mahindra supplies powertrains for both its works pairing Oliver Rowland and Lucas di Grassi and the Abt Cupra squad’s Nico Mueller and Kelvin van der Linde.
None of the four ran at all when the qualifying groups began, and Mahindra then issued a statement saying “rear suspension safety concerns” meant it would not take part in the rest of the event.
“A thorough investigation on the suspension elements of the Mahindra M9Electro race cars will take place on the team’s return to the UK,” the statement continued.
“The safety of our drivers and extended teams is of utmost importance at this point in time.”
The issue means South African van der Linde – who is standing in for the injured Robin Frijns at Abt – misses his home race.
MORTARA AND BIRD IN HUGE CRASH
The Maserati and Jaguar teams are facing high-pressure repair missions in the three hours between qualifying and the race after Mortara and Bird had related crashes in the second qualifying group.
Mortara lost it at the very fast Turn 9 left-hander where Sebastien Buemi had crashed on Friday, slewing violently into the outside wall.
His team-mate Maximilian Guenther narrowly missed Mortara’s crashed car, but it was collected moments later by Bird’s Jaguar – which had spun backwards into the wall at the same point and then rebounded into Mortara’s.
Both drivers were unhurt.
Bird’s Jaguar team boss James Barclay said his driver had reported that no yellow flags were shown before he came across Mortara’s accident and the team had been unable to see on the tracking system where Mortara had come to a stand.
“It’s a concerning incident in what led up to that moment,” said Barclay.
“Sam said there were no yellow flags and unfortunately on the track map we couldn’t see where Edo had stopped on track so we weren’t sure where it was.
“We couldn’t warn Sam and there were no yellow flags. So we have to review that because on a street circuit, with blind [corner] entries, good flagging is absolutely critical.
“Sam would’ve been able to back off if he’d seen double yellows, but [there were] no flags and by the time the race director came over the radio it was already too late so that’s a big shame.”
Red flag signals were displayed on the timing screens immediately after Mortara’s crash but were not visible on track until Bird had crashed as well.
Race director Scot Elkins was heard saying “Damn it!” over the radio channels as the crashes unfolded.
Keyword: Four cars withdraw from FE race, crash puts two more in doubt