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The London ePrix will decide whether Lucas di Grassi or Sebastien Buemi will succeed Nelson Piquet Jr as the champion of the world’s only all-electric single-seater series.
Sam Bird retains a mathematical chance of winning the title, but will need to win both races, secure a bonus points for pole position and fastest lap and hope that neither di Grassi nor Buemi scores a single point.
Both di Grassi and Buemi have taken three wins apiece and with 60 points still to play for, both drivers effectively have an equal chance of taking the title.
Last year, the Grade II-listed Victorian Park was the scene of the first motor race in the city of London since 1972. The 1.818-mile (2.975km) track features 17 corners, with an average speed in season one of 75.389mph (121.327km/h). This season, with the change in regulations, the cars have been going an average of 1.667mph (2.684km/h) a lap faster.
Out-going champion, Nelson Piquet knows better than most the unique demands of the double-header weekend, having executed a near perfect race last year from the back of the grid to seal the championship.
“It’s a very demanding day and it goes by very quickly” says Nelson. “The day starts very early and finishes fairly late and we are busy every minute of the day. I got used to it pretty quickly but it’s definitely different to other championships. It’s funny because it’s strange now when you do a ‘normal’ race weekend and you arrive and have a lot of downtime that you need to try to fill.”
Lucas di Grassi has been in impervious form during the latter half of the season despite some early disqualifications due to technical infringements. The Brazilian will be looking to continue applying pressure on title rival Sebastien Buemi.
“We’ve had eight races and the points gap is almost back to zero, and now we go to a track that is the most different from all the other tracks” explains di Grassi.
“It’s very cambered, there are a lot of corners and it’s very narrow. It’s technically very difficult to drive there and it’s the second longest track of the season. The weather unpredictability in London could play a big role because qualifying is divided into groups, which are random, and as happened last year, if you pick a group during which there is rain – that could define the race.”
Buemi will be looking to shake off the disappointment of Toyota’s last-minute retirement at Le Mans which effectively robbed him of a debut win at the world’s biggest motor race.
Despite having a considerable performance advantage in the opening round in Beijing, Renault e.Dams have struggled in recent races primarily due to an inability to generate enough heat into their tyres. Despite this, Buemi has managed to salvage enough points and podium positions to keep the title fight alive for himself and the team.
“We are not just fighting for the drivers’ championship but the teams’ championship too” says Buemi.
“So from a pure driver’s perspective you would think that the only objective is to finish ahead of Lucas. But from a team point of view the other championship is very important too. When we get there we’ll do practice and qualifying and look at the weather. Obviously, everything could look different after qualifying…”
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