New York's Greatest Fightback Outside Madison Square Garden?
(copyright FIA Formula E)
The New York City E-Prix was another race in this decidedly mixed season for Formula E which demonstrated that, in the absence of outside controversy, when all eyes are on the activity on the track, it can still be the best show in town.
On this occasion, we had another win slip out of the hands of Nick Cassidy in a promising but difficult debut season for the New Zealander, while Sam Bird was the latest surprise leader in a multi-horned title fight that seems set to continue right down to the final round in Berlin.
Race One
The drivers smoke their tyres prior to the start (copyright FIA Formula E)
Cassidy led from the start, controlling the pace well and looking collected at the head of the field, but also using more energy than his challengers. This may be a characteristic of the Audi powertrain, but as Lucas di Grassi, Rene Rast, and Robin Frijns do not suffer from the same issue, it is more likely that Cassidy, in his first season of Formula E, just isn’t quite as practiced as his more experienced rivals at conserving energy while pushing. It’s a challenging balance for the best drivers, and some go through whole seasons in the sport without grasping it. Cassidy is talented and proficient enough to adapt, though.
Jean-Eric Vergne tailed Cassidy, looking for the opportunity to exploit his energy advantage, and sensing it had arisen with five minutes and one lap to go. Taking the inside line at the hairpin, Vergne pushed Cassidy wide into where the Attack mode zone would usually be, and yet the contact between the cars also slowed down Vergne, letting BMW i.Andretti’s Maximilian Günther through in the mother of opportunistic moves.
(copyright FIA Formula E)
Epic comebacks
While the main headline was Günther taking the win with a double-move, also notable were strong recovery drives for the ninth- and 10th-placed finishers, Sam Bird and Rene Rast. Bird had contact with the wall in morning practice, requiring hasty repairs that were not completed until a full six seconds before the cut-off time for qualifying parc ferme. Bird then had car-related issues in qualifying, and yet still pulled it all together to climb to ninth with some trademark high-risk manoeuvres.
Rast, who is emerging as one of the drivers of the year, was 24th and last at the end of the first lap, and yet calmly picked off drivers, and took advantage of attrition ahead to take the final point in the first race. Rast has a special gift for avoiding major incidents, and his prudence, allied to an ability to use his elbows where needed that was honed in the DTM, is proving a fine fit for Formula E.
Race Two
After drama on day one, all Bird wanted was a controlled display at the front. With Jaguar taking a first-row lockout, it looked like an opportunity the Briton could not afford to pass up. The question was how he and Mitch Evans would work together to hold onto the lead if they made it through the first corner ahead.
Evans almost ended both Jaguars’ races when he outbraked himself trying to hold off Cassidy, his old mate from the junior formulae, into turn one. It was a clean first lap for the leaders, nonetheless.
Behind them, Edoardo Mortara left New York with a scoreless pair of races, after the Venturi driver went for a daring but low-percentage move on Jake Dennis, who then collided with the Swiss. Both drivers are still mathematically capable of winning the title, however Mortara’s championship lead did not survive the race weekend.
Evans absorbed a lot of heat from Cassidy mid-race, allowing Bird to pull still further ahead without expending too much of his own energy. In one sense it was an excellent piece of teamwork, however Evans will have been at heart disappointed that he was playing wingman in this race, given he has title aspirations of his own.
The view over the Hudson River (copyright FIA Formula E)
In the end, the exertion of keeping Cassidy behind him told for Evans, with the Kiwi making an error on the final lap which damaged his car and put him out of contention. That meant Cassidy capped a good points-scoring double-header with second behind the dominant Bird. The British driver, the most successful in Formula E not to have won a title, is now at the head of the Driver’s Championship and will be looking to make further inroads at his home race, the London E-Prix.