Kamui Kobayashi said that he struggled with his energy usage on his Formula E debut in Hong Kong.
The Japanese driver was off the pace compared to his team-mate Antonio Felix da Costa, and finished well down the order in fifteenth position.
He said that was due to not managing his energy levels well, but he also revealed that he had a radio issue that effected the information he was getting from the team.
Speaking after the race he said, “It was a fun day experiencing Formula E for the first time, but we had a radio problem and I was struggling to get information about the car.
“I think we missed a couple things, and I struggled to use the energy well. In the end, I think we didn’t use everything we had, which I think we have to learn from for tomorrow.
Kobayashi was happy with finishing the race though, and said it was a useful experience ahead of tomorrow’s race.
“I’m very happy we finished the race – it was a race of survival. The important thing today was to finish and learn new things to help us tomorrow.
Team-mate da Costa had a far more encouraging race, managing to elongate his first stint to allow him to have extra energy to do some more over overtaking towards the end.
He ended up in sixth, but said that he was disappointed as he too was blighted by a radio issue, and thought more was possible.
“I saved a lot of energy in the beginning of the race and was able to box later than everyone for the car change, so I essentially and more energy – more ‘fuel’ than everyone around me,” da Costa said.
“But the radio communications stopped working before the race, and that caused us to have to do things a different way.
“With that, we didn’t use our energy as well at the end, and we lost some time in pit lane during the car change. I’m happy with sixth, but all things considered, realistically we could have been closer to fourth.
“We’ll all get together tonight, evaluate what we did right and what we did wrong and come back stronger tomorrow.”
