Sebastien Buemi is hoping that his team find something abnormal with his second car as so to explain his lack of pace in the Rome ePrix.
The season two champion had worked his way through the field well and stopped for his new car at the same time as his fellow frontrunners.
But from then on his pace disappeared and he quickly fell back through the order to finish in a distant sixth.
Speaking afterwards he said that the cause for his lack of pace was high energy consumption, but he was at a loss to explain why this was the case.
“It’s a disappointing result,” he said. “I felt that the car was handling well and I was only five seconds behind Bird after the first stint.
“But we consumed too much energy and we have to find out what didn’t work. We haven’t yet analysed the data, but I hope that we’re going to find something abnormal to explain why.”
Renault Formula E programme manager Vincent Gaillardot confirmed that the team would be conducting analysis of the car to try and explain what went wrong, but hinted that it could have been due to Buemi having to fight through the mid-field.
Gaillardot said, “Seb was obliged to battle in the mid-field and he used too much energy in his efforts to remain among the front-runners.
“This undoubtedly comprised the rest of his race, the second stint in particular, in which he was unable to fight off the group of drivers who had a greater quantity of energy.
“We have to analyse how the car and our strategy worked to understand what we and our rivals did to ensure we’re as competitive in the race as in qualifying in the forthcoming rounds.”
