If any question marks remained over BMW i Andretti Motorsport’s potential to be title contenders, they were quickly dismissed after the opening laps of the Marrakesh ePrix.
Both Antonio Felix da Costa and Alexander Sims qualified towards the front of the field and made short work of the competition in the opening laps to assume a dominant 1-2 position at the front.
It proved that Ad Diriyah was not just a one-off, and with Sims seemingly happy to sit obediently behind his championship leading team-mate, it seemed as if BMW had Formula E sussed.
But having hailed their first Formula E win as their proudest moment of 2018, the crash between the two that followed will most likely rank as their worst moment come the end of this year.
Any time a team’s drivers take each other out is a major embarrassment, and this was no different – instead of showing their prowess in electronic technology, BMW showed their inability to handle a racing situation.
There were only two crumbs of comfort for them.
Firstly, both drivers took part of the blame upon themselves and didn’t start a fight over who did what, meaning team unity was maintained.
Secondly, with the Santiago ePrix just two weeks later, it gives BMW the chance to bounce back straight away.
It certainly won’t be easy for them to recreate the 1-2 they worked so hard for in Morocco, as with track and air temperatures far higher it will give teams a new challenge to deal with.
And with the DS Techeetah still looking like the slightly faster car, they can’t rely on Jean-Eric Vergne throwing it away on the first corner at every race.
However as Formula E has shown in the past, consistency is the key to winning, and while a good result would get them back on track, a bad result could do long-lasting damage to their ambitions.
So expect both drivers to be on top of their game this weekend and keen to get in front of their team-mate, as it’s surely an inevitability that BMW will take steps to ensure the two don’t race each other again any time soon.
