The Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler team is ready for its first outing at a permanent race track, the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia, Spain this weekend.
The unusual circuit configuration will be a challenge for the team, as the track configuration is completely different from pre-season testing: longer corners and a tight chicane in the start/finish straight.
Rene Rast, one of the two Audi team drivers, found positive things to say about the new track: he stated that the “many very fast sections, no really tight hairpins and wide run-off zones” would “forgive the occasional mistake”.
This is good for the team, as his teammate Lucas Di Grassi had a poor weekend in Rome: he had a car failure in Round three that lost him a chance at victory and collided with fellow driver Alexander Sims (Mahindra Racing) in Round four. He was positive about his car, however, as he believes the Audi e-tron FE07 to be capable of victories and the championship.
Allan McNish, Audi team principal, was disappointed by their losses in Rome, but said it added fuel to the fire for this weekend’s two races: “Everyone in our team, the drivers, engineers and mechanics, is fired up for our first trophies.”
They do have two fierce drivers in their line-up : Lucas Di Grassi is the season three Formula E champion, and his teammate Rene Rast won the DTM (German touring cars) championship three times in the last five years.
Lucas Di Grassi’s words ahead of the weekend shows the German manufacturing team’s colors and their hopes for the championship:“The season is long, no driver or team has pulled away yet.”
Round five of the Formula E championship will take place on Saturday 24 April 2021 at 15:00 CET (14:00 BST) and Round six will take place one hour earlier, at 14:00 local time (13:00 BST).
