FE Talk: How Glorious Gunther Executed the Perfect Race

Maximilian Gunther won his maiden ABB FIA Formula E race in emphatic fashion, overtaking Antonio Felix Da Costa on the last lap of the Santiago ePrix.

It was a beautifully driven race from start to finish, managing everything wonderfully in a very tricky race which saw many drivers crumble.

Gunther started in second place as he was demoted from pole position after Jaguar’s Mitch Evans put in a stunning lap to qualify on top for the first time since Zurich in 2018. But, Pascal Wehrlein jumped Gunther immediately off the line which compromised the BMW Andretti’s race.

Crucially, Gunther remained patient and did not do anything rash. You cannot say the same for the rest of the field who were fighting like it was a 45 second race rather than a 45 minute race.

Similarly to last year’s Chile race, the temperatures were very high, hitting 40 degrees celcius on the track. This meant a lot of battery temperature management and some drivers managed this better than others hence the huge pace changes during the ePrix.

Evans looked on course for victory very early on which is unusual for Formula E and the Jaguar team decided that it was best for Evans to use up his two attack mode activations in the first half of the race. With hindsight, it was a strategic error from the team.

But, it was interesting to see that most of the field decided to use their attack mode activations early in the ePrix.

The reason for this is because attack mode gives you an extra 35kW of power so you are hitting higher speeds and putting a lot more stress on the car. In turn, the car and the battery temperatures rocket which is exactly what the drivers were trying not to do.

As the race goes on, the battery temperature increases so it is best to use attack mode early in the race when the car is (relatively) cooler so you do not run into reliability issues later in the ePrix. This factor meant there was less strategy in terms of attack mode and there was more emphasis on driving smoothly and not getting caught up in a battle or a silly move.

It’s this area which Gunther was very strong throughout the race. Gunther eventually overtook Wehrlein and quickly closed the gap to Evans after Evans pushed hard early on. We were given a great battle between the leaders, clean, hard and fair racing after some driving earlier in the race in the midfield.

Gunther had a look into turn one as the race hit the halfway point but wisely backed out of it. He was in attack mode whilst Evans was not so Gunther knew he had to make the move at the moment. They went side by side into turn three with Evans just holding on.

Going through the long, curved turn eight, Gunther had a good run and swept around the outside to take the lead. From there, he was able to manage things but another threat would arrive later in the race.

It was typical Formula E chaos behind the front three cars with the Mercedes, Venturi, and Techeetah drivers fighting and battling very hard. It was robust racing to say the least.

Teammates or Rivals?

The Venturi drivers of Felipe Massa and Edoardo Mortara collided with Massa hitting the wall and by the end of the race, Venturi could only muster a 9th place for Massa as Mortara dropped like a stone. It was a stupid move to collide, considering that staying out of trouble is so important in a race such as Saturday’s when there were plenty of mistakes across the field. By hitting your teammate, it’s a straight own goal.

Why the team did not tell them to not fight and hold station because it was a long race, I have no idea but it is a huge lesson learnt for Venturi. Da Costa and Jean Eric Vergne had excellent race pace and slowly but surely used their experience to make bold moves and put themselves in a good position for the final part of the race.

But, things quickly went wrong for Vergne as his damaged front wing finally gave way and started to rupture at high speeds. Rather than coming into the pits to change the wing, Vergne elected to stay out and even defended extremely hard from his teammate Da Costa which was another strange decision when Da Costa had good pace and was going for the win.

Another smoky lap went by and Vergne still stayed out. It was reminiscent of Charles Leclerc at Suzuka last year in Formula One when he did not come into the pits and his front wing broke into pieces going into 130R.

The stewards should have called Vergne in immediately because one day a piece of debris that large is going to go flying into the air and hit an innocent fan or marshal. It’s very dangerous and should have been punished harshly.

In the end, Vergne did come into the pits and scored no points yet again which means the defending champion has a lot of work to do to be in the hunt for the title. There is no doubt the Techeetah car has the pace to win races so expect Vergne to be back on the podium very soon.

Da Costa was charging in the second half of the race and breezed by Evans before attacking Gunther. At the turn 10 hairpin, Da Costa went for the overtake and made contact with Gunther, barging him out of the way to take the lead.

It was a very aggressive move and slightly over the limit for me as Da Costa was never going to properly make the corner and was quite a distance away from the apex, forcing Gunther to back out and leaving him no room despite Da Costa not even being alongside at the turn point for the corner.

Da Costa was on the limit of his battery temperature though and had to slow down as soon as he got ahead. Meanwhile, Gunther was in a better position and pushed on, forcing Da Costa to keep the pace high.

On the last lap, Gunther made his move in the same place he overtook Evans as he swooped into the lead to snatch victory away from Da Costa. He timed it brilliantly and managed his energy and battery temperature to perfection whilst others pushed too early and were slow at the end of the ePrix.

The Rise of the German

Since the start of season five, I have always been a fan of Gunther. He’s the youngest driver on the grid and has gone under the radar for around a year now.

He outperformed Jose Maria Lopez at Dragon last season and had some stellar results, including some exceptional qualifying performances to show his raw speed and two fifth places in Paris and Bern after being dropped from the team for a few rounds. Compare this to Lopez who’s best result was a ninth place.

The way the German intelligently went about his race said a lot and BMW for the second event running showed that their car in the races is very efficient and will be a dangerous prospect for the rest of the season as long as they can continue to develop and tune their car at the rate they are developing now.

Da Costa should still be pleased with his race, having started 10th and Techeetah also showed that their car during the races are strong so if they can qualify further up the grid, they will certainly win races.

As for Mitch Evans, he will be disappointed that his Jaguar team did not get the race right strategically and should have been able to win considering they had track position and good pace for much of the race, only faltering towards the climax.

It was a typical Formula E race with nobody knowing who was going to win the race until the very end. The series never disappoints and the championship remains wide open. Some teams look stronger than others but ultimately it’s down to the driver and their engineer to execute the perfect strategy just as Gunther did with BMW on Saturday.

The strategy was pivotal in Santiago but there will be other challenges in other ePrix this season which the teams will have to face. It’s going to be another fantastic year in Formula E.