Maserati

2nd April 2024

Formula E Season 10 Tokyo E-Prix: Guenther snatches win from Nissan and Rowland

Just 2 weeks after the sao paulo e-prix, we were presented with another race, this time in the home of Nissan: Japan! This introduction of the Tokyo E-Prix saw a different layout, sometimes a mixture of the Rome and London circuits. However, none of this could stop the Maserati MSG of Maximilian Guenther from clinching the win away from the pole sitter and majority of the race leader Oliver Rowland.

Key Moments During The Race

Oliver Rowland lead the field away from pole position ahead of Edoardo Mortara in P2 and Maximilian Guenther in P3.
Jaguar Drivers Mitch Evans and Nick Cassidy went to P11 and P18 respectfully after the start
The fastest lap was changing hands during lap 5 with Nato and Mueller touching
Jake Hughes crashed into the barrier at turn 15 on lap 6 due to a collision with Di Grassi. The British driver managed to get away on their own accord, however they fell to the back of the grid.
The Tag Hauer Porsche Team played the team game on lap 9 as Da Costa slowed up the grid behind them so Wehrlein could take attack mode.
A new race leader emerged on lap 13 as Oliver Rowland took attack mode with Maximilian Guenther inheriting P1.
Guenther fell down to P3 after taking attack mode.
Mitch Evans had front wing damage on lap 18 after contact.
The safety car was called out soon after to pick up debris.
De Vries and Di Grassi have both retired at this point.
Nick Cassidy managed to make his way up to P11 by lap 25.
Maximilian Guether takes the lead on lap 25.
2 additional laps were added near the end of the race due to the safety car.
Norman Nato and Robin Frijns made contact as Nato went off the racing line, received a 5 second penalty for this collision but it was later overturned.
Da Costa falls down to P4 after a three way battle for the podium positions.
Guenther wins, Rowland P2, Dennis P3.

Jake Hughes, NEOM McLaren Formula E Team, e-4ORCE 04, leads Lucas di Grassi, ABT CUPRA Formula E Team, M9Electro, and Jean-Eric Vergne, DS Penske, DS E-Tense FE23-Image Credit: Formula E Media Bank

Formula E Season 10 Round 5 Tokyo E-Prix Results

Position	Driver	Team	Points
1st	Maximilian Guenther (fastest lap)	Maserati MSG Racing	26
2nd	Oliver Rowland (pole)	Nissan Formula E Team	21
3rd	Jake Dennis	Andretti Formula E	15
4th	Antonio Felix Da Costa	Tag Heuer Porsche Formula E Team	12
5th	Pascal Wehrlein	Tag Heuer Porsche Formula E Team	10
6th	Norman Nato	Andretti Formula E	8
7th	Nico Mueller	Abt Cupra Formula E Team	6
8th	Nick Cassidy	Jaguar TCS Racing	4
9th	Robin Frijns	Envision Racing	2
10th	Sergio Sette Camara	ERT Racing	1
11th	Sacha Fenestraz	Nissan Formula E Team	0
12th	Jean-Eric Verge	DS Penske	0
13th	Sebastian Buemi	Envision Racing	0
14th	Jake Hughes	Neom McLaren Formula E Team	0
15th	Mitch Evans	Jaguar TCS Racing	0
16th	Stoffel Vandoorne	DS Penske	0
17th	Jehan Daruvala	Maserati MSG Racing	0
18th	Dan Ticktum	ERT Formula E Team	0
19th	Sam Bird	Neom McLaren Formula E Team	0
DNF	Lucas Di Grassi	Mahindra Racing	0
DSQ	Edoardo Mortara	Abt Cupra Formula E Team	0
DNF	Nyck De Veries	Mahindra Racing	0

Formula E Season 10 Championship After Round 5

Position	Driver	Team	Points
1.	Pascal Wehrlein	Tag Heuer Porsche Formula E Team	63
2.	Nick Cassidy	Jaguar TCS Racing	61
3.	Oliver Rowland	Nissan Formula E Team	54
4.	Jake Dennis	Andretti Formula E	53
5.	Maximilian Guenther	Maserati MSG Racing	48
6.	Mitch Evans	Jaguar TCS Racing	39
7.	Jean-Eric Vergne	DS Penske	39
8.	Sam Bird	Neom McLaren Formula E Team	37
9.	Robin Frijns	Envision Racing	21
10.	Sebastian Buemi	Envision Racing	20
11.	Antonio Felix Da Costa	Tag Heuer Porsche Formula E Team	20
12.	Jake Hughes	Neom McLaren Formula E Team	18
13.	Stoffel Vandoorne	DS Penske	18
14.	Norman Nato	Andretti Formula E	17
15.	Sacha Fenestraz	Nissan Formula E Team	8
16.	Nico Mueller	Abt Cupra Formula E Team	6
17.	Sergio Sette Camara	ERT Formula E Team	3
18.	Edoardo Mortara	Mahindra Racing	0
19.	Lucas DiGrassi	Abt Cupra Formula E Team	0
20.	Nyck De Vries	Mahindra Racing	0
21.	Jehan Daruvala	Maserati MSG Racing	0
22.	Dan Ticktum	ERT Formula E Team	0

Most Impressive Race

The most impressive race for me has to be from Oliver Rowland. Leaving the sport mid season last year, eyebrows were raised over whether he would return to the sport. Now, at his new team’s home race, getting pole position and being able to maintain his energy for the majority of the race until he had to fall back to P2 in order to conserve energy to make it to the end is seriously impressive.

Driver who needs to improve the most after Tokyo

Now that we have finished just under one third of the season, I think Mitch Evans really needs to improve the most. Yes, his teammate did manage to qualify near the back due to a lap time deletion in qualifying, Evans should have made up spots on the start to try and bridge the gap to his felle Kiwi but instead, Cassidy finished P8 after the DSQ from Mortara which still made Evans not get any points from the weekend. Evans needs to get his head into the right space

27th January 2023

Formula E Diriyah Qualifying and EPrix-Horror for Maserati and Victory for Wehrlein

Qualifying

Qualifying for the first race in the Gen 3 era of Formula E in Saudi Arabia got off to a less-than-ideal start for Maserati as Maximilian Guenther crashed early on in the Group A session. He was uninjured after the collision with the barrier.

Ticktum and Rowland went head to head in the first quarter final with Ticktum taking the victory.

Di Grassi and Hughes went head to head for the second quarter final and Hughes taking the victory in that one.

It was Evans against Buemi in the third quarter final and Buemi took the victory.

Rast and Bird went head to head for the final quarter final with Rast losing out to Bird by 2 tenths.

In the first semi final, Hughes took victory over Ticktum which saw Hughes go through to the final.

The second semi final saw Buemi take victory over Bird by less than a tenth.

The final saw an epic battle from Buemi and Hughes. Buemi just took pole over Hughes.

Sebastian Buemi with his Pole Trophy in ahead of the Diriyah E-Prix.
Credit: Formula E

Race

Before the race began, it was announced that Sergio Sette Camara would have a 3 place penalty for impeding Pascal Wehrlein in qualifying.

Maximilian Guenther’s crash in qualifying resulted in him not starting the race.

The 39 lap event started with contact between Rowland and Da Costa which resulted in them both pitting early on. This led to the safety car being brought out for less than a lap. Evans hit Rene Rast on lap 1 turn 1 as well. It was a calm safety car restart but then Sam Bird got Jake Hughes who started in P2. However, Bird was not done yet. He then started to hunt Buemi down and he eventually got him.

Fast track to Lap 7 where Bird took the lead over from Buemi after his hunt. Onto lap 11, Evans tried to get past Rast but locked up and lost a few places as a result. Lap 15 saw Muller pit and eventually retire from the EPrix.

Lap 25 saw an epic battle between Pascal Wehrlein and Sam Bird. Wehrlein had more energy and an extra attack more compared to Bird. He managed to stay with him but going into turn 18, he locked up and lost the place he gained for a few seconds. Further down, Cassidy was trying to get past the Andretti of Jake Dennis but instead, Dennis and Cassidy got the McLaren of Jake Hughes when Hughes had to get his attack mode.

Enter the final stages of the race and Wehrlein was still on Sam Bird’s tail. Onto lap 30 and turn 18, Wehrlein gets past Bird and maintains it. Buemi had to get his last attack mode which put Dennis up into 3rd place after starting 11th.

Lap 33 comes around and Dennis was on a charge. Dennis takes Bird on lap 34 just as Wehrlein gets his second attack mode. Wehrlein came out just ahead of Dennis but it saw a battle to the end which saw Wehrlein take his second victory in Formula E.

Further down the field, Maserati’s last remaining car of Eduardo Mortara had to retire on lap 33. He joined Muller as the second retirement of the race. Muller’s teammate Kevin Van Der Linde only managed P16 on his debut for the injured Robin Frijns. Da Costa and Rowland also managed to make it to the end of the race but finishing in the bottom 2 positions due to their collisions on lap 1. Despite obtaining P4 in qualifying, Dan Ticktum dropped down to P14 by the end of the race with his teammate Sergio Sette Camara behind him in 15th.

Di Grassi, Nato and Vandoorne finished off the non points scorers with Evans Lotterer, Hughes, Vergne and Cassidy making up from P10 top 6 respectfully. Rene Rast for McLaren managed P5 with the fastest lap and Buemi finishing P4 to round off the non podium positions.

Wehrlein took the win ahead of Dennis in P2 and Bird in P3.

11th January 202223rd January 2022

Maserati joins Formula E

Italian luxury vehicle manufacturer, Maserati, have announced they will be joining Formula E in Season 9.

When the new Gen 3 Formula E cars launch, a new team will be lining up on the grid. It has been announced that Maserati will be joining the all-electric series from Season 9.

Maserati, and their Folgore electric brand, are “proud” to be returning to single-seater motorsport after a long 60-year absence.

“We are very proud to be back where we belong as protagonists in the world of racing. We are powered by passion and innovative by nature” stated their CEO, Davide Grasso. He continued by saying “We have a long history of world-class excellence in competition and we are ready to drive performance in the future.”

Maserati’s successful motorsport history includes an F1 World Championship, won by Jan Manuel Fangio in 1957, and two Indy500 wins, in 1939 and 1940. Arguable, Maserati’s greatest successes came in Sportcar and GT racing, with 4 Targa Florio wins and, more recently, 14 FIA GT titles since 2004.

The news comes after the announcement that three giant teams – Mercedes, Audi and BMW – will be leaving the sport at the end of Season 8. This much-needed boost will help to quash some of the discussions around the future of Formula E and the potential success of the Gen3 era.

CEO Jamie Reigle commented that “Formula E races in the heart of the most iconic cities in the world and is followed passionately by a progressive global audience. Our millions of fans will be thrilled to see Maserati line up on the grid as one of the world’s elite electric car brands.”

Alejandro Aga, Founder and Chairman, continued this by stating that “The ABB FIA Formula E World Championship is the pinnacle of electric racing. It provides the perfect environment for the most dynamic and innovative high-performance car brands to showcase their technological capabilities alongside their sporting ambitions.”

Feature Image Credit: Formula E