Antonio Felix da Costa (PRT), DS Techeetah with Sam Bird (GBR), Jaguar TCS Racing and Nyck de Vries (NLD), Mercedes Benz EQ

Things to expect at the Mexico City ePrix

Formula E is in Mexico this weekend for the Mexico City ePrix with racing returning to the famous Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez after last season’s race took place in Puebla.

It will the second event of the season and will be the third race of the season after the current campaign opened with a doubleheader in Diriyah.

So here are a few things to expect as we go racing in Mexico.

 

Mercedes power hoping to dominate once more

Going into the 2021-22 season, we already knew that Mercedes would be withdrawing at the end of the season despite going into the campaign as reigning champions.

The works pair of current Champion Nyck de Vries and Stoffel Vandoorne were expected to start the season strong and showed just that when they went head to head in the qualifying duel semi-final.

It was the Belgian driver of Vandoorne who would take the honour of Pole Position after beating Jake Dennis in the final, but de Vries would end up victorious at the end of the race.

However, it wasn’t just the works pair that were strong behind a Mercedes powered car in Saudi Arabia, ROKiT Venturi also had a very strong weekend with Edoardo Mortara claiming victory in the second race of the weekend.

Venturi currently lead the Team’s Championship, with Mortara leading the way in the Drivers’ Championship but the works Mercedes team are only one point behind the leaders and there is five points between Mortata and Vandoorne who is in third, sandwiching de Vries.

Both Mercedes powered teams will be hoping for another strong weekend and should they dominate once more, they will have a strong platform to mount a title challenge this season.

 

 

Giovinazzi hoping to get up to speed

Let’s be honest, we expected Antonio Giovinazzi to struggle in his opening Formula E weekend, but maybe not as much as he did in Diriyah.

The ex-Formula One driver qualified in last place before finishing last of the running drivers come the end of his first race in the series.

Things looked a little better for the Italian in the second race of the weekend after qualifying in 20th place, but issues for Nick Cassidy and Sam Bird were the reason he wasn’t starting at the very back once again.

Giovinazzi didn’t finish last in the second race of the weekend, ending the ePrix in 21st place. He did however cross the finish line in last place and was only promoted when Mitch Evans was handed a 24-second penalty for failing to activate both attack modes.

This all sounds quite harsh on the ex-F1 driver but going from a series where he impressed at times with one of the slower cars on the grid, people’s expectations were a little higher than what he has produced so far.

I believe that Giovinazzi will bounce back and improve this weekend and during the season I expect to see some strong results from the Italian driver.

He has experience racing around the stadium but driving a Formula E car there will be a whole new challenge for him, but I think he will be able to improve this weekend.

 

A return to the stadium

The Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez is one of the most exciting circuits on the calendar and with the famous Foro Sol Stadium being more of the most iconic parts of any motorsport track.

With 16 turns and a total length of 2.606km, it is a challenging circuit that will test not only the new drivers on the grid but also those with multiple seasons of experience.

If we are basing things of past performance around the circuit itself, Mitch Evans is the most recent race winner of the Mexico City ePrix and will fancy his chances again here for Jaguar. Lucas di Grassi and Edoardo Mortara won on Mexican soil last season, but that was on a whole different circuit.

I don’t think past performance really comes into the conversation when we are talking about Formula E and that will just open up the race and literally anyone can take the race victory.

 

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