Sam Smith
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Articles by Sam Smith
NZ weather live: Temps to 'jump up' over the weekend
Warm temperatures are anticipated to stay throughout the weekend – for all but one of our main centres. VANESSA LAURIE/Stuff Temps to ‘jump up’ over the weekend – everywhere except for one of our main centres.
Sceptic to stalwart: An impactful yet incomplete Formula E journey
Andre Lotterer has a lot to thank current DS Penske technical chief Leo Thomas for. It was Thomas who effectively opened up the Formula E chapter in Lotterer’s diverse and long motorsports career in the late summer of 2017 when, after enduring Ma Qing Hua, experimenting with Esteban Guttierez and relying on the experience of Stephane Sarrazin, a symbiotic partner was finally found for team talisman Jean-Eric Vergne.
Andretti finally resolves seat next to Formula E champion Dennis
Norman Nato has been announced as the replacement for Andre Lotterer alongside Formula E champion Jake Dennis at Andretti next season. Nato, who was released by Nissan in early July, has already driven the Porsche 99X Electric after sampling a handful of laps in Andretti’s test and development car in a run in Spain last week. It is a dream opportunity for Nato, who has raced for Venturi, Jaguar and Nissan in the last three Formula E seasons.
Why works Formula E teams kept losing to their customers
The customer getting one over the shopkeeper in motorsport is a tale as old as the hills. Whether it be Tyrrell regularly humbling Matra in Formula 1 in 1969, Super Aguri occasionally embarrassing Honda in 2007, or the Jota team leading the Le Mans 24 Hours against its Penske Hypercar brethren earlier this year, the scope for widespread paddock blushing has always been there. But in Formula E it is commonplace for customers to beat their manufacturer motherships on any given weekend.
Disaster averted - Now what's next for Formula E's Gen3 car? - The Race
If you’d told Formula E teams and drivers last December that the 2023 season would have turned out to be mostly a reliable and exciting season of close racing, they probably would have laughed at you. Such was the wholesale chaos in and around the pre-season test at Valencia just before Christmas, held with the season-opening event just a few weeks away, that the step into the Gen3 unknown looked and felt genuinely terrifying.
F1's silly season is delaying an important Formula E choice
There is some confusion as to how Avalanche Andretti got a little exposed in Formula E’s 2024 driver market this year, to the extent that perhaps even the team itself is still not clear on who will line up against recently crowned champion Jake Dennis. By the halfway mark of the 2023 season, it was becoming clearer that Andre Lotterer’s form had gone from mild concern to something of a crisis. At that point of the season, he had gathered 23 points, 57 fewer than team-mate Jake Dennis.
Another surprise 2024 Formula E reunion gets green light
Oliver Rowland has rejoined Nissan and will resume his Formula E career after leaving the Mahindra squad midway through the 2023 campaign. Rowland, who will race alongside Sacha Fenestraz, drove for the manufacturer in its Nissan e.dams guise from 2018-21, winning for it at Berlin in 2020 and claiming four poles during that time.
More than marriage of convenience - but can Bird revive McLaren?
To redress the Christmas card shortage via his native US from IndyCar adversary Chip Ganassi this yuletide, Zak Brown can at least rely on one from the Sandbanks area of the south coast of England. Sam Bird’s new Formula E deal with McLaren was never a planned move for either party, but Bird’s Jaguar exit and Rene Rast’s decision to major on a dual World Endurance Championship and DTM programme for 2024 allowed a few stars to align.
Why Formula E's apparent super-team fell so flat in 2023
If you are looking for genuine 2023 Formula E mysteries then DS Penske’s lacklustre season is right up there among the perplexing whodunits. Like a long lost Sir Arthur Conan Doyle portmanteau, thick with disorientating inscrutability, the black and gold team’s season majored on the opaque rather than any kind of true clarity. The confusion in analysing its 2023 is largely based on what was seen as a strong start in the pre-season test at Valencia.
Every full-time 2023 Formula E driver ranked from worst to best
The dust has just about settled on another Formula E season, one that marked the start of a Gen3 era that was not without its troubles. But the racing was fiercely good – and the competition, too. The swings in performance from weekend to weekend kept everyone guessing what the order would be. In the end the driver who won the first race proved to be the champion.
Unlikely reunion sets up fascinating Formula E character dynamic
“I’m not going to travel the world to finish in P15 everywhere. For sure, next season, I am there to be on the podium and win races.” It’s hard to say whether or not Robin Frijns, who’s words above appeared at the London E-Prix last month, agonised over his decision to leave Abt Cupra and rejoin Envision – because on one hand he was leaving the best team ambience he’s ever worked in, but on the other he was at the back of the grid more often than not.
The making of Cassidy's statement Jaguar Formula E move
Just for a brief moment, put yourself in the mind and the shoes of new Jaguar Formula E driver Nick Cassidy at the beginning of June. The Formula E season has just tipped over the halfway mark, he’s leading the standings by 20 points, he’s just off a tremendous tidal surge of a double win in Berlin and Monaco, and, as he stares out of the plane window looking to the next rounds in Jakarta, his mind starts to wander. Essentially, all is well with the world.
Biggest move of 2024 Formula E driver market is now official
Jaguar has officially announced that Nick Cassidy will join fellow Kiwi Mitch Evans in its factory Formula E team in a deal believed to run at least the end of the 2025 season. The Race broke the news of Cassidy’s move from Jaguar’s customer team Envision last month just ahead of the Rome E-Prix as Jaguar looked to replace Sam Bird after three seasons.
Inside an agonising self-inflicted title bid implosion
One of the more curious events of the 2023 Formula E season was how Envision Racing went from a comfortable 1-2 in the opening stages of last Saturday’s crucial title deciding race in London to its championship protagonist Nick Cassidy being completely out of contention in a matter of laps, via running into team-mate Sebastien Buemi. Polesitter Cassidy got a perfect start in more ways than one, sprinting off the line perfectly to head the field.
Porsche goes ahead with appeal of 'incomprehensible' penalty
Porsche will follow through with appealing the three-minute penalty that cost Antonio Felix da Costa second place in the first London E-Prix and ensured Porsche finished behind its customer team Andretti in the 2023 Formula E teams’ championship. Da Costa damaged his right front Hankook tyre after collecting part of Rene Rast’s crashed McLaren-Nissan just before the first red flag.
New Formula E champ a BMW masterstroke Andretti maximised instead
In the roll call of surprising yet ultimately inspired driver choices, Jake Dennis’s bolt-from-the-blue signature on a BMW Andretti contract in October 2020 was clearly visionary. Back then, I wrote that his arrival in Formula E came about due to him being “very highly-rated by many in the industry from one of sportscars’ most decorated professional teams, Jota, to Red Bull’s F1 operation – where Dennis is highly valued as one of the most exceptional simulator drivers in the business”.
Why angry Michael Andretti confronted Porsche chiefs in London
Believe it or not, Michael Andretti doesn’t swear that much in public, much preferring the colloquial American expression ‘frickin’. But last Saturday during the Formula E finale weekend at London ExCeL he went for a similar sounding and much more Anglo-Saxon version and it was caught on TV. It came after Porsche factory driver Pascal Wehrlein forcefully defended fourth position from Porsche customer team Avalanche Andretti’s title-chaser Jake Dennis.
F1 tester closes on Andretti FE seat as doors close to De Vries
Felipe Drugovich has emerged as the surprise favourite to join world champion Jake Dennis in the Avalanche Andretti team for the 2024 Formula E season. That prospect and moves elsewhere in the field make it look increasingly unlikely that recent Formula 1 exile and 2021 Formula E champion Nyck de Vries will get back into the FE field for 2024 despite it initially seeming like his best option for a seat after his AlphaTauri exit.
Winners and losers from Formula E's frenzied 2023 finale
The 2023 Formula E season signed off in a fitting fashion in London, in a haze of on-track excitement, controversy and hurt feelings – even if the actual final race proved shockingly reserved given the remarkable conditions. In many ways, those who’d had good seasons were good again here, and those who’d disappointed continued that trend as well – but there were exceptions, notably a stellar last hurrah from a driver aware he was set for his marching orders regardless.
Bird's Jaguar Formula E downfall rests mostly on him
Why didn’t it happen for Sam Bird at the Jaguar Formula E team? It’s a question that will puzzle and frustrate most, not least Bird himself. Jaguar announced during the evening of the 2023 Formula E season finale in London on Sunday that Bird had competed in his final race for the team and will leave after three seasons.
Formula E teams seek FIA clarity on divisive London penalties
Several incidents in Saturday’s first London E-Prix left teams with significant ill-feeling ahead of Sunday’s final race of the 2023 Formula E season. Notable areas of discord include a combination of incident investigations and the communication teams received on whether their cars could be repaired during two red-flag periods before the race restarted.
Porsche will appeal penalty that wrecked Formula E title shot
Porsche will appeal Antonio Felix da Costa’s three-minute London E-Prix penalty for a “technical infraction” that terminally compromised its chance of a first teams’ world title in Formula E. Da Costa charged from a lowly 17th on the grid to take second place at the chequered flag, but he was instantly shuffled down the classification when the huge penalty, for failing to change his left-front tyre, was applied.
'Too kind' - The team implosion that ended Cassidy's title bid - The Race
The London E-Prix collision between Envision team-mates Nick Cassidy and Sebastien Buemi that effectively ended Cassidy’s 2023 Formula E title aspirations had its roots in Cassidy being “too kind”. That was the appraisal of Cassidy himself, who was attempting to return Buemi’s initial wingman work of getting between him and his title rival Jake Dennis – who was crowned champion after he was classified second in the first race of the weekend at the ExCeL arena.
Formula E chief explains his 'F1 is boring' stance
New Formula E CEO Jeff Dodds gave a headline-grabbing national newspaper ahead of FE’s season-closing London E-Prix this weekend in which he described Formula 1 as being “predictable” and “the least exciting version” of itself “that I remember ever watching”. Dodds didn’t exactly back down when he expanded on that stance to The Race, but he did emphasise that he sees a healthy F1 as having an essential rub-off for other world championship series including Formula E.
'Could get pretty nasty': How alliances impact Formula E decider
Complex inter-squad choreography between manufacturers and their customer teams could come into play in the final two races of the 2023 Formula E season in London this weekend – and according to points leader Jake Dennis, it could get “nasty” for him.
Andretti's journey from BMW bombshell to Formula E title brink
Less than two years ago, the Andretti Formula E team was in a state of major upheaval. Just eight months prior a bombshell – in the shape of BMW’s surprise rejection of a commitment to Formula E that, in truth, had always felt a little flaky from a factory standpoint – had fallen upon it. Less than two seasons into its full factory effort alongside Andretti and with four race wins to its name, BMW was out.
Surprise Formula E reunion is latest 2024 driver move
Robin Frijns will make a surprise switch back to Envision’s Formula E team after just one year away to become Sebastien Buemi’s team-mate next year. The Race has learned that a deal for Frijns to commence a second spell at the Silverstone-based squad was completed in the days after the Rome E-Prix earlier this month. Frijns took both of his two E-Prix wins with Envision (previously Virgin) in Paris and New York in 2019 and contested four seasons with the team between 2018 and 2022.
A Formula E comeback looks inevitable months after abrupt exit
Oliver Rowland is ready to renew his Formula E career after what he described, in his first interview since standing down from his Mahindra seat, as a “tough” season and a half with the team. Rowland has kept a relatively low profile since after the Monaco E-Prix in early May when he and Mahindra mutually agreed to part ways. The Race understands that Rowland is no longer formally contracted to Mahindra and has been free to pursue a 2024 seat, which he says he is optimistic of securing.
Drastic cut to energy limit for London Formula E finale
The FIA has slashed the usable energy allowed for this weekend’s season-ending Formula E double header at ExCeL London in an effort to bring more strategic racing into play. That decision should benefit the slightly more energy-efficient packages of Jaguar and its customer Envision Racing, both of which remain in teams’ title contention and also have Mitch Evans and Nick Cassidy respectively attempting to hunt down Jake Dennis in the drivers’ championship fight.
Porsche commits to Formula E stay despite prior doubts
Porsche has extended its commitment to Formula E, ensuring that it will race until at least the end of the current Gen3 cycle of rules in 2026. The news will see Porsche continue its already-started design and manufacture of a second homologated car for the 2025 and 2026 seasons – and will make it the longest that a German car make has raced in the all-electric world championship.
Who'll fill 2024 vacancy next to Formula E's likely champion?
It’s near-certain that Jake Dennis will be 2023 Formula E champion. What’s not at all clear it who’ll be his 2024 Avalanche Andretti team-mate, though it may well be settled this month. The Race revealed last week that both Robin Frijns and Sam Bird were in the frame for a driver with Andretti, but several others are known to have also been earmarked for the berth and outgoing Jaguar driver Bird is believed to now be out of the frame having agreed a deal elsewhere.
Jaguar meltdown grabbed headlines but Porsche is simmering too
While the headlines of Formula E intra-manufacturer/customer conflict in Rome were taken hands down by the unfortunate tumbling crash in which Jaguar’s 2024 works team-mates all but ended the works Jaguar team and its customer Envision’s 2023 drivers’ title hopes, there was another axis of discord burning away.
Rome underlined Wehrlein's insipid Formula E title capitulation
Pascal Wehrlein’s insipid end to the Formula E season has been entirely in keeping with a theme that began much earlier in a title campaign that rarely felt like it could ever be sustained. Yet again, Porsche’s and Wehrlein’s qualifying was not up to scratch in Rome. And again, it cost them. Wehrlein, once the 2023 points leader, is now 49 points in arrears to Jake Dennis. With just 58 to play for, any notions of the drivers’ title is firmly in the fantasy bracket.
Winners and losers from Formula E's fraught Rome weekend
Formula E’s 2023 title battle took a likely decisive twist during a frenetic double-header weekend in Rome. That came after one of the biggest incidents in the championship’s history on Saturday where thankfully all drivers involved walked away without injury. That in itself is a victory for everyone but beyond that, there were some clear winners and losers among the field as well within the wider picture this past weekend.
Don't let rivals' wipeout distract you from Dennis's brilliance
Formula E’s Mexico City 2023 season-opener in mid-January feels so long ago that it seems like it was held in a previous phantom season of some description. Such was the rawness of the new Gen3 car and the herculean efforts of the entire paddock and its suppliers just to get the cars on the grid that Mexico City had weird elements of actually being a pilot race ahead of the world championship really starting in Diriyah a few weeks later. For Jake Dennis it must feel even further away.
Dennis cuts Cassidy's Formula E points lead with Rome pole
Jake Dennis cut into Nick Cassidy’s Formula E championship lead by defeating him in a tense final duel in qualifying for the second Rome E-Prix of the weekend. Avalanche Andretti’s Dennis went head-to-head with his main title rival Cassidy in the final and ended up triumphing by just 0.07s to scoop the three bonus points to cut Cassidy’s points lead from five to two points.
Driver concern after Rome pile-up - but will changes be made?
Questions have been raised by some drivers about the safety and visibility of the Turn 4 to Turn 7 stretch of the Rome E-Prix circuit after the multi-car accident that stopped the first Rome E-Prix of the weekend. The violent accident was triggered when Sam Bird lost control of his Jaguar on the bumps as the cars took the kink before the braking area for the Turn 7 left-hander.
What prompted Dennis's 'you guys have f***ed me again' rant
Confusion surrounding the correct lap count of the first Rome E-Prix cost former Formula E points leader Jake Dennis three points after his Avalanche Andretti team became confused over how many laps the race would run. The error, which had its roots in the fact the Rome circuit has an off-set start and finish area, saw Dennis hitting the wrong energy targets giving a false impression that he was in line to win his second E-Prix of the season.
'I might be here'
Dan Ticktum, Sergio Sette Camara and Daniil Kvyat are in the frame for racing for the NIO 333 team next season as the 2024 Formula E grid continues to take shape. Ticktum and Sette Camara are believed to have options to stay with the Chinese-owned, British-based team, while Kvyat and his manager Nicolas Todt continue dialogue with owners around his two appearances for the team in testing and practice sessions.
Big Formula E names in high-stakes race for Cassidy-vacated seat
A plum seat in Formula E is now up for grabs, as Nick Cassidy gets set to swap the green of Envision for the black-and-white of Jaguar later this summer in readiness for the 2024 campaign. As revealed by The Race earlier on Thursday, a deal was recently formalised for 2023 title protagonist Cassidy to join Jaguar, where he will race alongside Mitch Evans in place of Sam Bird. This will crank up speculation of who Envision Racing will choose to race alongside Sebastien Buemi next season.
Cassidy to join Jaguar in blockbuster Formula E move
Formula E title contender Nick Cassidy will become a Jaguar driver and partner fellow New Zealander Mitch Evans next season, with Sam Bird leaving after three seasons with the team. The Race has learned that Cassidy recently agreed to a multi-year deal to join Jaguar from the customer Envision Racing squad Cassidy has raced for since 2020 and with whom he is currently fighting for the 2023 Formula E title. The deal is believed to have been confirmed prior to last month’s Portland E-Prix.
De Vries already has options for a Formula E return
Within the Formula E paddock there has already been a feeling of high expectation that Nyck de Vries will be back come 2024 – one that will surely only be heightened in Rome this weekend now that the 2021 FE world champion is out of the AlphaTauri Formula 1 team after just 10 grands prix. Where in Formula E he will be, though, is less clear. There appear to be two berths most likely for De Vries as it stands: Nissan or Maserati MSG.
'Where is Andre?' Formula E title fight's missing wingman
“Where is Andre?” It was a reasonable question from Avalanche Andretti driver Jake Dennis as he desperately sought assistance in the early stages of Formula E’s Portland E-Prix last month. In a leading pack that at times felt like a dusty ring jammed with irate bulls, Dennis needed his team-mate. Lotterer was in 12th position. That information was relayed to Dennis via his – as ever – calm and assured engineer Sean McGill. “We need him up the front, mate,” Dennis replied.
Are traditional circuits - not streets - Formula E's future? - The Race Original
Portland International Raceway was slotted into the 2023 Formula E calendar as an interim United States circuit after racing ceased at FE’s old New York venue. But it will get a second FE race next June, and could in theory become a regular venue dovetailing with a higher-profile US city in 2025, perhaps Los Angeles. That’s all for the future. Right now, there is a debate in the Formula E paddock about whether a true permanent parkland track like Portland was good for Formula E.
How 'insane' racing is unsettling Formula E's stellar grid
Whether the occasional but increasingly frequently seen style of extreme energy saving pack racing on Formula E is judged positively or negatively depends a lot on who you ask. Ask the fans and you’ll inevitably get split opinion, ask the promoter and TV people and they’ll broadly love it, ask the drivers and you’ll get a pretty cool response. The Race’s writers even had their say on it after the Portland race, which you can read here.
Why the wrong Porsche ended up on Portland Formula E podium
Pascal Wehrlein has never been lower in the 2023 Formula E world championship standings than he is right now. That he is third and just 16 points off new leader Jake Dennis says a great deal about the Porsche driver’s season so far. But when Nick Cassidy and Dennis simply keep delivering the performances that they are race in, race out right now, Wehrlein knows his consistent yet often-thin points yields are just not good enough to keep his title desires alive.
'My God, the penalty'
The beleaguered Sam Bird was left ruing another zero score despite having a generally strong Portland E-Prix, as he heads into what could be the final races of his three-season stint as a Jaguar Formula E driver. A fifth consecutive non-score for Bird felt particularly bruising given he had got into a promising position to join the leading trio of eventual winner Nick Cassidy, Jake Dennis and Antonio Felix da Costa as the race entered its final laps.
What happened in 27G Portland crash Mueller called 'terrifying'
Nico Mueller has described his frightening crash that triggered a long safety car period in the Portland Formula E race as “pretty terrifying”. The Abt Cupra driver lost control of his car after the front wing on his Mahindra folded beneath the wheels, meaning he had no steering or braking capability. Muller skated off left as the field headed through the long Turn 9 kink and hit the retaining wall at high speed before bouncing back across the track into the barrier on the opposite side.
Evans's latest rescue was even more important than it looked
Mitch Evans’s burn from the stern Portland salvage job, his latest successful bid to remain in the Formula E title fight, was the polar opposite to his heroics at the previous round in Jakarta. There, he somehow held onto a podium despite heavy artillery attacks from a brace of feisty Nissans.
Winners and losers from Portland's bizarre Formula E debut
Portland’s maiden appearance on the Formula E schedule provided a race that was anything but conventional, even if there was some regularity to the result as two of this year’s title protagonists fought for the win. But the oddities weren’t just limited to the most intense version yet of the peloton-style racing the Gen3 era has produced – with a record Formula E punishment handed out pre-race and one manufacturer (and its customer) suffering a severe slump once the E-Prix got going.
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