Formula E

Lucas di Grassi’s diary from the Buenos Aires ePrix in Argentina

The FIA Formula E is in Argentina for the first race of the new year. Lucas di Grassi is second overall in the championship standings ahead of the Buenos Aires ePrix in the Argentine capital. He writes about the forthcoming race weekend in his DHL InMotion blog.

Saturday, 06/02/2016 
Fantastic support
Once again, we had a great weekend here in Buenos Aires. I’m already looking forward to racing here again next year. Argentina has such a great motorsport tradition going back to the great Juan Manuel Fangio. It would be nice to have an Argentine driver in Formula E - the fans here deserve it. The atmosphere has been amazing and the support of the spectators fantastic. Very special thanks to everyone who voted for me in the Fanboost. This has been a joint effort.

Saturday, 06/02/2016 
Another podium!
Wow, my fourth podium finish in four outings so far this season! That’s a result I can be satisfied with. Congratulations also to Sam Bird on his victory – he drove a fantastic race. After the start, I was able to overtake three opponents. Then after changing cars, I moved up to second position. At the restart after a late safety car deployment, I pushed hard to overtake Sam, but he put up a great defence. Unfortunately, I lost momentum at one point, which allowed Sébastien Buemi to go past. We’ll continue to work hard to keep ourselves in with a chance of the title.

Saturday, 06/02/2016 
Not too bad a grid position
Unfortunately, that was not my best performance in qualifying today. I made a few small mistakes on this challenging track. Seventh position on the grid is not too bad. It’s a pity that I just missed the Super Pole shoot-out of the five fastest cars. We’ll now try along with the team to extract the maximum and secure valuable points in the race. We intend to stay focused only on ourselves, knowing that every point can be crucial ultimately.

Friday, 05/02/2016
Shake it down, baby! 
Today’s action was in the form of the shakedown. We used the 30-minute session to test if all parts survied the trip from Uruguay to Argentina. Temperatures are going to play a big role here. Today, it was warmer than expected, and tomorrow it’s going to be even hotter! Consequently, it will be important to perfectly deal with the battery management. That is certainly going to be a challenge for all the drivers here. 

Friday, 05/02/2016
Down to business
We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow in Buenos Aires: Race Day! First, we have two training sessions to further acclimatise ourselves to the track. Then we really get down to business. Qualifying is obviously very important here, but not quite as much as on other tracks. It’s a very wide circuit which offers some good overtaking opportunities. The fans are delighted with that, but so are we drivers. I feel sure that the Buenos Aires ePrix is going to be every bit as exciting as last year.

Thursday, 04/02/2016
Checking out the track
It’s time now to really step up a gear at the track after a great meal yesterday. First up on the agenda, team briefings, so as to be perfectly prepared for Saturday. The guys did a great job again as always! I became a member of the Formula E driver’s commission which looks after drivers’ interests this year. As part of my work for the commission, we gave the track a thorough once-over today in order to make sure that conditions are suitable. I then took questions from the media, speaking in my mother tongue Portuguese, obviously! 

Thursday, 04/02/2016
More FanBoost, please!
A unique feature of Formula E is the way that fans are allowed to get involved. Like last year, you can give extra power in the race by means of the FanBoost button. Voting is open until the race goes into its sixth minute, which is why the FanBoost can only be used in the second car, i.e. after the pit stop. 100 kilojoules of additional energy then becomes available and can be used either all at once or for a lesser thrust over a longer period. A post on Instagram or Twitter with the hashtags #FanBoost and #LucasdiGrassi is all that is required and is automatically counted as a vote for me. But you can also vote for me on the website at fanboost.fiaformulae.com. Thanks for your support!

Wednesday, 03/02/2016
Short trip to Argentina
Ola from Buenos Aires! It’s great that the season is now continuing after the short winter break. The races in South America are always very special to me. The journey here wasn’t long at all this time. I came straight from my home in São Paulo, where I took a couple of days off to prepare for the Buenos Aires ePrix. I didn’t even need to get used to a different time zone!

Wednesday, 03/02/2016
Steak is a must
A relaxed start to the weekend in bright sunshine! My team-mate Daniel and I had a laugh at a couple of media appointments that we attended, one of which was for the official YouTube channel of the FIA Formula E. You’ve just got to watch the video! We came up with something really special this time! I’m going out for a juicy steak with Daniel tonight, which is something you simply must do when you are in Argentina. 

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