By: MS Amlin Andretti Formula E
October 9 2016

Season 3 of the FIA Formula E Championship is officially underway with Round 1 in the history books. The season opener provided thrills from the streets of Hong Kong as the field of 20 fully-electric cars took to the 2-kilometer city-street circuit.

After a successful season start, the series and its teams will head to North Africa for Round 2 from Marrakesh on 12 November.

After issues in the Free Practice Sessions with the chicane through Turns 3 and 4, the FIA made modifications to the kerbing, this unfortunately led to Robin Frijns making heavy contact with the wall resulting in damage to the tub of the race car. Unable to be repaired, the crew faced a race against time to completely rebuild the car with a new tub. With repairs complete four minutes prior to the deadline, Frijns raced his way from 20th to a sixth-place finish. The Dutchman collected eight championship points.

Portuguese driver Antonio Felix da Costa showed strong pace in the morning practice session but the true potential of the No. 28 car did not show in qualifying, leaving da Costa with a grid position of 13th. With an aggressive drive and smart energy management, the veteran Formula E driver made his way to fifth place, earning 10 points in the drivers’ championship.

The Andretti Formula E team leaves Hong Kong with 18 championship points. While the American team lead by Michael Andretti is tied in points with the ABT Schaeffler team of Germany, Andretti Formula E sits third in the standings due to tie-breaking decision of race finishing position.  

Roger Griffiths

Co-Team Principal
Andretti Formula E

“What a rollercoaster of a day. The first practice session started out pretty promising, but really qualifying was quite depressing. We were hopeful of a fifth or sixth in qualifying, but we didn’t show that. I don’t think Antonio got anything like the best out of the car. Then, obviously, Robin had a big incident with heavy damage and we had to replace the tub before the race. The crew guys did a remarkable job getting the car put back together, and we have to thank the Spark guys as well for their assistance. We got the car finished with about four minutes before we needed it. Both drivers drove a really sensible race – They picked off the positions as they needed them, and there were some smart strategy calls from our guys. We were saving energy when we could, we were able to go further than pretty much everybody else on the grid. After where we were with qualifying, I don’t think anyone could have dreamt of a fifth and sixth-place finish. I’m extremely please for the team and this sets us off in a good position for the championship.”

Robin Frijns

No. 27
MS Amlin Andretti ATEC-02

“It was a really disappointing qualifying that left us starting dead last. To be honest, I wasn’t ever really sure that I’d be able to race today because I broke the tub during the qualifying hit. Normally that takes a day to fix because you have to build up a complete new car, but the team built me a new car in just a few hours. That is really impressive. To rebuild a car quickly is one thing, but to build a car that is competitive in such time is another. I have to thank all of the MS Amlin Andretti crew. This P6 really goes to the team for all their hard work.”

Antonio Felix da Costa

No. 28
MS Amlin Andretti ATEC-02

"It was a good day. I am very happy with how the day started. It was a good surprise being competitive from the start in practice one. Then, I have to say, in qualifying I didn’t deliver a good enough lap due to bad circumstances. I knew we could go forward in the race, and that’s what we did. I have to say the engineers played a major role today and the team as a whole -- repairing Robin’s car and bringing two cars home with double points. I’m happy with that. We know we have issues to fix, but I think with the good people we have we will fix them.”