DS Techeetah’s slick change of Jean-Eric Vergne’s entire powertrain following the Rome E-Prix practice crash was the launchpad for his race one victory.
Vergne’s new DS car was hit by an errant Oliver Turvey while preparing for a practice start at the end of FP1 and sustained heavy damage.
But that set in motion the events that led to an unlikely 10th FE race victory for the double champion.
The rebuild was completed within just 90 minutes, meaning Vergne missed only 10 minutes of the second practice session – although it was then curtailed because of a disintegrating chicane kerb, limiting rivals’ mileage too.
This bit of fortune allied to the quick work on Vergne’s side of the garage appeared to galvanise his progress.
After qualifying fourth on the grid he was able piece together what DS Techeetah team principal Mark Preston described as “an almost perfectly judged race.”
The powertrain cluster, which includes the motor, inverter, gearbox and ancillary parts was changed just 48 hours after the original unit was installed.
The teams did not get access to their hardware until Thursday morning due to tightened health and safety restriction on the Rome streets.
“The team were sort of saying, ‘well, we did have a practice of doing this the night before, because we actually put the new powertrain in the car’,” Preston told The Race.
“So they kind of had a little bit of practice. It was a pretty controlled build, but I think they found a few little things along the way that almost caught them out, but these are the things we relish and learn from.”
A dramatic end to Free Practice 1, but we're pleased to say all drivers involved are OK.#RomeEPrix pic.twitter.com/GVeNUJ4ABN
— ABB FIA Formula E World Championship (@FIAFormulaE) April 10, 2021
Preston described how the impact from Turvey’s NIO333 pretty much machined off the right rear corner of his new DS E-TENSE FE21 car.
“The impact sort of plucked off the rear right corner more or less clean off,” he said.
“So in some ways it didn’t hit the actual rear crash structure but it kind of absorbed the energy obviously, and then obviously smashed all the bodywork around it but it didn’t actually do as much damage to the car.
“Maybe it looked more dramatic, but it still obviously shook him of course, because it still was a big hit.
“But all the energy got absorbed as it ripped off the wheel.”
Vergne admitted he then almost lost the car on the reconnaissance run around to the dummy grid before the start of the race as a rain shower hit.
“These conditions were very, very tricky,” he said.
“I even went off on the lap to the grid, just trying to feel the track and I could feel it was very, very poor grip.”
