Positive development continues for Lola Yamaha ABT in Mexico City

Lola Yamaha ABT leaves Mexico City with improvements in pace over a single lap, reliability and strategy execution.

Despite challenges in FP1 on Lucas’ side of the garage leading to reduced running time, FP2 saw improvements in pace and performance. For qualifying, both cars were in group B and showed much better pace over a single lap, with Lucas finishing in P7, just over a tenth of a second from making the duels and Zane finishing in P9. With Lucas needing to serve a 3-place grid penalty from São Paulo, he lined up on the grid in P16 with Zane just ahead in P14.

In the race, the team executed its strategies well. Lucas focused on energy saving at first while Zane took an early Attack Mode. Despite making up a few places, a lack of pace meant he was unable to hold position. Following a safety car on lap 20, Lucas took his first Attack Mode working his way through the field to P7 before struggles with efficiency meant he dropped back down the pack. Both drivers took their second four minutes of Attack Mode with only a few laps remaining, unfortunately, with many of the grid also benefitting from the higher power at that time they were unable to make up too many places, ultimately finishing in P13 (Lucas) and P16 (Zane).

Lucas di Grassi, #11: “It’s been a weekend of ups and downs. We had a decent qualifying being P7 in the group and only a tenth off the duels, especially considering our FP1 session was cut short. During the race I think the strategy to save energy was the correct one and we moved all the way up to P7 but unfortunately, we didn’t have the efficiency to stay there. We therefore didn’t achieve our target to score points but we will keep working hard to improve for Miami.”

Zane Maloney, #22: “Despite FP1 and FP2 looking promising, in qualifying we didn’t quite get everything in the window to maximise performance which was a bit disappointing but we managed to start in P14. In the race we struggled for efficiency as a team which we will now look at in the gap to Miami. The whole team are highly motivated and we’ll continue to push to make improvements and keep moving forward.”

Mark Preston, Team Principal, Lola Yamaha ABT, said: “It has been a challenging weekend but we’ve come away with some positive learnings and developments. We now fully understand the problems we faced in São Paulo and can turn our full focus back to performance. Our pace over a single lap is there so the whole team will be working hard between now and Miami to make similar improvements in race pace. If we can combine this with the effective way in which we implemented our race strategies today, we should be in a good position to compete for points at the end of January in Miami.”

The ABB FIA Formula E World Championship continues on Saturday 31st January in Miami.