Everything was going relatively well until it suddenly wasn’t for Pepe Marti in his Formula E debut on Saturday, driving for Cupra Kiro at the Anhembi Sambadrome street circuit.
The former Formula 2 driver misjudged a full course yellow call – triggered by Mitch Evans hitting the wall – and struck the back of both Antonio Felix da Costa’s Jaguar and Nico Muller’s Porsche with two laps to go.
The impact sent the Cupra Kiro driver airborne and into a roll but, miraculously, the Spaniard climbed out of his car unharmed. Later on, the stewards found him to be at fault for the collision and Marti will start the next race in Mexico City from the back of the grid. He also received four penalty points on his licence.
Speaking to media including Motorsport.com after the race, Marti admitted his mistake and refused to blame it on being his first Formula E race: “No, because I’ve been racing in single-seaters for five years. It’s very different, but these mistakes can’t be allowed. And with this magnitude and this impact.”
Marti explained that being used to different procedures around the virtual safety car – the equivalent to full course yellow in the F1 feeder series – was one of the main reasons behind the accident.
“I’ve lived through everything. Eyes wide open like a fly and I got out of the car quickly, but well, it was a bit of a combination of many things. I’m used to Formula 2, Formula 3, where you stretch the virtual safety car to the limit, you always try to push a bit to the limit, the pitlane entry, you try everything to find those thousandths of a second.
“And I saw the full course yellow, which I had practiced in the simulator, I had practiced in Valencia during preseason tests. And of course, here the drivers, I suppose that especially when there are two and a half laps to go like there were, both Antonio and Nico didn’t push those five seconds to the limit.”
“I was going to reach the legal speed in time, but unfortunately cars don’t disappear when you need them to disappear, and well, I ran into them and went flying, so it’s a shame.”
The Spanish driver believed the outcome could have been different if the incident had not taken place on a tight street circuit like the one in Sao Paulo.
“If it had been Mexico or Jarama or any other place that has that space, that is not a street circuit, I don’t know, I go to the grass and avoid the accident and then I continue the race,” he explained. “But here, it was either wall or wall and hit one car or try to go through the middle and if they see me, they move.
“But, of course, at the time of braking, I already knew that it looked bad. Everything happened very quickly, you didn’t have much time. Yes, once you brake, in the end the cars brake all the same. If one starts to brake earlier and the other later, the speed will continue to be different, so it’s a shame.”
While he was relieved to walk away without injury, Marti felt frustrated because he had been heading for a strong finish in his maiden Formula E race.
“We were on course to finish between fourth and sixth, and obviously it was the first race, and also starting from the back in 14th, it was a great result. We were having a very good race strategically, the team had done great preparation, super good, in terms of setup, systems, everything was optimised super well. I think we had a very strong car today.”
“And yes, unfortunately, I feel bad not being able to reward the team’s work.”
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: motorsport.com
