2019/2020 Formula E silly-season

Neel Jani joins Porsche Formula E team in 2019/2020.

1) Lotterer is said to have a 2-year-contract with Techeetah. Although Porsche could hunt him.

2) Hartley the other candidate at Porsche.

3) I think it will be the last season for Abt at Audi. Could be the chance for Frijns or Müller.

4) Massa is on a 3-year-contract at Venturi.

DS Techeetah: Jean-Eric Vergne - André Lotterer

Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler: Lucas di Grassi - Robin Frijns

Virgin Audi: Sam Bird - Nico Müller

Mahindra: Jérôme D'Ambrosio - Pascal Wehrlein

Nissan e.dams: Sébastien Buemi - Oliver Rowland

Jaguar: Mitch Evans – Nelson Piquet jr.

Venturi: Felipe Massa - Stoffel Vandoorne

Nio: Oliver Turvey - Tom Dillmann

Dragon: José María López - Maximilian Günther

BMW Andretti: Antonio Felix da Costa - Alexander Sims

Mercedes: Gary Paffett - Edoardo Mortara

Porsche: Neel Jani - Brendon Hartley

And here we are. Next news: Vergne extend contract at least at the end of 2020/2021:

https://e-racing365....h-ds-techeetah/

DS Techeetah: Jean-Eric Vergne - André Lotterer

Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler: Lucas di Grassi - Robin Frijns

Virgin Audi: Sam Bird - Nico Müller

Mahindra: Jérôme D'Ambrosio - Pascal Wehrlein

Nissan e.dams: Sébastien Buemi - Oliver Rowland

Jaguar: Mitch Evans – Nelson Piquet jr.

Venturi: Felipe Massa - Maximilian Günther

Nio: Oliver Turvey - Tom Dillmann

Dragon: José María López - Antonio Fuoco

BMW Andretti: Antonio Felix da Costa - Alexander Sims

Mercedes: Gary Paffett - Edoardo Mortara

Porsche: Neel Jani - Brendon Hartley

Edited by HistoryFan, 14 December 2018 - 15:47.

Neel Jani joins Porsche Formula E team in 2019/2020.

 

1) Lotterer is said to have a 2-year-contract with Techeetah. Although Porsche could hunt him.

2) Hartley the other candidate at Porsche.

3) I think it will be the last season for Abt at Audi. Could be the chance for Frijns or Müller.

4) Massa is on a 3-year-contract at Venturi.

 

DS Techeetah: Jean-Eric Vergne - André Lotterer

Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler: Lucas di Grassi - Robin Frijns

Virgin Audi: Sam Bird - Nico Müller

Mahindra: Jérôme D'Ambrosio - Pascal Wehrlein

Nissan e.dams: Sébastien Buemi - Oliver Rowland

Jaguar: Mitch Evans – Nelson Piquet jr.

Venturi: Felipe Massa - Stoffel Vandoorne

Nio: Oliver Turvey - Tom Dillmann

Dragon: José María López - Maximilian Günther

BMW Andretti: Antonio Felix da Costa - Alexander Sims

Mercedes: Gary Paffett - Edoardo Mortara

Porsche: Neel Jani - Brendon Hartley

1: Lotterer was always said to have a 2 year contract. This would be the second year unless he has renewed.

3: Unless his and Di Grassi's relationship completely blows up (or his results fall away to Prost levels) Abt is safe as houses. He is the most successful "young" driver in the championship and he has gotten better every year.

As for Vergne, that is hardly a surprise. He is part owner of the team after all.

Edited by NorwegianRudo, 14 December 2018 - 15:49.

I don't think his performance was that impressive. Di Grassi failed to score more than 2 points in the first half of the season due to technical failures, but managed to outscore Abt until the end of the season...

I don't think his performance was that impressive. Di Grassi failed to score more than 2 points in the first half of the season due to technical failures, but managed to outscore Abt until the end of the season...

True, but hadn't Abt been disqualified from Hong Kong race 2 win he would have beaten Di Grassi. 

I think the main thing for Abt-Audi is to stop getting DQ'd for technical issues. They've lost three wins and two titles beacause of that.

Jaguar should get a whole new lineup to be honest, Piquet has been practically anonymous and Evans has been much the same only slightly further up the field. Sometimes feels like Jaguar isn't even there, they need a star driver.

Potentially yeah, it could be the car rather than the driver. He does have a podium to his name to be fair, I guess I've just never seen anything memorable from him, no standout performance. I remember his GP3 campaign and some great races, but just get the feeling he's trailed off in FE.

Looking increasingly likely Piquet will be out of Jaguar at the end of this season.
Who to replace him?.. Jag seem keen to get Alex Lyn in the car but if they want a Brit I reckon they should go for Turvey personally.

While Piquet dropped off massively and should be replaced, I don't think the drivers are the biggest problem at Jaguar. Evans is probably looking for a better seat by now but I don't really see a clear opening so he might be stuck for the moment. Not sure why they would want to hire Lynn, he was pretty terrible against Bird - 17 points compared to 143 speaks for itself. 

I think Evans has a realistic chance at getting the second Porsche seat. He's put in impressive and consistent performances with Jaguar. If Evans did leave for Jaguar and Piquet isn't up to standard, they may be looking for a whole new line up.

Maxi Günther has a stated aim to focus on FE and didn't do too badly in his races in a substandard Dragon, so he might be a candidate.

There will likely be a couple fresh F1 rejects available, too...

Alex Lynn was fairly woeful against Bird after a promising debut.

What likely rejects from F1 will there be do we think? Surely at least 1 Toro Rosso/Red Bull driver must be available next year. Ocon maybe haha. I would have said Ericsson would be a good fit for FE but he seems to be finding his feet in IndyCar.

Perhaps Grosjean, Giovinazzi.  Kubica most likely, but not sure he'd be a good fit for FE.

Yeah if Grosjean and Gio have bad years I can see them lining up FE.

I didn't want to say Kubica earlier because I didn't think it'd be good for him either.

Given the continuation of Vandoorne's woeful performances, what chance he will stay?

Edited by BRG, 27 March 2019 - 19:00.

Depends on the patience HWA has. At this point, he had two occasions that he made a big mistake, but for the rest he was let down by his car. When you look at qualifying, that goes better simply because Stoffel is alone on the track. He is not used to wheelbanging in singleseater. As Tuco would says: "There's two kind of drivers in Formule E: those who go at it too wild and those who go at it too cautious. Wehrlein made the right choice by refusing to sign with HWA and go to Mahindra instead. Maybe they try to get him back for next year

HWA is nothing more than a rebadged Venturi from last year. Just as Jaguar did the year before when they bought the old Mahindra car.. They used the old car to learn, while developing one of their own. It depends on whether Stoffel and Gary can get used to racing here so they make testing miles, cause that's what they are now: testdrivers.

HWA's car is a rebadged Venturi from THIS year.

I was unaware Jaguar had bought an old Mahindra for research purposes?

It is true though. In 2017- 2018 Mitch Evans and Nelson Piquet were using a Jaguar car with the old Mahindra engine package as a "Spirit Honda Setup", learning the ropes of Formula E, developing updates but not actually going for big results. It was cheaper to use an existing engine package and learning from that than develop something of your own that does NOT work, like Andretti had in the 2015-2016 season when their Texas Instruments engine package proved a costly dud.

So Piquet is out and Lynn replaces him.

I can't think Lynn is going to shine after how he fared against Bird, but maybe this'll be a new lease of life for him? Still, at any rate, he'll be better than Piquet. He's crashed in the last three races and scored 1 point whereas Mitch has scored in every race. Nelson has been out-performed by his team-mate (Turvey or Evans) ever since he won the championship. His time has come.

Really didn't see Piquet swap coming so soon, but I have to say it is not any particular surprise. His performances have been unbefitting of his former champion status. 

Time will tell if Lynn is a stop-gap for Jaguar or if they have someone exciting waiting in the wings. 

Looks like Stoffel got the honour of the first roll-out in the new Mercedes.

https://twitter.com/...0551187456?s=21

Mortara also shookdown the car.

I wonder what are the odds for a Vandoorne/Ocon line-up at Mercedes next year, or will Ocon move to indycars....

If i bet a few quids, i would say that Ocon won't comeback in F1.

Edited by Viryfan, 03 April 2019 - 08:19.

More than 500 km covered by the pair. 

A lot of running!

After Rome I would say Vandoorne has guaranteed himself a seat in the Merc. Second driver is still up in the air with Mortara/Ocon possibilities, or they could go with the rumoured outside signing. Bird looks the most likely to me if they go with that. Paffett would need to turn his season around enormously to put himself in the running.

Mitch Evans increased his leverage significantly with Porsche supposedly interested. Jaguar will be desperate to keep him, but Porsche's ability to offer other opportunities as well as FE might sway him. 

I have to say, Porsche's early signing of Jani continues to perplex me. They had Hartley testing the car recently, they've got Lotterer doing very well in FE already (although he would need to be bought out of his contract) and they're in the market for big time free agents. Why would you feel the need to lock up one seat with Jani? Of course he's a very talented driver, but I would rate Hartley higher and Lotterer (and any free agent) has successful FE experience which would be invaluable for a brand new team, while Jani's very brief FE career was a bit of a disaster. I don't really see what he offers that they felt the need to get him locked up so early before their other options become clear.

As for the rest of the field, Mahindra are apparently on the lookout in case Wehrlein gets an F1 offer. The only other "big" teams I see making changes are if Bird, Lotterer, Evans or Mortara leave. Turvey has to be desperate to get into one of those teams.

Outside drivers who seem realistic candidates to me would include Ocon, Markelov (please) and even Gasly if his struggles in the RB continue.

Edited by NorwegianRudo, 14 April 2019 - 14:52.

My ideal Porsche lineup would be Harley-Evans actually

Jani was miles off the pace in his (only) S3 outing with Dragon. 
Yep, the car wasn't the best out there, but he was nowhere in both races. (it was a double header)

Edited by thegamer23, 14 April 2019 - 18:19.

Alex Lyn will need to do better than he did in Rome if he wants to keep that seat too. I would like to see Turvey given a go in a better car.

For his first race in a Gen 2 he did OK. IIRC he qualified 8th before a penalty, and then moved forward to 12 from the back row.

My comment on Jaguar should replace Evans didn't age well did it... haha, good lad!

Sam Smith reported that there will be 10 manufactures in 2019/2020.

With Mercedes and Porsche joining the field, there shoud be 11 manufactures.

So there is one manufacture which will run two teams. Possible are: Dragon to become costumer team? Or Venturi running the Mercedes engines?

Sam Smith reported that there will be 10 manufactures in 2019/2020.

 

With Mercedes and Porsche joining the field, there shoud be 11 manufactures.

 

So there is one manufacture which will run two teams. Possible are: Dragon to become costumer team? Or Venturi running the Mercedes engines?

He's said Venturi and Mercedes will still be closely aligned (not sure exactly how he phrased it), so I assume it's the second.

With Hartley now signed up with Toyota WEC, I assume that rules him out for the Porsche seat? There'd be precedent for Toyota to be ok with it, but Porsche? 

He said he would love to drive for Porsche, so it's not unlikely it will happen.

The more i look at it, the more i think Ocon will go to a Mercedes Formula E seat.

He just seems really attached to the Mercedes brand.

He will do again the historic Mille Migila with Klaus Ludwig.

https://e-racing365....up-for-2019-20/

No Mortara at Mercedes.

I can't see Mercedes going for it with Paffett, for me this can only lead to an arrival of Ocon at Mercedes in Formula E.

https://e-racing365....up-for-2019-20/

No Mortara at Mercedes.

I can't see Mercedes going for it with Paffett, for me this can only lead to an arrival of Ocon at Mercedes in Formula E.

Ocon stil has the F1 dream alive. It might take another year for that to die. Although i estimate his chances of an F1 seat are poor. Inless he unshackles himself from Merc I doubt he will find a seat as Williams already have 1 Merc junior and unlikely to take another and Racing Point have 1 seat for Lance and one seat paid for by Perez. If removed from Merc he could get a drive at Haas/Sauber/Toro Rosso/Mclaren if one or two become available.

For FE Merc should probably stick to HWA's current line up. Vandorne has probably done enough to have the drive on merit but needs to cut out the silly mistakes. Merc should show some loyalty to their DTM champ and hope he learns, adapts and improves. Keeping the same line up would probably help Merc's transition into the sport as well.

Ocon-Vandoorne my bet for Mercedes.

That would be one hell of a lineup too. And, from Ocon's point of view. Much better than sticking to a simulator only job. 

I doubt Mercedes will drop either Bottas or Hamilton for next season.

Edited by thegamer23, 14 May 2019 - 17:06.

For FE Merc should probably stick to HWA's current line up. Vandorne has probably done enough to have the drive on merit but needs to cut out the silly mistakes. Merc should show some loyalty to their DTM champ and hope he learns, adapts and improves. Keeping the same line up would probably help Merc's transition into the sport as well.

I think that is HIGHLY unlikely. Vanddorne seems to be locked in, but I don't see Paffett being kept.

There have been rumours for a long while they want an established FE champion/race winner in the team. With Buemi supposed to have re-signed with Nissan I was expecting Bird, but apparently his Merc F1 stint didn't end amicably. There's not really a lot of available options; Evans maybe? Not a regular winner, but probably the top young driver who also has decent FE experience.

I think that is HIGHLY unlikely. Vanddorne seems to be locked in, but I don't see Paffett being kept.

There have been rumours for a long while they want an established FE champion/race winner in the team. With Buemi supposed to have re-signed with Nissan I was expecting Bird, but apparently his Merc F1 stint didn't end amicably. There's not really a lot of available options; Evans maybe? Not a regular winner, but probably the top young driver who also has decent FE experience.

I would be fine with an Ocon-Vandoorne team, think that has the potential to be very strong.

Do we think BMW will poach someone new? Da Costa seems OK but not sure Sims is going to be kept. Doesn't help that the BMW hasn't lived up to its expectations though.

I can't see why they'd drop Sims. He's still pretty young but has good history with BMW, has been as quick as his team mate and whilst he has had several incidents, not all of them are his fault and he is a rookie. If rookies aren't given leeway to learn then there's very much a problem with the team.

Sims is doing much better than I expected to be honest. I'd give him another season. 

Somehow Sims has had a run of getting taken out through no fault of his own, or has in the last few races. He obviously has pace, as Marrakesh showed. 

Evans is staying at Jaguar:

https://e-racing365....-fourth-season/