Breaking news
Formula E Mexico ePrix
Di Grassi goes public over why he was stripped of Mexico City win
Audi Sport Team Abt’s Lucas di Grassi has explained for the first time the reasons why his car was found to be underweight in post-race scrutineering that cost him an ePrix victory in Mexico City last month.
Charles Bradley
Edited: Apr 1, 2016, 4:21 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
A time-consuming battery problem inadvertently led to a miscalculation by his team's engineer – coupled with high tyre wear and the need to run aggressively to beat the dominant Renault e.dams car – was enough to make his Abt Schaeffler FE01 fail the minimum weight of 888kg by 1.8kg.
"Every race we're very close to the weight limit to catch Renault," di Grassi told Motorsport.com. "We did an analysis after. The true story is that the car which was disqualified, the first car, was underweight – the second one was right on the weight limit.
"We had a battery problem at the very beginning from Free Practice 1 on the first car. And the Williams guys were repairing that battery on the car for the whole day. That car was only ready one hour before the race, so there was no time to re-evaluate the weight of the car.
"And because you need the belts and some other components – we changed the belts from one car to another, and the engineer didn't take this into account.
"So it was a very small miscalculation, and we also had very high tyre wear, much more than we expected, which added up to 1.8kg underweight.
"The other car was fine, and that was the car we did qualifying with. It was very strange, they're effectively the same car, same components, same amount of ballast that we run every year. And the night before it was on the weight target. And it's not like I sweated more, or had a different weight for the weekend."
Different circumstances to Berlin exclusion
It is the second time in the space of a year that Di Grassi has lost a maximum points score after he was also denied a win at the Berlin ePrix last May.
On that occasion the team was penalised for modifying a portion of the front wing and wheel fairings on its car – about which he is still clearly angry.
"Last year I lost the championship because of this," added di Grassi. "The rule is the rule, you have to accept it, but last season's disqualification for a badly-made repair on a part that has no affect on performance whatsoever, for me was completely wrong.
"This was a very small team mistake – and even though I won by 6s so a kilo would not have made that much difference, but I accept it – we have to follow the rules."
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Brooklyn venues tipped for New York Formula E race
Next article Long Beach ePrix: Buemi sets pace in opening practice
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Charles Bradley
Mika Hakkinen on his darkest day in F1
Formula 1
Formula 1
Mika Hakkinen on his darkest day in F1
Dillon: Spotter was “wrong” to shout “wreck him!” before Hamlin clash
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Richmond II
Dillon: Spotter was “wrong” to shout “wreck him!” before Hamlin clash
Hamlin: NASCAR stripping Dillon of win would be “warranted”
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Richmond II
Hamlin: NASCAR stripping Dillon of win would be “warranted”
More from
Lucas di Grassi
Everything that went wrong in Lucas di Grassi’s farewell Formula E weekend
Formula E
Formula E
London ePrix II
Everything that went wrong in Lucas di Grassi’s farewell Formula E weekend
How Sebastien Buemi and Lucas Di Grassi wrote Formula E’s history
Formula E
Formula E
London ePrix I
How Sebastien Buemi and Lucas Di Grassi wrote Formula E’s history
More from
Team Abt
Title hopes over, Gounon injured: Why did Nicki Thiim lose control?
DTM
DTM
Sachsenring
Title hopes over, Gounon injured: Why did Nicki Thiim lose control?
Penalty storm with consequences: Mapelli loses maiden DTM win, celebrations at McLaren
DTM
DTM
Lausitzring
Penalty storm with consequences: Mapelli loses maiden DTM win, celebrations at McLaren
Not a "handful" after all? How the DTM special waiver helped the Lamborghini
DTM
DTM
Zandvoort
Not a "handful" after all? How the DTM special waiver helped the Lamborghini
Latest news
Franco Morbidelli on securing most coveted WSBK ride: 'Clearly Ducati has some trust in me'
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Japanese GP
16 min
Franco Morbidelli on securing most coveted WSBK ride: 'Clearly Ducati has some trust in me'
"Not allowed, not made possible": Was BMW denied its title chance?
DTM
DTM DTM
Hockenheim
1 h
"Not allowed, not made possible": Was BMW denied its title chance?
Max Verstappen: FAQ on his GTWC Europe debut
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1 1 h
Max Verstappen: FAQ on his GTWC Europe debut
Pedro Acosta: "I'm going to Ducati to learn from Marc Marquez, not to beat him on same bike"
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Indonesian GP
2 h
Pedro Acosta: "I'm going to Ducati to learn from Marc Marquez, not to beat him on same bike"
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe