Lopez, Sarrazin to join Buemi on Monza-to-Mexico travel dash

The clash between the two events was triggered when Pope Francis’ visit to Monza was confirmed for March 25, meaning that the two-day Prologue test was pushed back a week to April 1-2.

Toyota is set to unveil its updated TS050 Hybrid LMP1 car on the March 31, where all of its nine drivers will be in attendance.

This presents Buemi (Renault e.dams), Lopez (DS Virgin) and Sarrazin (Venturi) with a logistical headache to make the fourth round of the Formula E season in Mexico City on April 1.

Motorsport.com understands that all three drivers will travel together from Milan to Mexico City on the afternoon of March 31 after the Toyota unveiling, which will end at 1pm local time, and are scheduled to touchdown in Mexico in the early hours of April 1.

The trio will have to get special dispensation from the stewards of the meeting to miss the traditional Friday shakedown session, and also to sign on for the event late.

In case of any delay, DS Virgin could take recently-signed reserve driver Alex Lynn as cover to Mexico in readiness for a potential debut in New York in July, when Lopez is set to race in the clashing Nurburgring WEC event.

Ironically, Lynn has tested for Toyota himself and is believed to have been in discussions with the Japanese manufacturer over a potential drive for 2017.

Renault e.dams and Venturi do not currently have an official reserve driver, so it remains to be seen how they will handle the risk of any travel delays which could impact them in Mexico.

DS Virgin and Renault e.dams could indeed be faced with finding an additional driver for the New York races should Sam Bird and Nicolas Prost, like Buemi and Lopez, have to race at Nurburgring in July for AF Corse Ferrari and Rebellion respectively.

The other drivers that potentially face having to skip the New York races are NextEV's Nelson Piquet Jr. and Jaguar Racing's Adam Carroll.