Sam Bird Tag

By FIA Jerome D’Ambrosio sprinted to victory in a dramatic last lap dash to the finish in Marrakesh, after a late safety car bunched up the pack following a collision between BMW i Andretti Motorsport pairing Antonio Felix da Costa and Alexander Sims. Despite picking up his third victory in Formula E, it’s the first time D’Ambrosio has actually stood on the top step of the podium – having benefitted from a post-race disqualification on both previous occasions. The win marks his first win since the Mexico City E-Prix inRead More

By FIA Envision Virgin Racing’s Sam Bird was fastest overall on a crucial full day of testing took which place today, 16 December, on the Ad Diriyah circuit following the thrilling opening race of the 2018/19 ABB FIA Formula E Championship season yesterday. Race runner-up Jean-Eric Vergne once again found himself just missing out on the top position, this time by a margin of only 0.113s in his DS TECHEETAH machine. The test featured a diverse mix of nine female and 11 male drivers, with teams having worked with theRead More

By FIA The third E-Prix in Paris saw home-hero Jean-Eric Vergne put in a near-perfect performance to score pole position and victory in the eighth round of the 2017/18 ABB FIA Formula E Championship. The winextends his lead in the standings once more to 31 points, while his closest contender – DS Virgin Racing’s Sam Bird – crossed the line third following a dramatic final lap around the Circuit des Invalides. In front of a huge partisan Parisian crowd, Vergne took pole position ahead of Bird by nearly three tenthsRead More

By FIA The ABB FIA Formula E Championship held a hugely successful first event on the streets of Rome today, 14 April, with DS Virgin Racing’s Sam Bird crowned the inaugural winner. He held off a late charge from Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler’s Lucas di Grassi, who finished second for the second race in a row, with Andre Lotterer crossing the line third for TECHEETAH. It was a race that built to a fever pitch over the 33 laps, with pole-sitter Felix Rosenqvist seemingly in control over the first halfRead More

By Aaron Bearden, Contributing Writer A Championship Statement With half of the ABB FIA Formula E Championship season complete, the championship favorite has finally been revealed. Jean-Eric Vergne and Techeetah established themselves as the tour’s top team in a dominant CBMM Niobium Punta del Este E-Prix romp, claiming the Julius Baer Pole Award and leading wire-to-wire to earn their second victory of Season Four. The run was Vergne’s third podium and sixth top five in as many races this season. More importantly, it was also a championship statement. “We are incredibly happyRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer For the 2018 Mobil One 12 Hours of Sebring, the GTD class is the largest but loses only three cars from the Rolex 24 at Daytona. Let’s take a look at the GT3-based class. The GRT Grasser Racing Team will not be racing both of their Lamborghini Huracan GT3 machines as well as Manthey Racing’s Porsche 911 GT3 R and Risi Competizione’s Ferrari 488 GT3. However, CJ Wilson Racing will be competing with their Acura NSX GT3 machine. Now let’s look at the class by manufacturer.Read More

By Aaron Bearden, Contributing Writer A familiar name topped the chaotic opening practice session for the inaugural ABB FIA Formula E Championship race in Santiago, Chile. Sam Bird laid down a lap time of 1:19.439 around the 1.53-mile Parque Forestal Ciudad De Santiago to set the fast time in Free Practice 1 for Saturday’s Antofagasta Minerals Santiago E-Prix. The DS Virgin Racing veteran slotted in just ahead of early championship leader and Mahindra Racing ace Felix Rosenqvist (1:19.646). Techeetah’s Jean-Eric Vergne (1:19.701) and Andre Lotterer (1:19.824) ended the session in third andRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer The largest class at the 2018 Rolex 24 at Daytona, GT Daytona (GTD) has 21 entries with no shortage of talent in GT3 machinery. The pro-am class mixes many seasoned endurance veterans with gentleman drivers looking to make their mark at the World Center of Racing. Let’s look at the GTD grid by manufacturer. Lamborghini The Lamborghini Huracan GT3 cars were devilishly quick at the Roar before the 24 and they have three cars at the Rolex 24 entered by GRT Grasser (two cars) and PaulRead More

By Aaron Bearden, Contributing Writer Saturday’s HKT Hong Kong E-Prix saw Sam Bird sit through a red flag and make a critical mistake in missing his garage while swapping cars mid-race. In the end, it also saw the Briton in victory lane. Bird crossed the start-finish line 11.575 seconds clear of second-place Jean-Eric Vergne to claim a dominant victory for DS Virgin Racing in the first of two season-opening races for FIA Formula E at Hong Kong. The win was Bird’s sixth in Formula E competition, and made him the first driverRead More

The penultimate day of the official pre-season test at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia saw former FIA Formula E Champion and Renault e.dams driver, Sebastien Buemi climb to the top of the timesheet with a time of 1m21.890s. The addition of a second chicane on the approach to the start/finish line gave drivers the chance to set new times on the modified course, adding three seconds to the best time from the previous day. Two red flags were raised after NIO Formula E Team driver Oliver Turvey – yesterday’sRead More