Jack Nicholls' Monaco preview: 'Electrifying the best race track on earth another watershed moment for Formula E'

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Jack Nicholls' Monaco preview: 'Electrifying the best race track on earth another watershed moment for Formula E'

Jack Nicholls' Monaco preview: 'Electrifying the best race track on earth another watershed moment for Formula E'

When the chips are down, who'll cash in? Formula E commentator Jack Nicholls gives fiaformulae.com his thoughts ahead of a watershed moment for the championship, which this weekend (May 8) electrifies the principality's historic traditional circuit - 'the most iconic sporting venue in the world'.

My column this week comes from the huge open-plan expanse of Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport. A four-hour layover seems the perfect time to reflect on the outrageously chaotic Valencia weekend, and look ahead to Formula E’s first roll of the dice on the full Monaco circuit.

In my Valencia preview, I don’t know why I bothered predicting a quiet, relatively calm weekend with fewer unknowns than usual. It’s like I have never been to a Formula E race before.

PREVIEW: Everything you need to know ahead of this Monaco E-Prix weekend

On paper it was a fair assessment, but this championship isn’t run on paper. Sometimes I’m not sure it’s run in our realm of reality. Not only was there the ending to Round 5, where teams varied wildly in how well they dealt with the scenario, but Group 1 in Group Qualifying was set to be less disadvantageous on a permanent circuit than on a standard Formula E street track. Cue rain just before qualifying, condemning those at the top of the standings to a long slog of a race from the back of the grid. Not a single one of the drivers in that first qualifying group scored points in Sunday’s race.

 

So, that leaves us with a Mercedes-EQ 1-2 at the top of the Teams’ standings, with Nyck de Vries holding all the cards, nine points clear of Stoffel Vandoorne.

However, there are still just 18 points separating the top six, and 270 points floating around for drivers to get there hands on between now and the end of the season. A great example of just how open things are is Jake Dennis. The BMW i Andretti Motorsport driver won the second race in Valencia, after finishing eighth in race one. He had zero points coming to Spain, but is now only 22 points off the championship lead and level with two-time champion Jean-Eric Vergne (DS TECHEETAH).

READ MORE: What to expect from the full Monaco circuit

I will say that Mercedes-EQ seem to have made themselves the team to beat. Jaguar Racing’s Valencian voyage was a pointless one, both literally and figuratively, as the team failed to extract any pace out of the car during the whole weekend. Couple that with Mercedes’ pure speed and energy management smarts, and the German marque has the advantage. In fact, a Silver Arrow 02 has led four of the six races so far this season, and won three of them!

Having said that, Formula E remains outrageously unpredictable. Half of the field have started a race from the front row this year. No one has taken two pole positions. Sam Bird (Jaguar Racing) has the least points finishes of anyone in the top seven, but is still third in the standings! And this weekend, they get to try their luck on the full, historic Monaco track.

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'The most iconic circuit in the world'

To my mind, this is the most iconic motor racing circuit in the world. It might even be the most iconic sporting venue in the world, so having a Formula E race around the streets of the principality is a thrilling prospect.

When Anthony Nogues organised the first race in 1929, could he have imagined that in 92 years’ time electric cars would be blasting round the same layout? Ironically – maybe! Because although petrol internal combustion engines had become the norm in racing cars by the time the first Monaco Grand Prix was held, the first ever car to reach 100kph was powered by electricity and running on Michelin tyres in 1899.

PREDICTOR: Our Monaco E-Prix Predictor picks

So, as I continue to try and thread some lazy casino imagery throughout this piece, who will play their cards right in Monaco? In Formula E’s three visits to the shorter track, only Nissan e.dams drivers have secured Julius Baer Pole Position.

Sebastien Buemi won from pole in Seasons 1 and 3 – back when the team were Renault e.dams – then Oliver Rowland was quickest in qualifying in Season 5 in the coincidentally blackjack-liveried Nissan. Admittedly, a grid drop meant the British driver didn’t start from the front, that honour fell Jean-Eric Vergne’s way – the Frenchman going on to take the win.

WATCH: The best of the three Monaco E-Prix to-date

Nick Cassidy (Envision Virgin Racing), Dennis, Porsche’s Andre Lotterer, Tom Blomqvist (NIO 333) and Alex Sims (Mahindra Racing) are the five drivers who have never raced on the full track before. In fact, Cassidy, Dennis and Blomqvist have never competed at Monaco before at all, in any form.

Some of the more experienced drivers include Bird, who won in Formula Renault 3.5 and GP2, de Vries who won twice in Formula 2, Vandoorne dominated in GP2, while Oliver Turvey (NIO 333) and Norman Nato (ROKiT Venturi Racing) are another pair that won in Formula Renault 3.5. In addition to his win last time in Formula E, Vergne has the best Monaco Grand Prix result of anyone in the field, having finished eighth in the 2013 edition.

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After this race, we will be past the half way mark in the seventh season of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship. We will also be past a watershed moment in the history of the series, having electrified the best race track on Earth. It’s also a series that is still screaming out for a driver to take control of it heading into the second half of the campaign.

We will find out this weekend when the chips are down, which driver – if any – can cash in.

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