There are few things that thrill me more in life than going to a new racetrack, to the point where I have a spreadsheet containing every circuit I’ve been to around the world.
Perhaps this doesn’t make me the most trendy person, but it does come in useful for this job. I am writing this preview having just taken off from Singapore on the short hop south to Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital and host city to Round 9 of the 2021/22 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship.
Formula E hasn’t visited a huge amount of new venues in recent seasons, due to both the pandemic but also the stabilisation of the calendar; flying to Jakarta really feels like an adventure. The track looks very interesting, and being in a city that I imagine a lot of the drivers will be unfamiliar with, it will be a real venture in to the unknown.
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A few have come out early, Antonio Felix da Costa (DS TECHEETAH) has been surfing in Bali and Andre Lotterer (TAG Heuer Porsche) has been cruising around Jakarta making friends with locals and flaunting his own enviable brand of cool. But now the serious business will begin, as the drivers head to the north of the city and Ancol Beach, where the race is being held.
This weekend is almost the complete antithesis to the last rounds in Berlin. The German capital has hosted approximately 1.3 million Formula E races over the last eight years, and all the teams and drivers know what they are getting in to.
This track, though, is completely new. It’s also a single header race weekend, which brings the classic Formula E jeopardy that I utterly adore. One hour of practice on a brand new circuit, and then straight into qualifying. All of the teams will have done some simulator running, and will arrive with a baseline idea of how to set up the track, but nothing replaces wheels on the ground.
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I’ve already had one EV ride today. It was a pretty short connection in Singapore, so one of the electric airport buggies with the dramatic flashing orange light on a stick was waiting to whisk those of us arriving from London across Changi Airport to make the flight to Jakarta.
There were only two of us on this buggy, the other person being Mercedes-EQ Team Principal Ian James, whose usual ‘stare intently at the TV screen when you’re being filmed in the garage’ poker face was briefly interrupted by a small but unmistakable flash of disappointment when he realised who he would have to be making small talk with for the following six minutes.
Naturally, there was a bit of racing chatter – because I have very little else in my locker – and Mercedes-EQ clearly arrive in Jakarta with a lot of expectation. Stoffel Vandoorne leads the Drivers' World Championship and is on a run of three podiums in a row. Jean-Eric Vergne (DS TECHEETAH) and Mitch Evans (Jaguar TCS Racing) have also achieved that feat this season, but no one has managed four in a row yet. Mercedes leads the Teams' World Championship, ahead of their customer team ROKiT Venturi Racing - and in the last race in Berlin, Mercedes powertrains occupied the top four positions.
This weekend will not be straightforward, though. It’s going to be so important to hit the ground running at 07:15 on Saturday morning, and with Vergne just 16 points off the championship lead, Evans and Frijns in the title hunt too, and Porsche are always threatening a big result, it’s going to be an intense day in the Indonesian heat.
It has been a while since Formula E has been to Asia, and adding a race in the fourth most populous country in the world is a really exciting prospect as we move into the second half of the season.