Formula E heads to Indonesia for the very first Jakarta E-Prix this weekend (4 June) and Mercedes-EQ-powered ROKiT Venturi Racing are heading to the country's capital city on-song after Lucas di Grassi sealed fourth and Edo Mortara took a race win and second place in the Berlin double-header last time out.
Di Grassi has made the podium on seven occasions in Asia across 16 previous visits from Beijing to Putrajaya, Hong Kong, Diriyah and Sanya. That's more than 50% of all Formula E’s rounds in the continent. Currently ninth in the Drivers' running, he needs a result in Round 9 if he's to push towards a title challenge.
READ MORE: Drivers react to Jakarta: Formula E's newest race location
“The circuit has a good mixture of low, medium and high-speed corners and will test every aspect of car performance," says di Grassi. "It is very tight and technical and embodies what Formula E and street circuit racing is all about. At this stage, we have done some good preparations in the simulator but we need to verify this work in practice. So far this season, we have shown very good pace and we know that we can fight at the front so this is the target for this weekend.”
Mortara back on-song
Edoardo Mortara steered his ROKiT Venturi Racing-run Silver Arrow 02 to a comfortable race win in the opening race at Tempelhof last time out. The Swiss-French-Italian triple national had topped the Drivers’ table heading into the Rome race weekend, but a costly pair of retirements in Rounds 5 & 6 saw him fall by the wayside. He's right back up there now, though, just 12 points shy of current leader Stoffel Vandoorne (Mercedes-EQ).
“Asia is a region that I love to visit and I’m really looking forward to racing in Jakarta for the first time," says the 35-year-The circuit looks quite challenging at initial glance but I’m someone who loves to learn so I can’t wait to explore and discover its corners and characteristics first hand. Because the track is new, practice will be very important and we will quickly establish how accurate our simulator preparations have been.
"In Berlin, we enjoyed a very strong performance with two pole positions, one victory and two podiums and I hope we can carry that form forward into this weekend.”
D'Ambrosio: An exciting, new circuit and everyone's in the same position
A new racetrack means no data - which puts every team on an equal footing in their preparation and simulation work heading into the race weekend. Round 9 is a blank slate, with Free Practice the only chance teams and drivers will have to gather information and check everything corrolates with their simulations before they get competitive in qualifying ahead of the race.
“Jakarta is a great addition to the Formula E calendar and we’re very excited for the weekend to get underway," says Jerome D’Ambrosio, Team Principal, ROKiT Venturi Racing. "Because Jakarta is a new city and a new circuit, we have no historic data so all teams enter the weekend on equal footing.
"We have spent a lot of time in the simulator to prepare but it will be extremely important to maximise all of our time during practice sessions so we can be in the best possible position for qualifying and the race.
"We are looking forward to trying to capitalise on the strong momentum we are currently enjoying following a successful race weekend in Berlin by taking the same approach that we always take, remaining focused on the task at hand and hopefully, scoring a pair of strong points finishes.”