Andretti’s Roger Griffiths: “Once again our Achilles heel was Qualifying”

Avalanche Andretti Formula E suffered a miserable weekend at the inaugural São Paulo E-Prix, with both Jake Dennis and André Lotterer having failed to score points. As a result, Andretti have slipped from third to fifth in the Constructors’ Championship.

Brazil was a weekend that Andretti had “high hopes” for ahead of the E-Prix; however, it quickly became a nightmare for Americans. Dennis qualified in fourteenth whilst Lotterer started twenty-first, after clipping a wall during his best lap. The race started no better for Lotterer after damaging his front wing on the opening lap, resulting in an immediate pit-stop. He was able to catch the field back up, though, following a Safety Car, with the German having eventually recovered to twelfth.

Dennis on the other hand made it into the points places early in the race before he was forced to retire at the side of the track with broken rear suspension, after Dan Ticktum ploughed into the back of him. As a result of the impact, Dennis has now failed to score points in the last three races.

Reflecting on the disappointing weekend, Griffiths knows that qualifying in particular is something that “we need to work on”, especially if the side want to get back towards the front of the championship.

“The race in São Paulo didn’t play out as planned. The Avalanche Andretti Formula E team came to Brazil with high hopes of a strong finish as we believed the track suited the Porsche powertrain very well. However, once again our Achilles heel was Qualifying which is something that as a team we need to work on. Early contact in the race for André put us on the back foot so it became a case of seeing how many places we could make up as the race unfolded. André did manage to make up several places though not quite enough to make the points.

“On the other side of the garage, we were running on the cusp of points, hoping the race would come to us in the closing stages, but unfortunate contact from behind from one of the NIO cars put Jake out of contention.

“It’s been great to meet our friends from Nagase and Prysmian here in Brazil and we’d also like to thank the city of São Paulo for putting on such an exciting event. Overall, we leave Brazil disappointed but look forward to starting the European leg with a race in Porsche and Andre’s home country in Berlin.”