After a frustrating weekend in Cape Town four weeks ago, Edoardo Mortara enters this weekend’s inaugural São Paulo E-Prix hoping for a strong result, in order to really kickstart his 2022/23 season.
The first season of Gen3 hasn’t been a good one so far for Mortara, with the experienced Swiss driver having only claimed three points from the opening five races of this year’s ABB FIA Formula E World Championship. Mortara’s weekend in Cape Town arguably summed up his season, with the Maserati MSG Racing driver having retired on the opening lap of the race.
Mortara was a huge doubt for the race after having a huge crash during qualifying. His crash in qualifying ruined what could’ve been a very strong weekend, with Mortara having demonstrated excellent pace.
With himself and the team having had four weeks to reset and rest, the hope will be that the results will start coming, beginning this weekend in Brazil. Mortara is massively excited for the weekend ahead and has “always wanted to race” in Brazil, with the South American nation boasting “a massive motorsport heritage”.
“Since joining Formula E, Brazil is a country that I’ve always wanted to race in, so I’m looking forward to finally do that this weekend. With lots of local motorsport legends like [Ayrton] Senna and [Emerson] Fittipaldi, São Paulo has a massive motorsport heritage, so turning the city’s streets into a race track will be a very special experience and I’m sure the fans are going to enjoy the action.
“The track itself is quite technical, so it will test a lot of different aspects of performance – as a driver, that’s a challenge I welcome.”
“The performances we’re capable of haven’t materialised” – Maximilian Günther
Maximilian Günther is another driver targeting a “great weekend” in Brazil, with the German having come so close to a podium in Cape Town, only to hit a wall and retire from the race. Up until his incident, Günther was enjoying his best round of the season so far, with him having been in the leading pack throughout the race.
Following his unfortunate incident, though, he remains on zero points for the season; however, Günther is the first to admit that “the performances we’re capable of haven’t materialised”. Günther knows that the car has potential but extracting that has been the biggest issue this season, whilst bad luck has also been another factor.
The German will be hoping that all of the team’s bad luck for the year has been experienced, with the target now being on finally having that much-needed breakthrough result”.
“I’m looking forward to getting back to the race track this weekend and it’s exciting to be taking on another new challenge as Formula E heads to Brazil for the first time. São Paulo is an incredible city and with a rich motorsport pedigree, I’m sure it will be a great addition to the calendar.
“During the past two races we’ve come close to achieving a breakthrough result, but the performances we’re capable of haven’t materialised. We have a strong team and with the right approach I know that we can have a great weekend.”
Credit: Maserati MSG Racing