Formula E holds its second of three new events this weekend with the championship heading to South Africa for the inaugural Cape Town E-Prix.
The high-speed, 2.921km circuit is set on the picturesque backdrop of Table Mountain and snakes around the Robben Island coast.
The track boasts several long straights with few breaking zones to contend with. This could potentially make overtaking rather difficult, with only turns one, seven and ten looking prime for overtaking manoeuvres.
Cape Town is the second African venue to host a Formula E event, with Marrakesch having played host to several events in the series, including becoming a last-minute replacement for Vancouver last season.
ABT Cupra’s stand-in driver Kelvin van der Linde will get the chance to compete in his home race as he continues to deputise for an injured Robin Frijns.
His brother will also be competing in South Africa this weekend at an endurance event in Johannesburg, an exciting weekend for African motorsport.
Porsche goes into the weekend ahead, leading both the teams and drivers’ championships after a difficult weekend for their customer team Andretti.
The German manufacturers were able to allay the fears they held after a shocking incident for Pascal Wehrlein in FP1 in Hyderabad, forcing them to bring all of their cars in as a safety precaution.
Jaguar’s Mitch Evans goes into the weekend as a qualifying favourite after starting the last two races from pole position. The Kiwi was unable to convert either of these into a race win.
On both sides of the garage, the British manufacturer will hope to right a difficult weekend for the team with Sam Bird colliding with Evans, causing both of them to DNF.
Their customer team Envision also had a difficult weekend on one side of the garage with Sebastian Buemi losing his podium due to a power issue, something the team is continuing to fight.
The high drag of these Gen 3 cars has been difficult for the teams to contend with, and with the long straights in Cape Town, the tow could be very effective.
While attack mode hasn’t been a huge strategic advantage so far, we could see this come more into play with the lack of overtaking opportunities.
Free Practice begins at 16:55 local time with the race starting tomorrow at 16:03.
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