Sérgio Sette Câmara’s season failed to start in the way he would’ve liked it to last weekend at the Mexico City E-Prix, after he failed to even start the race.
The Brazilian driver encountered a huge problem with his car on the way round to the grid, with him having abruptly stopped following a “very loud noise” which was followed by smoke. Once the smoke started pouring out of his ERT X24, the red light came on inside the cockpit. This only happens when “the car is not safe”.
For his own safety, Sette Câmara quickly “jumped out”. Staggeringly, the cause of what could’ve been a horrific moment for the driver remains unknown, although it could possibly be linked to the battery.
Sette Câmara admitted that it was “definitely a bigger problem”, whilst recalling what happened.
“There was a very loud noise at the back of the car,” Sette Câmara told Motorsport.com. “That was definitely a bigger problem. There was smoke and I saw the red light on the car, which indicates that the car is not safe. Then I jumped out of the car.”
The Season 10 opener is one which’ll be forgotten about by the ERT Formula E team and presumably never spoken about again, with the side having struggled throughout the weekend. Throughout free practice, qualifying and the race, they were nowhere. Dan Ticktum finished in a distant last place, 1m 14s behind race winner Pascal Wehrlein.
Back to Sette Câmara’s incident, he soon realised just how lucky he was to have gotten out of the car quickly, after seeing the extent of the damage.
On Instagram, Sette Câmara admitted that, “After seeing the damage and realising what could have happened, I’m just glad I’m okay,”
Whilst the cause of the incident is still unknown, the 25-year-old is convinced it’s battery-related. ERT and Formula E’s battery supplier, WAE, are working together to investigate the matter, as per e-Formula.news.
