Sam Bird has spoken to Motorsport Week ahead of this weekend’s double-header Portland E-Prix, and gives his thoughts on the track layout, his ‘super sub’ Taylor Barnard, and the future of the FIA Formula E championship, as well as his own take on how his and his new team have performed so far this season.
Given the nature of the Portland International Raceway and how the NEOM McLaren can perform in peloton races, Bird arrives in America with every chance of gaining a good result over the weekend, and the English veteran is confident his, and the team’s preparations.
“Absolutely. I think every single driver, every single team is in with a chance at this specific circuit, at this specific track. We’ve done our homework, we’re very happy with what we’ve achieved on the sim, learning from previous races.
“I think that our ability to extract great performance from a pack race is much better than it was before, so yeah, looking forward to it.”
In the build-up to the weekend, there has been the revelation that a planned chicane to be implemented in close proximity to the wall of the pitlane entry had been scrapped by the FIA due to safety concerns, a decision that Bird agrees with, adding that he isn’t a fan of such implementations.
“I think it was far too precarious, so I think this is the better option.
“We’ve tried a couple of circuits already this year and the corners have not been that enjoyable in specific areas. I’m not going to name circuits or corners, but if we’re going to run a circuit, it’s just running the circuit that’s there. That’s my view anyway.”
Bird’s season has, of course, been truncated by the break of a bone in his left hand during FP1 in Monaco, ruling him out of that race, and the following weekend in Berlin. Returning in Shanghai, Bird is 100 percent fit – “Ready to rock and roll, no excuses” – and is also quick to hand praise to Taylor Barnard, who replaced him in both weekends.
“Taylor did a cracking job. Absolute super sub, really, really strong, very dedicated young man and yeah, it’s been great having him on board and continuing to have him on board.
“His work in the simulator is invaluable, so yeah, he’s a good asset to the team.
“I don’t know what his calendar is for next year. Certainly, he’ll probably be in high demand in F2 and maybe even in Formula E, depending on what he wants to do with himself. but certainly, when he was here, he acquitted himself extremely well.”
Season 10 is reaching its business end, and it could be natural to start a reflection on one’s season, and Bird is philosophical and glass-half-full about his and the team’s 2024, but recognises the need for improvement.
“I think it’s been promising for the team, we’ve had a couple of podiums, we’ve obviously had a race win, and Jake’s got his best result ever in Formula E, so yeah, I don’t think it’s been a bad season. I think we’ve certainly made progress this year on many things, and I think we’d all say that we haven’t quite scored the amount of points that we would have liked.
“There’s been so many occasions where we’ve been extremely quick and haven’t been able to deliver points on those occasions, which is disappointing.
“Obviously, I missed the mid-part of the season, however, we’ve won a race this year, and I think that was a big step forwards for the entire team, and it gives us confidence going into the last four races that this is again something that we can do again.”
Thoughts will also turn to next season, with the announcement of Season 11’s calendar two weeks ago, and Bird is optimistic about what it can deliver, but dishes a dose of reality about the potential changes between now and round one in São Paulo in December.
“I think it’s too early to say. I’ve been in this championship now for 10 years; we put out a calendar, and then it does tend to change a little bit.
“What we see now is probably not what we’re going to see in four or five months’ time, and that’s just part and parcel of Formula E.
“You’re dealing with local governments, local councils, people wanting us, people not being able to afford having us, and things change, but so far, the calendar looks good.
“Some of the spacings look better than this year; a little bit easier for team personnel, especially mechanics and engineers, so from that point of view, I think it’s a step forwards.”
It’s the biggest calendar in FE’s history, and appears to be a big statement of intent from the championship, but the inclusion of more double-headers, the physical exertion they will bring, as well as his perceived sense of speciality to the single-race events, has given Bird pause for thought.
“Yeah, that’s obviously a big step to have double race weekend in Monaco, but yeah, double-headers are extremely fatiguing for everybody involved here. They really are demanding.
“It’s different to Formula One in that respect. In Formula One, there is a bit more time in between sessions – it’s more spread out.
“We’re so flat out on a race day because everything’s condensed into the one day. The days are brutal, absolutely brutal. I do probably prefer standalone events.
“I think it makes it more special as well because you’ve got a double-header, you’ve got two different winners. ‘Who’s won the Monaco E-Prix?’ ‘Who won that weekend?’ Well, two people won.
“It’s good and it’s amazing that we’re adding more races to the championship, it gives it more credibility, but I do prefer standalones -it makes it a little bit more special if you’re a winner of that entire flyaway.”
Bird believes the aforementioned GEN3 Evo car, faster and more efficient, could promote further fandom in the series, but recognises that, still only ten years old, FE still has a long way to go.
“I think the new car has the potential to gain us more followers again, I feel like we gained a lot of great momentum at the end of GEN1 through GEN2.
“I think COVID hurt Formula E maybe slightly more than it hurt Formula One, [they] had the traction because of Drive to Survive. Everybody is sitting at home during COVID and that show was such a hit that everybody then just jumped to Formula One.
“Formula One is a great show, it’s the biggest moneymaker in world motorsport, and I believe that we’re a great show as well, but I think it’s quite difficult when Formula One just went into a different stratosphere, so we are slowly improving and slowly gaining traction, but not quite at the pace that we were three, four years ago is my honest opinion, but I do believe we’ve got the capability to continue to grow year in, year out.”
Would Bird support the idea of FE collaborating with a streaming service, like F1 has been doing so successfully, to broadcast a fly-on-the-wall show?
“I think you would need to speak to the powers that be of Formula E about this topic, I’m not the right person for this, but yes, of course, it would make us drivers into superstars.
“It would gain big sponsorship for the series, for the drivers, for the teams, and all of a sudden, yeah, it would open up a whole new avenue for everybody involved in this paddock, but that’s not the case right now – its and buts. It’s like saying, you know, if I won the lottery, what would I do? Well, I haven’t won it yet.”
With GEN3 Evo still on the brain, it is now the time of the season in which teams’ attention will somewhat shift towards work on their challengers for Season 11, and with Lola and DS Penske already putting an early spec of their new cars on track, McLaren, among the others, will surely be next, but Bird has his lips pursed on the issue.
“Not yet…[it’s] all under wraps.
“There is a schedule and I know that there will be some time in the car before we go to Valencia, and I’m looking forward to driving the car.”
“There’s learning to be done, there’s definitely learning to be done. New hardware, new software, new strategy tools, so there’s going to be quite a bit of learning – a bit of adaption.
“But we are a world-class racing team, and I think I’ve got the, the tools myself in order to adapt, so it should be fairly OK.”
