António Félix da Costa in the #28 MS&AD Andretti ATEC-003 finished eleventh in the April 14 Formula E race in Rome while his teammate Tom Blomqvist started twelfth and finished fifteenth.
Félix da Costa started last on the grid because of a practice shunt; he moved through the pack into the points-paying tenth position, but fell back to eleventh at the end.
He said, “It was a good recovery during the race after the incident in qualifying when we had to start the race from the very last position. We chose an aggressive strategy by doing a short first stint. I overtook a lot of cars and used the energy very well. We knew that the second stint would be hard because we had less energy than the others but we came home just short of scoring points in 11th. I think we showed that we had some potential to score some solid points this weekend. We take the positives and go to the next one.”
The series runs again on the streets of Paris in two weeks.
The new BMW iFE.18, the company’s season five Formula E car, made its track debut in the week before the Rome event when Tom Blomqvist drove it at the BMW and Mini Driving Academy site in Maisach, near Munich. The iFE.18, which runs the series’ spec season five chassis, is powered by BMW’s all new drivetrain. BMW DTM racer Bruno Spengler will join Blomqvist and Félix da Costa in the next Formula E test session on the Calafat circuit in Spain on April 17-19.
António Félix da Costa finished eleventh on the streets of Rome. (BMW Motorsport photo)
BMW’season five FE car, the iFE.18, made its track debut in April. (BMW Motorsort photo)
