Formula E made a rare trip to a permanent circuit in Portland. Set up outside the city, the track is rural and the walls have disappeared in favour of patches of grass.
The two long straights also made life complex on the battery side: "It's the most complicated circuit we've come across from an energy point of view," said DS Penske's Vergne before the race. "In the simulator, we'd never worked on a track where you had to stay so far back in the pack to conserve energy. With the very high aerodynamic drag of these electric single-seaters, you can easily save 20% of energy per lap by staying behind the leader, and it's clear that apart from pole position there's no point in being the leader before the end."
The DS Penske driver's assertions were proven correct the very next day. This is the first time that motorsport has come so close to cycling. The leading driver doesn't want to expend too much energy and so huddles in the pack, also knowing they can't attempt a breakaway because they would use up too much energy before the end of the race and would be reeled in by the pack.
But DS Penske also had to come out fast to try and take as many points as possible. On this unfamiliar track, the Franco-American team's DS E-TENSE FE23s generally do well. "I don't know how the others work," Vergne said. "But for our part, we analyse every corner in the simulator, we do a lot of work before coming to the circuits, and we arrive with a very meticulous preparation."
Source: Autosport