After 4 out of 6 days of pre-season of FIA Formula E at Donington Park, England; our journalist Natasha Tsang had the opportunity to interview some drivers, one of them is Salvador Duran from Team Aguri who highlighted the Formula E as different of everything.
N.T: You were in the car yesterday, how did it feel compared to last year?
S.D: It’s always interesting after the first season, where we only had one full day for testing, qualifying and race, you want to make bigger steps so you take more risks, we tried some new things in the car. Some were good, some weren’t, but at the end of the day yesterday we managed to have a competitive car, very quick, and that’s why we’re trying to develop, to have the most competitive car.
N.T: Do you have any idea of where you’re really going to be in the season?
S.D: There are so many teams which haven’t even been out. We aren’t trying to put laps together, we want to understand the car first. In this series you keep learning with every single outing. We have to take it easy. We were happy with how things went yesterday, all development we did was good, and the car is going well today with Tom too so we’re making steps.
N.T: How do you find Formula E is compared to other series?
S.D: It’s the first year, so many people don’t understand about that. It’s totally new, innovative, so we have to wait some years to get to its maximum. Right now it’s the worse it’s going to be and it’s already great, so I think the series, as business-wise, future development and innovation are the best by far. Other series, instead of developing things, are going slower instead of getting new technologies. I think we are a big step ahead of the other series because we have a lot of future.
N.T: We’ve been talking to a lot of fans and one of the things they miss the most is the noise. Do you think they’ll get used to it? Have you got used to it?
S.D: I miss the noise as well, and I think all the drivers and engineers do too, but we’re not trying to compare this Formula to any other Formula. It’s a different category in all kinds of sports. Last year, out of 11 races we had 7 different winners from 7 different teams. You’ll never find that in any other championship. People are not trying to see cars at 350km/h. They want to see competitiveness and good quality racing, which is what this series have, top drivers. You see how close we qualified in the last three races, it’s incredible how competitive it is, and that’s what the fans want to see, while in other series people know who’s going to win.
N.T: Looking to the future, do you think maybe a kind of GP2 would be possible for Formula E?
S.D: In my personal opinion, in terms of drivers Formula E is already better than GP2. You have a lot of ex-Formula 1 drivers and great competitiveness. A lot of the people who are driving have at least one European championship, so the credentials to drive in Formula E make it very difficult to get in here. I think it’s going to be a lot better than GP2, we’re aiming for top of the top. Even if we’re already achieving it in the first year, it’ll get better.
N.T: What about like a feeder series?
S.D: It’s our first year, other series have been there for many years. In Formula E there are many people involved, manufacturers, big companies. This year we are already having big names, so this is going to be a big business for us.