Start chaos in Sao Paulo costs de Vries, Mortara & Ticktum a good result: "A misjudgement"

The season opener of the FIA Formula E World Championship in Sao Paulo was characterised by numerous incidents. There was a serious incident immediately after the start: Nyck de Vries collided first with Dan Ticktum and a few moments later with his Mahindra team-mate Edoardo Mortara. A very unfortunate start to the new Formula E season for everyone involved.

When braking for turn 1, the Dutchman misjudged the situation and drove into the back of Ticktum. The Brit suffered tyre damage as a result. The next contact occurred immediately afterwards: de Vries hit Mortara. Both then missed the first two corners. As Mortara did not stop in the designated run-off area after the incident, he was given a five-second time penalty by the race stewards shortly afterwards.

However, this penalty was cancelled after the race, as Mortara had to miss the corner through no fault of his own and also allowed Ticktum and Wehrlein to pass so as not to gain an advantage.

For de Vries, the situation was clear: "It was a misjudgement," he admitted after the race when asked by e-formula.news. "I mean, it was a good day. I would say we were competitive in practice and very good in qualifying. We put both cars at the front. But sometimes you just have one of those days. For me it was just chaotic and these things happen," said the Dutchman.

Ticktum: "So bad it's almost funny!"

Ticktum had a very different view of the incident at the start, which had a significant impact on his race. "I was caught by de Vries at the start, as was his team-mate. He didn't get a penalty for it, but I had a puncture."

This was followed by a series of unfortunate events. The tyre jack failed during the pit stop, which meant that another person had to work on the car. This was a breach of the regulations and led to a drive-through penalty, as Ticktum reports. When driving out of the pit lane afterwards, the Briton had spinning wheels, which resulted in a second drive-through penalty. "Then I drove a few more test laps and had a brake failure. As bad as it can get. So bad that it's almost funny!"

The truth is, however, that Ticktum was not penalised because one additional person was working on the car. Rather, the reason was that his car was in the so-called "ready-to-move status", which must be deactivated for safety reasons before work on the vehicle can begin. Nevertheless,the incident with de Vries and the subsequent series of unfortunate events effectively ended Ticktum's race on turn 1.

Mortara: "Just tried to avoid the accident"

For Mortara, the race began as an involuntary passenger of his team-mate. "It started pretty badly when Nyck basically forced me to cut the corner at the start", the Swiss driver told e-Formula.news. "There was really nothing I could do. I just tried to avoid the accident. We got a penalty for that, which is hard to understand: if you get pushed out, you theoretically have the chance to take a shortcut as long as you don't gain an advantage. And I certainly went to let Dan (Ticktum) by."

With the stewards withdrawing the penalty, Mortara does not have to fear any consequences at the next race, the Mexico City E-Prix on 10 January. Since this season, time penalties that have no effect due to a driver's retirement are automatically converted into a grid penalty for the next race. This does not apply to Mortara anymore.