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Venturi: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The fifth season of the ABB FIA Formula E Championship was one full of mixed results for Venturi.

Before the start of the new campaign, Susie Wolff joined Venturi as their new Team Principal, while they also entered a technical partner with the Mercedes-affiliated HWA.

Their season started off well, with a pair of podium appearances for Edoardo Mortara. This included the victory he inherited in Hong Kong, which allowed the Swiss driver to briefly enter the title picture. 

As the season wore on, both drivers continues to demonstrated Venturi’s potential and regularly challenged for the points.

Key Stats

Wins 1

Poles 0

Fastest Laps (Top 10 Only) 0

Teams’ Championship Position 8th (88 Points)

Drivers’ Championship Positions Edoardo Mortara – 14th (52 Points); Felipe Massa – 15th (36 Points)

Unfortunately for them, poor reliability meant Venturi’s form dropped rapidly. In fact, both Mortara and Massa failed to score in six of the season’s 13 races. 

However, there still some high points.

Felipe Massa’s third place finish in Monaco marked the first Formula E season where both Venutri drivers achieved a podium finish.

Additionally, Venturi also achieved their best points tally with 88 points, albeit finishing eighth in the Teams’ Championship.

Drivers

48 – Edoardo Mortara

Having held the unwanted record of leading the most laps without winning a Formula E race, Edoardo Mortara started Season Five a determined driver. 

Following two strong performances in Santiago and Mexico City, Mortara went to claim the race win in Hong Kong after Sam Bird was penalised for his collision with Andre Lotterer. 

At this stage of the season, it seemed that he was capable of mounting a challenged towards the Drivers’ Championship. Then, things quickly went downhill.

In Sanya, failure to successfully deploy Attack Mode hindered Mortara’s ability to fight for points. Mortara was also on course for a big points finish in Paris, only to lose power as a result of an mechanical falure.

Lastly, Mortara’s rut continued in the season finale in New York. After passing several cars on track in Race 1, an error on track led to him hitting the wall, ending his race. Race 2 brought more of the same, as brake problems resulted in his sixth retirement of the season. 

Subsequently, Mortara failed to score any points in the second half of the campaign, which at one stage had promise.

Despite already having a seat with the Monegasque outfit for next season, Mortara has been linked with a move to Mercedes having testing for the German marque.   

19 – Felipe Massa

At the age of 37 years old, Felipe Massa joined Venturi and made his debut in the ABB FIA Formula E Championship. 

As the season went on, Massa gradually collected points for the team and slowly made progress. 

While Mortara struggled with bad luck and reliability problems, the Brazilian used his experience to make his mark in the championship.

Subsequently, Massa’s highlight was undoubtedly him successfully holding off an eager Pascal Wehrlein in Monaco to claim his maiden podium in third place. 

On the other hand, he also proved to be inconsistent as well, recording four finishes outside of the top ten.

Additional points were also thrown away in the first race in New York, following a final lap crash with Jean-Eric Vergne.

Massa will remain with the Venturi team for Season Six.

Aaron Lloyd Collins

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