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Bad Luck and BMWs: A Tale of What If

BMW i Andretti Motorsport became a fully-fledged works team after a few seasons of a technical partnership between Andretti and BMW. The big question heading into Season 5 was how the outfit would perform.

In testing, the team looked quick, and this translated in Ad Diriyah as Antonio Felix da Costa claimed victory. It looked like it would be two on the bounce for BMW Andretti but drivers Felix da Costa and Sims collided in Marrakesh.

The season could definitely be summed up by asking “what if?” with numerous moments of bad luck for the outfit – particularly on Sims’ side of the garage.

Key stats

Wins 1

Poles 1

Fastest laps (top 10 only) 1

Teams’ Championship position 5th (156 points)

Drivers’ Championship position Antonio Felix da Costa – 6th (99 points); Alexander Sims – 13th (57 points)

 If the opening two rounds were displaying BMW’s impressive pace, it also started the bad luck run of Sims. He picked up 18 points in the first three races – and could’ve been at least six more had there not been that collision in Marrakesh – before a run of just one points finish in the next eight races.

Felix da Costa had a little bit of misfortune but not as much as he finished sixth in the drivers’ standing – he scored points in all but four races including a disqualification in the Monaco E-Prix.

Drivers

 #28– Antonio Felix da Costa

A lack of consistency across the season was the theme of Season 5 of Formula E and Felix da Costa was no exception to this. While he was able to score more often than not, big scores were often followed up with smaller scores.

It could have looked a lot different for the Portuguese driver had Marrakesh not ended how it did – the minimum 18 points he would have gained by finish second at worst would have put him on 117 points – or third place in the standings.

Of course, it’s impossible to say that everything would have been the same bar that. The extra points would have changed qualifying groups and how the team and driver approached each race.

#27 – Alexander Sims

The high of the season for Sims came in the final race of the season where he secured pole position and finished in second place in New York.

The low point? Pick any number of them. The two that stand out the most are the Marrakesh collision and Rome qualifying – where a technical issue meant he sat down in the rain next to his car. Someone did give him an umbrella, though.

Sims showed pace throughout the season but was unable to get the big results due to a lot of circumstances often beyond his control.

 

 

Jack Amey

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