Turvey hits stationary cars in freak Formula E practice crash

Formula E

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Three drivers were unable to take part in second practice for Formula E’s Rome EPrix following a freak crash at the end of the first session.

NIO driver Oliver Turvey struck the stationary Techeetah of Jean-Eric Vergne as first practice came to an end. Vergne was part of a group of drivers waiting in a queue to perform practice starts.

Turvey arrived on the scene at speed and struck Vergne’s car with enough force to rip the right-rear quarter off the Techeetah, tearing its driveshaft out, and heavily damage the front of his own machine. The NIO car then struck the BMW Andretti machine of Jake Dennis.

Formula E confirmed the trio were unhurt in the crash. “I’m okay and all drivers are fine,” said Vergne. However the extent of the damage meant all three were unable to participate in the second practice session. It remains to be seen whether they will be able to take part in qualifying for the first of this weekend’s two races later today.

Alterations to the Rome street circuit for this year’s EPrix may have contributed to the crash. The finishing line and pits are at the exit of turn 19, but the start line – where the crash occured – is situated between turns six and seven. Formula E last visited the venue in 2019.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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23 comments on “Turvey hits stationary cars in freak Formula E practice crash”

  1. Initially, I was quite intrigued by the whole concept of these all electric cars driving around brand new,in-city, circuits, but the way the series operate is atrocious.

    We are now at the seventh season of the series, the first one being a FIA World Championship, and things go from bad to worse. The first rounds at Saudi were a farce with the whole missile stuff and today we had another extremely dangerous accident, due to poor communication/organisation. There is a “trend”( lets say) of strange incidents happening at the most weird times (end of practice sessions)….

    Unfortunately the series don’t operate like a FIA championship and i really hope they manage to be more organized with time passing by…

    1. I kind of agree and the way they treat fans around the tracks: near to zero seats and no view of a track hidden by ad fences.

      1. Ι haven’t been to a Formula E Prix event to exactly know the situation,but I have heard that as well…

    2. Formula E is imho dreadful to watch, terrible. 2nd tier drivers, no speed, small tracks, fences everywhere. Its actually not really racing at all. I’d rather watch a kid play with a model racing track. Way more exciting. Nothing against the technology but the execution is .. well unacceptable still after so many seasons. Someone seems to be obsessed by in-city racing to maximize revenue from .. well.. everything (more people to sell all kinds of useless stuff to). This US driven money money money money money focus within the world of motorsports is becoming a real problem. It has also reached F1 and we’ve already seen the consequences. Make no mistake, Liberty wants revenue first and will reach this by focusing on the show. After that they will look at the actual racing. This money driven attitude will eventually drive away all sport elements until we all eat popcorn.

  2. After reading the headline I thought that he has hit in someones ford focus or something but it still was a strange crash. Something wrong with the radio maybe?

    For me that video doesn’t work so here’s something that should

  3. RocketTankski
    10th April 2021, 10:46

    He used the triple mushroom boost at the wrong time

  4. I guess this is sort of incident the stewards were worried Lewis could have caused in Russia last year…

    1. Yes, i’d say you are correct. It seems the stationary cars in this instance were in the right, and the approaching car didn’t slow down in time, but it would appear to be a breakdown in communication so he was surprised. Either way, it’s as you point out, a situation where a car travelling at racing speeds can accidently hit a stationary vehicle, and that’s not good enough, if it was caused by organisational failure of the event.

    2. Sorry to inform you that Lewis’ incident and this one are totally different and in no way comparable.
      Hamilton’s was at the extreme end of the pit exit and with too much room for drivers to both avoid him and also get on the race track.
      Turvey’s was because the whole circuit was blocked by drivers attempting a race start simulation compounded by the fact the start line is before the finish line which in all my sense of reasoning I can not understand how they could do that.

      1. I agree. The cause is different but the end result could have been the same.

        1. As with every other accident between cars. Collisions

  5. Tommy Scragend
    10th April 2021, 12:32

    Why is the start line in a different place from the finish line? Seems odd.

    1. Everything is odd with Formula E – organization, rules, cars. That’s why no fans interesting in this series.

  6. Who in the world decided to have to different start and finish lines because it is similar to mounting a rocket meant for space flight upside down. All these geniuses and then no common sense.

    1. That’s not the take to have here. (Others above about the general amateurish operation of the series are.) Alternate start and finish lines are quite common. Indycar has done it lots. It’s needed if your best open paddock area to put the pits doesn’t have a long enough straight next to it. It’s never an issue

      1. Good point, then if you have to do it this way, you must have a procedure for drivers who have already finished their laps, ie taken the flag not go on to stop on the grid for a race start simulation while others are yet to receive the flag or not know what is going on and are speeding right down the circuit.

  7. Strange. Surely the practice starts and procedures were well gone over at a drivers briefing before they actually hit the track.

    I’d kinda expect that the driver concerned might end up sitting out the entire race weekend of not more as a penalty.

  8. 6 penalty points for Turvey!

    1. I don’t see how they let the driver race after doing that? Obviously the driver was not in the correct frame of mind to race.

  9. @cgturbo Turvey can’t have been aware of what was happening. Why he wasn’t aware is the only question worth asking. It does seem a bit crazy though to have so many cars lined up behind one another on such a narrow track. Could you imagine F1 lining cars up like that at exit of the tunnel at Monaco. It’d be a disaster waiting to happen.

    1. @bernasaurus he was completely aware but admitted that he forgot about it. Hence the 6 penalty points

      1. @minnis Yeah, knowing that now, ‘forgetting’ is not really an excuse. It could have been a lot worse.

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