The "big relief" that soothed a motorsport giant

The former Andretti ABB FIA Formula E squad has come quite a way in one year. The American outfit ended the 2017/18 season last in the teams' standings, some way adrift of its closest rival, Dragon Racing, with just five points finishes across the campaign.

But things are different this time around. In terms of results, with three races of the 2018/19 season still to go, starting with the Swiss E-Prix in Bern this weekend, what is now BMW Andretti is currently sixth in the teams' standings.

Individual results are markedly improved too, with two podiums finishes and a prized race win. If one of its drivers had not suffered a serious amount of misfortune through the heart of the season, then there's every chance it would be right up there with the current teams' points leaders DS Techeetah and Audi.

But there is an even bigger overall difference at the team. It may still be US registered, but, after spending the previous two seasons as Andretti's technical partner, BMW took over the squad and made it its works FE entry for 2018/19.

BMW has long had ties with FE - it has supplied the safety and course cars since the inaugural season, and sponsors the Berlin round - but this year it joined Audi, its main DTM rival, in the FE fray, where both will be joined by Porsche and Mercedes next season.

Andretti still runs the race team operations and retains ownership of the entry - hence the licence. But by making the team its works entry, BMW, naturally, took its technology and engineers to the fore. It also doubled its factory driver presence, with Alexander Sims joining long-time Andretti FE driver Antonio Felix da Costa for this year - although it should be noted that another factory BMW driver, Tom Blomqvist, completed six races for Andretti last season.

"It's our first season so always when you approach a new project you have to be really humble," says BMW motorsport boss Jens Marquardt. "It's a high-level championship - we've seen that over the last years as we supported Andretti, a little bit more intensively over the last season. And then you never know when you do a new development - like here with the powertrain - where you will end up."

The early signs were good for BMW. It swept all three days of pre-season testing at Valencia, and Sims nearly won the unofficial 'race' held during that week to allow the teams to trial their new Gen2 machines in race-spec and learn how the attack mode race format system would work.

But it remained unclear just where in the pecking order BMW - or any team, for that matter - stood ahead of the new season. Riyadh made things clearer. From an unexpected 'normal' qualifying session by traditional motorsport standards - the grid was set by the best times from two groups after rain washed out practice and forced the organisers to condense the timetable - da Costa took pole.

He went on to win the race, his second FE victory, ahead of Jean-Eric Vergne and Jerome D'Ambrosio. Although it was unlikely da Costa would have triumphed had the DS Techeetah drivers not been penalised for a regen software infringement while running one-two, Marquardt nevertheless hailed it as a "historic" day for BMW.

"When we started testing last year, then towards the Valencia test," says Marquardt, "matching the performance and everything [of the other teams], at least on a test level - that was a good thing to see.

"I would have liked not to have seen what I saw in Marrakech on TV" Jens Marquardt

"[But] going to Riyadh we still didn't know what things would be like - and to have pole position there and win the race there was a tremendous relief, a big reward for everybody that worked really hard. Also [it was] a big relief in regards to the approach that we had taken, which is obviously very different from more or less everybody else - that basically we didn't have specialists from racing or a different, external supplier develop our powertrain. Our internal BMW production development engineers [did it], and have it really completely done in house.

"[The Riyadh win] showed that our guys did a fantastic job - we definitely had the power and efficiency that is needed in the championship."

Things could have been even better at the next race in Marrakech. After battling their way past Sam Bird, da Costa and Sims ran one-two and it seemed as if BMW would claim a second piece of history in successive races. But it rather spectacularly did not go to plan.

As Sims pressured his team-mate, showing faster pace and probably the greater chance to hold off the opposition and claim the win in the Moroccan city, they clashed. Da Costa was out pretty much on the spot, while Sims fell to fourth as D'Ambrosio and the Envision Virgin Racing drivers swept by to claim the podium spots.

"I would have liked not to have seen what I saw there on TV," Marquardt reflects. "With our two drivers in the lead, not getting it sorted out between themselves, it definitely showed 'yes, we are still rookies and we have to sort things out'. We probably didn't expect to be in that position so soon."

BMW hasn't quite hit those heights again. Although da Costa scored podiums at Mexico City and Sanya, very little has gone Sims' way. He lost a podium to a post-race penalty in Santiago for clashing with Venturi's Edoardo Mortara, then got eliminated in collisions at Sanya, Paris and Monaco, while in Hong Kong he crashed and had to stop early, and in Rome he was hampered by a qualifying electrical fault and had a messy race.

But Marquardt insists there were no knock-on effects of the Marrakech calamity within the BMW camp. The team and drivers were open about what had happened and there appeared to be no lasting resentment, which would have been unlikely in any case given the intelligent and reasonable characters the drivers possess. This was proved in Monaco, where Sims let da Costa by early-on as the former Red Bull junior was running in attack mode.

"It was the second race of the season, where qualifying position and all of that stuff was still not yet so sorted out," Marquardt continues. "And the track layout also was in a way that you could still, from even a first qualifying group, make a lot of moves - and Antonio and Alex started quite high up, so that was possible.

"After that, when the championship came more into a run, everything stabilised much more and the [other teams] that weren't too sorted out in the beginning got better sorted out, which was obviously also a factor."

Heading to Bern, da Costa is fourth in the drivers' championship, 20 points off Vergne's first place. There is every chance he could yet claim the crown, but after the Monaco race he voiced his fears that "The best driver, the best car and the best package will not win the championship".

This is because of FE's new-for-2018/19 qualifying rules, which mean the top drivers in the championship always run first in group qualifying. This can be a real handicap at circuit where there is significant track conditions evolution. And in every session against the clock besides the unique qualifying in Riyadh, da Costa has run in group one.

He's the only driver to have done that, and deserves praise as a result. Where others may have benefited from better track conditions in lower groups on occasion, he's always had to scrap it out to make it through to superpole, or rise through the pack to keep his title bid alive. Of the nine group one sessions, he's topped them five times.

Da Costa played the sensible championship game in battle with Nissan e.dams driver Oliver Rowland at Sanya. But in order to overcome his deficit to Vergne and the impact of the qualifying rules, he vows to go aggressive into the championship's climatic stages.

"It is not going to be easy to gain 20 points on JEV, you don't gain 20 points off JEV easily," he says. "So yeah, we are going to have to go balls-out, go aggressive, because to win it is going to have to be something special."

Although Sims, 16th in the standings, remains in mathematical hunt for the title - he's the lowest placed driver still in with a statistical shout - it is extremely unlikely he'll be able to make up such a gap. But this has nevertheless been a positive campaign given the speed he's shown, and at the very least he deserves to end the season with a podium to his name. BMW knows this too.

"It's a shame with him," says Marquardt. "It's tough for the team - having a very good car, a very efficient car, having one driver that is fighting for the championship [and] Alexander being similarly quick, as he has shown, but not being able to score points. It's just really tough for everybody.

"From BMW's point of view, overall, we can definitely be very happy with our first Formula E season" Jens Marquardt

"It's really about 'what's the speed that he has?' We're looking at how he is handling all the situations - if you get hit from the back when you are running in P5 and your car is destroyed, why would you blame that on a driver not performing?

"We're definitely highly-professional - we will investigate everything. Obviously we are looking into the performance of everybody, but that includes the team, us [and] our powertrain - [and] we'll review that because it's our first season."

That first season is nearly over - and, remarkably given the speed both its drivers have shown, fourth for da Costa and seventh for Sims last time out in Berlin represented its first double points finish.

Marquardt says the team will understandably "push hard and hopefully still keep a hand on the trophy until the very end" with da Costa, but it has also to have an eye on the coming season too. Private manufacturer testing for 2018/19 is well under way, and BMW is in the early stages of its own preparations, with the initial shakedown and first test of its new package completed by the end of May.

"After your first year, you look at evolutionary developments," Marquardt says of BMW's next powertrain. "You realise which are areas where you could make improvements and while the season is running - really from the very first events - you can have things that go into basically your season six development, because of lead times and everything.

"From what we could see this year anyway, we are on a good path. For sure we'll make some small adjustments, but they are small and evolutionary - and everything is running absolutely to plan."

After last weekend's Le Mans 24 Hours and the conclusion of the World Endurance Championship's 2018/19 superseason, BMW's motorsport programmes are concentrated on FE, the DTM and the IMSA SportsCar championship. This reflects its flagship M and i Motorsport programmes, with the DTM and IMSA series representing the two key markets for the company to sell its M branded road cars: Germany and the US.

Success in FE is therefore highly prized for BMW. After the "big relief" of taking its first win and making a performance leap with Andretti, it can be proud of its first campaign as works team, even if some things could have gone better. But the battle is not over yet, there is every chance it can still take da Costa to the title in the 2018/19 championship's final chapter.

"It's a rookie season," concludes Marquardt. "As always rookie seasons are tough, [but] every weekend we're at the track pushing hard, trying our best, and we'll see where we end up at the end.

"But I think from BMW's point of view, overall, also with regards to what we get from the championship, we can definitely be very happy with our first Formula E season so far."