Sam Bird feels that a 33 lap race around the carriageways of Battersea Park is far too long and will cause drivers to lift and coast throughout the whole ePrix, which could make the Formula E cars look really slow.

Last season’s London ePrix was 29 laps long, which saw drivers push right to the limit on their battery life as Stephane Sarrazin and Loic Duval crossed the line with 0% remaining, with many drivers ending the race with 1%.

Bird feels the drivers will spend the majority of the race saving energy rather than attacking the drivers ahead which could be a detriment to the race.

“Personally, I think 33 laps is ludicrous. Last year we had a great race that was on the limit with 29 laps, so everybody is going to be doing so much lift and coasting that we are endangering the race from being not as good as it could be.”

“I think we should really look at this before the race weekend because I don’t want us to look slow or provide no overtaking. There needs to be a happy medium between 29 and 33, so I think 31 laps would have been the perfect length.”

“I think 31 laps wouls allow some lift and coast, with some attacking which opens up the strategic making the race more entertaining, but with 33 laps the race will be stagnant as everybody will have to be on the same strategy.

“We will discuss it in the driver’s briefing, but I doubt there will be any movement on it, as the FIA calculate these numbers carefully and put a lot of work into how many laps we can do. 99.9% of the time they are right, but I think this one is too long,” said Bird.

Bird still has a mathematical possibility of winning the title this season, but the British driver is looking to just consolidate third in the driver’s championship.

“I have no chance of winning the title. My aim is to finish third in the driver’s and constructor’s championship anything more than that will be a bonus,” said Bird.