Swiss racing driver Alex Fontana was a late call up for the Trulli Formula E team, replacing Vitantinio Liuzzi (who had a schedule clash with the GT Asia series).

The GP3 regular only arrived at the London circuit on Friday morning, prior to the teams’ shakedown session (“I got the call when I was eating my Cheerios,” he told an amused room of motoring journalists), but the 22 year old driver took the time to speak with Current E after his first taste of Formula E machinery during the shakedown session.

“The car was actually quite funny: when you’re sat in the pitlane with earplugs in, there is total silence and you don’t know if the car is on or not,” Fontana said. “Then when you actually drive you can feel the gearbox and you can feel the power when you press the throttle. It reminded me of the old GP3 car with the turbo engine.”

While the car might be funny, the track isn’t. Fontana said: “The track is quite difficult because it’s very bumpy, including three bumps where you almost jump. Then in the first and second corner there is a bit of a pyramid due to the crown of the road, so you either have to stay right or left very quickly or the car rides on its floor and the front tyres don’t touch any more. At the start it will be a mess because somebody will be in the middle and they won’t be able to turn at all and will crash into someone for sure, hopefully not me!”

Changing conditions around the circuit may make qualifying even more critical here than in other races, the driver explained: “There is more dust in the second and third sector, as well as a lot of leaves. So the grip level will change for sure throughout the day, so the groupings for qualifying could make a big difference. The tarmac though is not too bad though, it is quite grippy. Jarno has provided some advice but has been good not to overload me with too much that I won’t need. To be honest I have learnt everything except how to switch it on – before the shakedown there was a moment where I realised I didn’t know how to get it going.”

Assessing his options

While Fontana has only had around 30mins in the new machinery, he indicated that Formula E may be a target for his future career.

“There have been discussions over the last two weeks about next year while we were arranging the drive here,” he told us. “While this was short notice, I’m the kind of driver who likes to say yes to these kind of opportunities, and I don’t need to sit in the simulator for hours. The only issue with racing in this championship is that it starts in September, when I will still be in the current season of GP3, so it is quite difficult to find and organise some sponsors in time. At 22 years old, I will have to check to see if Formula E is the only thing I want to do over the next year. For me the best thing to do is drive something else, because the grid here is very experienced and if I could drive more than this car, which is a little difficult anyway, then it would be better for me.”

Tom Spencer