2018 Ad Diriyah ePrix

Regulation changes (pictured in black and gold Techeetah livery at the 2018 Paris Motor Show) made its Formula E competition debut in the Ad Diriyah ePrix. The race saw the introduction of a brand new car to replace the Spark-Renault SRT 01E that had been used since Formula E began in 2014. The new car, the Spark SRT05e (or "Gen2"), eschews the conventional design of having a rear wing in favour of incorporating aerodynamic elements into the chassis and floor and features the halo for driver head protection. It was also designed to last the entire race due to a new McLaren Applied Technologies designed battery, eliminating the need for mid-race car switches. Cars will have a series of pre-set power modes introduced to encourage strategic racing without allowing a team to gain a competitive advantage through powertrain development. In a further regulation change, the maximum power permitted to be used by each driver during the race increased from to and up to in practice and qualifying. Also, the championship introduced a system dubbed "attack mode" or "Mario Kart mode" in which drivers received an additional of power by driving through a designated area of the circuit off the racing line. Furthermore, LED lights embedded into the halo illuminated electric blue when a car enters attack mode and magenta when a driver deploys FanBoost to help television viewers and spectators follow the race easier. Heading into the new season, three teams opted to keep the same line-up as they had in the previous season; as several teams changed drivers. One of the main changes involved the début appearance of HWA Racelab with 2015 GP2 Series champion and former McLaren driver Stoffel Vandoorne and two-time Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters champion Gary Paffett. BMW entered Formula E as a manufacturer team with partner Andretti Autosport, employing its development driver Alexander Sims and two-time Macau Grand Prix winner António Félix da Costa. Nissan entered the series to replace its strategic partner Renault in their partnership with racing team DAMS, retaining Sébastien Buemi and employing FIA Formula 2 Championship driver Oliver Rowland to fill in for Nico Prost. Felipe Massa, the 2008 Formula One World Championship runner-up, made his series début with Venturi, partnering two-time Macau Grand Prix winner Edoardo Mortara; Massa took over from 2016 Formula V8 3.5 Series champion Tom Dillmann who in turn moved to NIO to replace the outgoing Luca Filippi. The final change involved Nick Heidfeld moving to a reserve role at Mahindra as the team signed Jérôme d'Ambrosio (his Dragon car was driven by Formula 2's Maximilian Günther) and 2015 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters champion Pascal Wehrlein to be their drivers. Wehrlein was prohibited by his Mercedes-Benz contract to race for another team until 31 December 2018, so Felix Rosenqvist drove in his final event before going to the IndyCar Series in 2019. Saudi Arabian authorities were also granted permission to bar another Middle Eastern ePrix as part of its agreement with Formula E. It was officially confirmed as part of the 2018–19 Championship by the FIA World Motor Sport Council in October 2018 and took place on 15 December. The race is part of the Saudi Vision 2030 plan that seeks to diversify Saudi Arabia's economy away from oil exports and into developing public service sectors. Prior to the ePrix, the first in the Middle East, Riyadh hosted the 2018 Race of Champions, which former Formula One driver David Coulthard won. The layout of the 21-turn Riyadh Street Circuit was unveiled in a public ceremony at the Diriyah Governorate on 25 September 2018. The track's design, overseen by contractor Samer Issa-El-Khour, features a number of flowing corners and high-speed turns and few 90-degrees corners atypical of Formula E street circuits. Concerns about human rights Following the initial announcement of its inauguration, the race was subject to criticism by Formula E members and outside observers in light of Saudi Arabia's human rights record regarding its treatment of women, minorities and migrant workers, its oil wealth and dependency, and other major geopolitical problems. In response to these concerns, Agag revealed the Saudi Arabian authorities requested women to participate in the weekend's racing activities and were granted dispensation to report on and spectate the race, "We are happy to be part of that change and we see Formula E as a force for good and in this case is a very specific place under very specific circumstances, but we think Formula E can make a contribution also for good in that country by doing this.” After the assassination of The Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in the Consulate of Saudi Arabia in the Turkish capital of Istanbul in October 2018, Agag told the Associated Press the Ad Diriyah ePrix would proceed as scheduled and stated Formula E would monitor the situation, "Referring to the incident, we obviously have no comment to make. At this moment there are no plans to change the Formula E calendar this season." Post-race test session The first in-season test session of the season was held at the circuit the day after the race. Teams were permitted six hours of running divided into two sessions and were allowed to field one or two cars. As part of an FIA Women in Motorsport initiative, teams were encouraged to field female drivers due to Saudi Arabia lifting its restriction on barring women from driving in the kingdom in June 2018. Nine women tested: Sauber's test driver Tatiana Calderón, Italian F4 Championship participant Amna Al Qubaisi, Jaguar I-Pace eTrophy's Katherine Legge, 2015 British GT4 champion Jamie Chadwick, IndyCar Series' Pippa Mann, BMW junior driver Beitske Visser, Supercars Championship competitor Simona de Silvestro, former GP3 Series participant Carmen Jordá, and GT racer Carrie Schreiner. ==Shakedown==

A half an hour shakedown session was held on Friday afternoon to allow teams to check the efficiency and reliability of their cars at reduced speed. Sam Bird and Massa stopped during the session; Bird continued and Massa pulled over to the side of the circuit to end his session early. After shakedown, several drivers praised the circuit's challenge. Paffett explained its elevation changes were greater than had been expected from pre-race simulations, Dillmann compared it to the Suzuka Circuit. and Rosenqvist likened it to the Circuito Cittadino dell'EUR, "Just surviving the track is going to be an achievement itself." Vergne spoke of his feeling the zone was too close to the corner's exit, while Jaguar's Mitch Evans argued it should have been placed further along the track. Dillmann argued drivers could lose up to two seconds of time and they would activate the system under safety car conditions. Félix da Costa said he felt the differing speed within the racing line was dangerous. Despite the criticism, the FIA did not initially consider altering or moving the zone because of a perceived limit of alternative areas. ==Free practice==

(pictured in 2017) set the fastest lap time in the restructured practice session Two practice sessions—both on Saturday morning—were scheduled to be held before the late afternoon race. The first session was scheduled to run for 45 minutes and the second was due to last half an hour. Particular water drainage problems emerged at turns eight, ten, eleven and seventeen due to the temporary erection of barriers, which created a lack of drainage and caused rivers to collate across the circuit due to the natural undulations in those areas. To compensate for the loss of on-track driving, the FIA planned for the second practice session to last for an hour from 08:35 to 09:35 Arabia Standard Time (UTC+03:00) rather than the scheduled half an hour to provide drivers with an opportunity for track familiarisation before qualifying. However, heavy rain continued to fall and the FIA delayed second practice before cancelling it 25 minutes after its planned start because the clearing of deep standing water with course vehicles capable of pumping water failed to improve track conditions. Bird accompanied FIA race director Scot Elkins in a course car for a reconnaissance lap and a track inspection. When the two returned to the pit lane, several drivers, including Vergne, Audi's Lucas di Grassi and Buemi congregated to discuss the situation and its impact on the race. Drivers then spent five minutes (three laps) at reduced speed behind the safety car to gather knowledge on how the Spark SRT05e handled on a saturated circuit before green flag conditions. Frijns set a benchmark lap, The session resumed with ten minutes to go and lap times lowered. Vergne, Bird, Rowland and Evans all led until Vandoorne set the overall fastest lap of 1 minute, 18.868 seconds, followed by Bird, Buemi, Rowland, Evans, Vergne, Sims, Félix da Costa, Günther and Audi's Daniel Abt. With more than a minute left, Rosenqvist made an error and hit the turn one wall at low speed with damage to his car's nose cone. Massa drove straight to avoid hitting him. One of Rosenqvist's wheel arches detached on the main straight linking turns 17 and 18 on the way back to the pit lane. ==Qualifying==

(pictured in 2014) started on the front row of the grid after the application of penalties. Saturday morning's half an hour qualifying session was divided into two groups of eleven cars rather than the customary four of either five or six. Each group was permitted 15 minutes of on-track activity and all drivers were limited to a single timed lap at . The starting order was determined by the combined fastest overall lap times from both groups. Dillmann was the first driver to circulate the track; he spent the first ten minutes recording multiple lap times at of power and set the second-fastest time. He was investigated for completing more qualifying laps than permitted due to the amended schedule confusing his team. Dragon's José María López was the second driver to record a lap time with five minutes left of group one; he could not better Dillmann's effort and was in provisional third. Buemi took fourth and the highest-placed rookie Vandoorne in fifth was the sole driver in group two to qualify in the top ten. Vergne, seventh, complained of car problems. and Oliver Turvey of NIO was 14th-quickest. Seven drivers received grid penalties: Dillmann had all of his qualifying laps invalidated for exceeding the maximum amount of permitted laps and his car lacked a data logger sensor. His teammate Turvey also had all of his timed laps cancelled for having no data logger sensor. The two Virgin teammates of Frijns and Bird, di Grassi and Rowland had all of their fastest qualifying times deleted for exceeding due to a power overshoot from hitting a trackside bump. Mortara was issued a three-place grid penalty because Venturi had transgressed Formula E's 2018–19 Championship battery software implementation guide. Hence, the grid lined up after penalties as Félix da Costa, López, Buemi, Vandoorne, Vergne, d'Ambrosio, Lotterer, Evans, Paffett, Sims, Abt, Massa, Mortara, Rowland, Piquet, Günther, Rosenqvist, di Grassi, Bird, Frijns, Turvey and Dillmann. Qualifying classification ;Notes •  — Tom Dillmann had all of his lap times deleted because he exceeded the maximum amount of permitted qualifying laps •  — Oliver Turvey and Tom Dillmann's lap times were invalidated for a missing data logger sensor. •  — Robin Frijns, Sam Bird, Lucas di Grassi and Oliver Rowland's best lap times were deleted for exceeding of power. •  — Edoardo Mortara incurred a three-place grid penalty after his team Venturi transgressed Formula E's 2018–19 Championship battery software implementation guide. ==Race==

The race began before a crowd of about 23,000 people at 15:05 local time. The weather at the start were dry and clear with the track slippery and damp but drying. The air temperature was between and the track temperature ranged from ; Before the lights went on for the start, Félix da Costa overshot his starting slot because he looked away from pole position. He reversed to ensure he was in the correct position but was skewed at an angle towards the left-hand side barrier and risked locking his rear tires. Nevertheless, Félix da Costa held the lead into the first turn as Buemi overtook the poor-starting López. While the majority of the field avoided a first lap incident, He reversed to complete almost an entire lap and entered the pit lane for a replacement front wing. He did succeed on the next lap and Lotterer also got ahead of López for fourth soon after. On lap 11, Massa overtok Vandoorne on the right for ninth. Hence, Félix da Costa retook the lead with López second and d'Ambrosio third. Massa and Sims were also issued drive-through penalties for the same infraction as the Techeetahs. On lap 24, López failed to earn the extra amount of power because he missed the attack zone and lost second to d'Ambrosio. He tried again on the next lap and again missed the attack zone. López retired at the exit to turn 14. D'Ambrosio finished third despite nursing diffuser damage from his earlier contact with Lotterer. Sims and Mortara. D'Ambrosio said of his third-place finish, "I come also from two difficult years so it’s great to start this new relationship with the team in this way. We’ve worked really hard over the past few months to be ready and I think we were really fast and good in race pace. I’m really happy to be a part of such a great team – there are loads of great people and a great atmosphere." After retiring from a suspension failure, López spoke of his belief he lost the chance to finish on the podium. He hoped to maintain his pace at the season's next race in Marrakesh, "If we keep it, we’re going to be fighting the next race, so I really hope so. I know that we’re privateers, the outsiders but the truth today is that we were competitive. There were many positives today and we take more confidence now going in to Marrakesh." Buemi stated that he was disappointed by finishing sixth because of a lack of speed after running in second early on, "I could not fight the [Techeetahs]. I just did the best I could to lose the least amount of time but I was not in their league to be honest." (pictured in 2015) argued that the attack mode concept should have its power increased to allow for more effective overtaking Media reception to the race was mixed. Writing for The Guardian, Richard Williams said the race demonstrated Formula E did not need to follow Formula One's example of the heavy imposition of penalties as it tried to showcase it was different from internal combustion motor racing. He also complimented the driving on the circuit, "although it was an entertaining spectacle, the rules farrago towards the end was the last thing the formula needs". Journalist Maurice Hamilton of ESPN wrote the ePrix reminded him of Hans Christian Andersen's ''The Emperor's New Clothes'' in that it had "a similar impression of delusion appeared to infiltrate enthusiastic media and TV summaries referring to a 'brilliant race'" and that it did little to arouse deep emotion because the circuit appeared to him as "weaving through a building site thanks to the impression of high screens blanking off construction work". Views on the attack mode were mixed. Abt argued the attack mode was like "a lose mode" because he lost a position activating it and proposed its power be increased to allow for a more effective pass on other drivers. His teammate di Grassi concurred and said he believed there were less strategic possibilities with it. Bird opined that the system should lose drivers around six to eight seconds for better on-track action, "A bit like the joker lap in Rallycross – same sort of concept, only you lose six-eight seconds but you've got more power for the next three laps. Something like that would be cool." Audi team principal Allan McNish considered the attack mode to have offered up unpredictability, "That's never a bad thing because I do believe that overtaking is a skillset a driver needs to have and so therefore we saw some guys doing some pretty strong overtaking manoeuvres." Günther said he felt it was a helpful system for passing and close racing. Because this was the first race of the season, Félix da Costa led the Drivers' Championship with 28 points (25 for the win and three points for earning the pole position). Vergne was ten points behind him in second and d'Ambrosio was a further three points adrift in third. Evans was fourth with 12 points and Lotterer rounded out the top five with 11 points. In the Teams' Championship, Techeetah became the leader with 29 points picked up from Vergne's and Lotterer's finishing results of second and fifth. Andretti followed in second with 28 points. Mahindra, e.Dams-Nissan and Jaguar made up positions three to five with a point apiece with twelve races left in the season. Race classification Drivers who scored championship points are denoted in bold. ;Notes •  — Pole position. •  — Fastest lap. •  — Felipe Massa received 5-second time penalty for using FanBoost earlier than allowed and drive through penalty converted into 25-second time penalty for using the system with of energy rather than . ==Standings after the race==

;Drivers' Championship standings ;Teams' Championship standings • Notes: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. ==Notes and references==