BMW i Andretti Motorsport is hoping for a return to form at this weekend's Sanya E-Prix following a difficult run of races, aiming to rekindle the strength that it showed at the start of the 2018/19 campaign.
Joining Formula E with increased involvement with Andretti, BMW opened Season Five under strong circumstances, securing victory at the season-opening Ad Diriyah E-Prix after previously leaving pre-season testing with the fastest overall time.
BMW's form looked set to continue at the second round of the season in Marrakesh, however, an incident between team-mates Antonio Felix da Costa and Alexander Sims cost the team a potential 1-2 finish.
Since Marrakesh, the Munich-based squad has struggled, with da Costa retiring in Santiago while Sims' race weekends in Mexico City and Hong Kong were compromised, with the British driver becoming a victim of a collision between Jean-Eric Vergne and Nelson Piquet Jr in the prior event while driver error in the latter caused the rookie to retire from the fifth round of the season.
As a result of this poor form, with the outfit taking only one podium finish since its dominant Ad Diriyah win, BMW has dropped from second in the Teams' Standings, one point adrift of DS Techeetah, to fifth, 32 points adrift of Envision Virgin Racing.
With Formula E heading to a new venue this weekend in the form of Sanya, China, the 2.236km-long circuit presents an equal opportunity for all teams, while BMW in particular hopes to capitalise on the strengths of its iFE.18 package, aiming to return to the fore of the field:
"Unfortunately, we weren’t able to make the best of our opportunities at the last event in Hong Kong," said Jens Marquardt, BMW Motorsport Director. "We’ve analysed the reasons and drawn our conclusions.
"In Sanya we hope to make better use of our BMW i drivetrain’s strengths once again and build on the top performances that have already brought us some brilliant results this season.
"Our goal is still to bring home as many points as possible with the BMW iFE.18."
Echoing Marquardt's attitude, Sims highlighted his aspirations of bouncing back from a disappointing weekend in Hong Kong, hoping to rediscover BMW's previous performance:
"I am really looking forward to our debut in Sanya," he said. "The track appears to be relatively fast and extensive at first glance, with long straights and hard braking zones.
"After we were unfortunately unable to make use of our package’s strengths in Hong Kong, I hope that we will return to our usual form in Sanya."
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