“I just want the ground to swallow me up”- Sam Bird makes candid admission about spoiling his and his team’s Hyderabad ePrix outing
Jaguar TCS Racing driver Sam Bird expressed his disappointment at his crash and retirement at the Hyderabad ePrix weekend, which cost his team and teammate Mitch Evans some valuable points. He was entangled with three other drivers while trying to overtake them at India’s inaugural edition of the electric series and had to retire in the early stages of the race.
Asked by Sportskeeda to express his opinion on the day’s events, Sam Bird said:
“I made the mistake so I have to own up to it. It’s my fault, I destroyed many peoples races today including my teammate, my team obviously who have given both of us a great car. It’s very disappointing for everybody involved. I don’t really know what else to say.”
He added:
“There is no getting away from that. I’m gutted, disappointed, sheepish, I just want the ground to swallow me up.”
Gutted by his performance, Sam Bird admitted to costing his teammate Evans and the entire team a good race weekend.
The Jaguar TCS racing duo started the race with Evans on pole and Bird in sixth as he had his third-place lap time deleted for track limits.
Bird was trying to overtake Sacha Fenestraz with the ‘attack mode’ at the hairpin of the Hyderabad circuit. Having misjudged the corner and the grip line completely, the move resulted in him ending Fenetraz and Evans' race. The other driver stuck in the tangle was Maxmillan Gunther, who managed to escape but was only able to recover to a 13th place finish.
After showing some good pace in qualifying and racing on the Hyderabad circuit, the retirements came as a disappointment to Jaguar TCS, who had home support from the Tata Group in India and were looking forward to a good weekend.
Sam Bird believes the Hyderabad circuit is difficult and dusty
Jaguar TCS Racing driver Sam Bird believes the Hyderabad circuit will need more cleaning to eliminate dust on the track, which often compromises the grip line while driving. The British driver felt the circuit has very little room to overtake and the race could have been a lap longer.
Speaking to Sportskeeda after the race, Sam Bird said:
“Circuit is difficult, very difficult to overtake. I think maybe the race length should have been slightly longer. Maybe another a lap from the beginning. Seems like the overtake has been very tricky, also we do need better sweeping because offline it is very difficult as I found out.“
Asked how he can pick himself up after the current performance, he replied:
“Just gonna need to take a bit of time and then I will be back in South Africa.”
After the Hyderabad race, Sam Bird is sixth in the drivers’ championship standings while his teammate is 12th. Overall, the team are fifth in the championship standings and will need better performances to surge back to the top. The next round of the electric racing series is scheduled to be held on February 24-25, 2023 in Cape Town, South Africa, another new addition to their calendar.