Formula E news: Sam Bird reveals ALL on new team-mate and 2019 favourites – EXCLUSIVE
SAM BIRD has labelled new Virgin Racing team-mate Robin Frijns one of the best drivers of his generation ahead of the 2018/19 Formula E campaign.
Season Five of Formula E gets underway this weekend and British ace Sam Bird is looking to kick-start his title challenge with a strong showing in Saudi Arabia.
Bird finished third in the overall standings last season and will hope to go even better as the all-electric championship enters an exciting new generation of racing.
The 31-year-old will be joined at Envision Virgin Racing by a new team-mate in the form of Dutch ace Robin Frijns, and Bird is well aware of the threat posed by the 2012 Renault 3.5 Series champion.
Speaking exclusively to Express Sport, Bird said: “Robin is one of the best drivers of our generation.
“I’ve raced against him before and he is extremely competitive.
“I can imagine that there will be times when I’m scratching my head thinking ‘How the hell can I beat this guy?’
“I hope that there are times when he has to look at my data and do the same but I think it’s a great team and he’s a good guy – funny, fast, he’s going to be a great team-mate I’m sure.”
Frijns’ pace is undeniable, with the 27-year-old beating the likes of Carlos Sainz Jr. to the 2011 Formula Renault 2.0 title in his debut season in the category.
He then made the transition to Formula Renault 3.5 and claimed the overall honours ahead of a field containing future stars Kevin Magnussen, Alexander Rossi and Jules Bianchi.
Bird came third during Frijns’ title-winning year in Formula Renault 3.5, while the duo also competed against each other in the 2013 GP2 campaign.
Their paths crossed yet again in Seasons Two and Three of Formula E, with Bird consistently gaining the upper hand before Frijns left the series to win the Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup and compete in DTM.
The Dutchman has returned to a championship in the midst of a revolution, with Gen2 cars and a change in race format complemented by the introduction of an innovative new ‘Attack Mode’.
Frijns is not the only new face on the grid this season with ex-F1 drivers Felipe Massa, Stoffel Vandoorne and Pascal Wehrlein joining the series to make up the full complement of 22 drivers.
Four former champions – Nelson Piquet Jr, Sebastian Buemi, Lucas Di Grassi and Jean-Eric Vergne – will all be competing in the 13-race campaign, although Bird revealed fans should also keep an eye on BMW drivers Alexander Sims and Antonio Felix da Costa when the lights go out in Ad Diriyah.
“The stand-out favourites are probably the normal crowd I would say, but alongside them you would have to put the BMW boys,” said Bird.
“They look very competitive [in testing]. To be honest, there are 22 world class drivers in this category.
“There’s not one weakness now. You look back at Season One and maybe there were a couple of drivers that you would say were not quite at the front level.
“Now it’s really dog-eat-dog and there’s not one driver that is weaker than another. It’s tough out there – really tough.”
Season Five of Formula E gets underway on December 15, and you can catch all the action with the race live on the BBC Red Button, BBC Online and YouTube.