In the middle of the Hussain Sagar lake, which Hyderabad’s Formula E circuit overlooks as it sweeps along the waterfront, a statue of the Buddha dwarfs the surrounding landscape. His teachings encouraged the pursuit of a lifestyle free from desperate clinging to impermanent objects or phases, based on the notion that remaining tethered to them propagates an endless cycle of death and rebirth. Today, Buddhism’s teachings of liberation are commonly associated with mindfulness and meditation. To truly find inner peace, the Buddha walked what became known as “the Middle Way” – the line between the extremes of hedonism and asceticism. It’s an expression of moderation, not denying oneself basic pleasures, but not overindulging in them either.
Overindulgence in motorsport can be common. Competitive sport necessitates both greed and restraint in equal measure, but it’s all too easy for a racing driver to take too much rope and subsequently deal with the consequences. With two laps remaining of Hyderabad’s inaugural E-Prix, Formula E’s first race in India, it looked as though Jean-Eric Vergne had overindulged in his energy consumption.
The chasing Nick Cassidy had around 4% more usable energy left in reserve in his Envision Jaguar than did the Frenchman, whose DS Penske car had been thrust into the lead of a wild
