There were a lot of firsts at the Formula E New York City ePrix last weekend, from New York’s first FIA sanctioned race, to its first demonstration of an autonomous race car. Fans also got to see a celebrity spin a race car in the city for the first time.
Chris Hemsworth was driving FE’s Spark-Renault SRT_01E show car Saturday when he spun out exiting Turn 7 and of the Brooklyn street circuit and tapped the wall with the front end. Hemsworth was invited to test the all-electric formula car because he’s a brand ambassador for Tag Heuer, one of the series’ main sponsors.
FE kept that in mind and poked fun at Hemsworth’s shunt by tweeting a video of it with the hashtag #DontCrackUnderPressure, which is the watchmaker’s tagline.
For those of you who might be wondering: No, FE didn’t call Hemsworth by the wrong name. The series’ Twitter took a second jab at the Aussie by referring to him as James Hunt, the 1976 Formula One world champion whom Hemsworth played in “Rush.”
“Thor” can’t blame the training he received for his driver error, either, as FE’s first champion Nelson Piquet Jr. showed him around the car.
Hemsworth, to his credit, spent his first few laps getting to grips with the car. On the lap of his spin, though, you could tell he was gaining confidence — and that was his downfall. Inexperienced drivers often have to exceed the limits of a race car to find those limits.
Thumbnail photo via Twitter/@FIAformulaE
