Between Us All, There’s Nyck de Vries and Separation
Nyck de Vries wins the 2021 Formula E World Championship (copyright FIA Formula E)
With Nyck de Vries taking the first ever Formula E World Championship in his second season in the category, this was the culmination of a tough two years (three if you count HWA Racelab) for Mercedes-Benz EQ Formula E. As has often been the case this season, the victory was bittersweet, with it emerging, according to reputable reports, that the team would be pulling out of Formula E after one more year. That will not take away from any of the joy that de Vries feels, having added a World title to his FIA Formula 2 crown of 2019.
Race One
De Vries had to win the title the hard way. The first race did not go his way - he was forced out, and had to watch the kind of tactical victory we have come to expect from Lucas di Grassi. With Audi signing off from Formula E, and rumours of the Brazilian bringing his experience to Venturi next season, this was a fine way to further underline his talent for peaking just at the right moment. Di Grassi was followed over the line by Edoardo Mortara, a much more realistic title contender, who at that time was only a few points off de Vries.
That was in spite of the DS Techeetah cars, driven by Antonio Felix da Costa and Jean-Eric Vergne, leading from the start and controlling the race. It seemed as though the team - traditional late-bolters in their Formula E title challenges - had found form at exactly the right time, and yet Vergne fell down the order in the last fifteen minutes of the race, having lost a gamble on the late triggering of Attack Mode. He and da Costa finished sixth and seventh.
For di Grassi, the decision early in the race not to allow the charging Rene Rast past had paid dividends; the Audi stalwart was now back with a more than mathematical chance of taking the title, should something happen to the title frontrunners.
Race Two
In the second race, something did happen to the title frontrunners. Mitch Evans, sitting on the second row and in the box seat to win the first Formula E title for a Jaguar driver, found himself stranded on the grid thanks to what was a calamitous technical failure. While 22 drivers made it off the grid cleanly, the unsighted Edoardo Mortara ploughed straight into Evans at huge closing speed. While it has been a season of fine performances by Mortara, the Swiss will also reflect that it has been bookended by two massive accidents, both involving great misfortune. He has a spinal fracture, but is expected to make a speedy recovery.
This put two of de Vries’s closest title rivals out of the running before reaching the first corner. There was more to come, too. After a Safety Car restart of the red-flagged race, Jake Dennis became the latest Formula E driver to lose the car under braking for the first corner. Something ostensibly similar, though potentially with different causes, had happened to Nick Cassidy in Rome, and prior to that Mortara off his practice start in Diriyah. BMW i.Andretti’s Roger Griffiths stressed that it was related to the BMW powertrain, and yet there seems to be an issue with cars not producing the braking response expected at the beginning of a stint of racing, when regenerative braking is not available and the mechanical brakes are not up to optimal temperature.
Whatever the cause, Dennis was distraught, understanding that this was an open shot at a title he went into the season with only the most outside expectations of winning. A brilliant second half of the season, beginning with a win in Valencia, has enhanced the British driver’s reputation to the extent that it is he, rather than his much-vaunted German teammate Maximilian Günther, who is confirmed at the rebranded Andretti team next season.
With de Vries in the lower reaches of the points-paying positions, it became a game of survival for the Dutchman. All his rivals were too far behind to affect their points deficit. However, driving slowly and reliably can, in a high-pressure situation, often be harder than just pushing for a win. That might be why the Mercedes strategists encouraged de Vries to keep fighting Jean-Eric Vergne in front of him, rather than updating him on the points table, although he requested more information several times.
De Vries said after crossing the line that he felt “like a target, nobody was really respecting anything,” and yet the Mercedes driver took the crown for the German marque, which had struggled in mid-season but had kept their eyes on the main prize rather than worrying about whether or not they were overall the fastest team.
Venturi’s Norman Nato won the race, his first win in what may be his last Formula E race before he returns to endurance racing. Mercedes are reported to be shifting their attentions to other things after the conclusion of the 2022 Formula E season, and yet there are attempts being made by Toto Wolff and others at the manufacturer to reverse the decision, or to keep the team going in a semi-works capacity.
Formula E has struggled with the additional attention that comes from being a World Championship, and from having four major German manufacturers racing on the same grid. Of those four, only Porsche will likely remain in 2023 for the start of the Gen3 rules package. Uncertainty is ahead, but this was a deserved victory for de Vries and Mercedes.