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⚡🇲🇨: End of line

Formula E taking on the full, traditional Monaco racing circuit underlines that it is growing all the time and it doesn’t care about comparisons with other series. It also showed the unique characteristics of the series, as the twisting layout in Monte Carlo gave the race’s leaders a disadvantage.

 
(c) Formula E on Twitter

Mitch Evans won both outings in Rome and came into the standalone race near the top of the Formula E standings. The Jaguar driver could not have had more momentum after winning his first races since taking Mexico in February 2020. And even a few hours before the Monaco round, he added three points by taking pole position in Formula E’s duel format, beating Pascal Wehrlein to start from the front in a race where that track position normally matters.

But with power being at such a premium in the all-electric series, there is normally an advantage for the driver following in a train, being able to consume less of that valuable battery, and letting the driver in front do the work. It gave Evans a different kind of test to last year, as he led that ePrix going into the final lap, before - again suffering with lower energy levels - being overtaken into the chicane by Antonio Felix da Costa for the win and Robin Frijns also getting past him, turning a win into a bad-taste podium. 

The New Zealander went one better in 2022 at least, finishing second, but he’ll still be disappointed, after being down on power due to not getting that slipstreaming advantage, forcing him to compromise his pace as the race developed, with full course yellows, safety cars and surprise retirements, turning what initially felt like a processional 45 minutes into a dramatic, tactical game, which was eventually won by Mercedes’ Stoffel Vandoorne, who started from fourth.

The Belgian driver moves to the top of the Formula E standings, on 81 points, which is one fewer than what he gained in the whole of last season as he watched his teammate Nyck de Vries take the title.

For the Mercedes drivers, this is the end of the line for them in this team, with the team not continuing their series entry as Gen3 gets underway. This means two race-winning drivers (and in de Vries’ case, a World Champion) are currently driving for their future. It isn’t beyond the realms of possibility that Vandoorne (41 starts, 26 points) or de Vries (F2 champion) could replace Lewis Hamilton if the seven-time F1 world champion decided to call it a day, or they could be in the running for other seats. No full-time Formula E driver has made the step to F1 (quite a few have gone the other way), with Pierre Gasly’s emergency cameo in NYC 2017 the closest to doing it. In fact, he’s the only driver I can think of who drove a Formula E car in a race before a Formula 1 car.

With Vandoorne and de Vries’ pedigree in the all-electric series, the prestigious marque they drive for and the constant speculation within F1’s driver market, there has never been a better time - especially as more and more talented drivers find themselves locked out of an F1 drive (Oscar Piastri and Callum Ilott come to mind). It shows the drivers’ ability to adapt to different ways of driving, moving from pit stops to offline tactics like Attack Mode and is a great example of being able to manage energy or tyres.

  
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This isn’t to say the goal of every Formula E driver is to get a move to Formula 1, and it’s obviously a really tricky series in its own right. Take Antonio Giovinazzi. Alfa Romeo’s dependent but forgotten man who has struggled since he joined the Dragon team. Despite having more experience than most on the full Monaco layout - the Italian took one of his three 2021 F1 points there - he finished 16th time around and remains without a point in his first Formula E races. 

That isn’t a knock on Giovinazzi, who is a point-scoring driver on his day, but more of a nod towards the difficulty of Formula E. It’s possible that it’s such a unique challenge that it doesn’t translate as well as you’d like to other series, putting drivers at a disadvantage when they try to move. But with drivers like Mitch Evans, Stoffel Vandoorne, Nyck de Vries, and a few others besides, Formula E is packed full off talent up and down the grid and a full-time driver in this series can’t be too far away from heading to Formula 1 or elsewhere. At least, that’s if they want to as Gen3 kicks in for Formula E, but that’s a story for a different time… 

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