Nyck de Vries had an overall strong weekend at the Monaco E-Prix. From the first practice session, the Dutchman delivered. After the second race on Sunday, Pit Debrief spoke to the Mahindra racer in the media pen.
A good amount of points but challenging races at the Monaco E-Prix
Race 1 ended with de Vries taking the chequered flag first, grabbing his first win since 2022. Then he saw the top ten again in Race 2, even though it was not on top this time. With a victory and a P9 the Mahindra racer left the Monaco weekend with double points.
When asked by Pit Debrief to assess his whole weekend, de Vries reflected:
“As a whole, I’m fairly content with our weekend. We scored a good amount of points on, let’s say, average across the two races. Today was a little bit more challenging, not so much in practice. I thought we had similar form as yesterday, but in qualifying I didn’t quite get the tyres in the sweet spot. Overall, I’m content with our weekend. Obviously, a race like today is very hard. As you’ve seen, a lot of contact, a lot of fighting, but I’m kind of happy to come home with a few points and round up a pretty decent weekend.”
De Vries on Monaco E-Prix Qualifying 2: “it just wasn’t quite there”
Quite a few elements changed on track from Saturday to Sunday. With the conditions, no pit boost, and the race being a lap shorter, it made a difference. When asked about what in particular changed for the Mahindra team from Race 1 to Race 2, de Vries explained:
“The race was very different. There was no pit boost, the race was a lap shorter but without the pit boost we ended up having less energy to distribute across the race, so that slows the race down if you have less energy. Obviously when you slow down the pace then that’s creating more overtakings, more drama. So the race was certainly different. From our, let’s say, approach towards the day, nothing was really different. We just need to understand a little bit better how we can make sure we put ourselves in the best possible situation for qualifying, because in practice we were always there, and in qualifying somehow it just wasn’t quite there.”
While Formula E might be on a break, de Vries is still driving, as he is competing at Le Mans. After that, the Dutchman will be back for the next Formula E race in Sanya.
“Yes, Sanya, is next. It will be a single header. I think a new track for most people. Some people have been there before, but the layout has changed. So, yeah, looking forward to going to another new track and hopefully we can have another good weekend.”
Controversial penalties and stewarding standards
The Monaco weekend is usually filled with chaos. This time around, it was no different. Several drivers voiced their opinion on the radio regarding penalties. However, Dan Ticktum was the most vocal about the 33-second penalty he received after a collision with da Costa. The incident dropped him from P3 to P12 and out of the points.
When asking de Vries about the current stewarding standards in Formula E, the racer said:
“Honestly, I always stay very quiet. All I have to say is there is a sentence that goes, hate the game not the player. I think that is very applicable to the racing we see. I mean, I think the driver level is extremely high, and I think drivers are very good. We are just forced to race in a certain way due to the energy sensitivity, and that sometimes causes a style of racing that is maybe not always something we’re used to see.”
The next Formula E race weekend takes place on June 20th in Sanya.
