After a difficult weekend in Valencia, Formula E hopped across the Balearic Sea for the series’ first run on the full Monaco Circuit (albeit with a few small alterations). Find out who topped the class in round 7 and who had an untimely weekend to forget at such an iconic venue in motorsport.
Top of the class:
Monaco Circuit
We’re so accustomed to boring and predictable F1 processions around the Principality that Formula E’s race was a breath of a fresh air. Six changes for the lead in 26 laps, three-wide battles into Sainte Devote, and audacious moves into Beau Rivage. The race really had it all.
They may have been 12 seconds slower than F1 and lapping comparable speeds to F3 cars, but does top speed really matter when you have such an enthralling race up and down the grid?
To me I couldn’t care less about how fast they go. I was glued to the edge of my seat from start to finish, and from brief scrolls on social media, I wasn’t the only one. The race received a largely positive response. Compare that to Sunday’s F1 race at Barcelona, where I was begging for a safety car on lap 8.
There will always be those critics who will just never get on board, but the series advertised itself well this weekend. The action certainly gave FE the boost it sorely needed after such widespread criticism for the farcical ending of race 1 in Valencia.
It also shows that choosing existing street tracks are the way to go for Formula E. We may never see the series tackle the Baku circuit, but there are always options like Singapore or a run on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montréal.
António Félix da Costa – Qualifying: 1st | Race: 1st
This result has been coming for a while, and the season 6 Champion finally got his first win in 2021, but it was far from a straight-forward win.
The Techeetah driver was locked in a three-way fight with Envision Virgin’s Robin Frijns and Jaguar’s Mitch Evans for the entire race. In fact, da Costs spent the vast majority of the race in 2nd place, trailing Frijns in the early stages after being passed into turn 1 with just under 40 minutes left on the clock.
An aggressive move into the Nouvelle Chicane, with the assistance of a Fanboost, got da Costa back in the lead, but he would slip back to second after an audacious move from Evans around the outside of Beau Rivage.
A late safety car deployed to retrieve the stricken Audi of René Rast on the exit of Sainte Devote brought da Costa back into contention. After a few looks in the final laps, the Portuguese driver barged his way past Evans at the Nouvelle Chicane on the final lap.
This was Techeetah’s second victory since the introduction of their DS E-Tense FE21 at Rome (where teammate Jean- Éric Vergne took victory in race 1) and this brings them back into contention with Mercedes and Jaguar at the top of the Teams’ Championship. Antonio himself vaults up to 4th in the Driver’s standings, just 10 points off leader Robin Frijns.
Robin Frijns – Qualifying: 2nd (fastest in Group Qualifying) | Race: 2nd
Robin Frijns is having an impressive season for Envision Virgin. Monaco was another great weekend for the Dutchman, as it saw him move to the top of the Driver’s Championship.
Robin set the fastest time of Group Qualifying despite being in Group 1, but he would miss out on pole by just 0.039 seconds to da Costa. From the start, Frijns held onto his place into Sainte Devote and would pass da Costa for the lead on lap 3.
Having switched positions a further two times whilst using Attack Mode, Frijns was back in the lead until da Costa barged through at the Nouvelle Chicane using Fanboost with 16:30 left on the clock.
Jaguar’s Mitch Evans would then move past Frijns and take his P2 into Sainte Devote on the next lap. Ultimately, Frijns would manage to retake P2 on the line to take his second podium of the season. It was a brilliant performance from Robin and the Envision Virgin driver now holds a 5-point lead over Mercedes’ Nyck de Vries.
Mitch Evans – Qualifying: 3rd | Race: 3rd
Jaguar have had a rollercoaster season but look to just have their noses in front of Mercedes and Techeetah in terms of car performance. This was underlined by Jaguar finishing 1-2 in both practice sessions, Mitch topping FP2.
Whilst teammate Sam Bird struggled on his lap due to squabbling with Mercedes’ Nyck de Vries, Evans would sail through to Super Pole in spite of both Jaguar drivers being in Group 1, setting the second quickest time. For Super Pole, Mitch would record the 3rd fastest time, just 0.051 seconds of polesitter da Costa.
Mitch’s race was largely spent in P3, though he did drop back whilst having to return a place to Techeetah’s Jean-Éric Vergne. This after cutting the Nouvelle Chicane whilst defending from the Frenchman. Using his second Attack Mode, Evans found himself in the lead after a stunning overtake on race-leader da Costa into Beau Rivage.
After the late-race safety car, Evans was defending hard for the final few laps as he was slightly down on energy. He would survive until the final lap, when da Costa barged through, whilst Frijns out-dragged the Jaguar to the finish line to steal P2.
Evans should have won in Monaco, but a third P3 this season still isn’t all too shabby. I don’t care that he was in Attack Mode, that move at Beau Rivage is one of the best overtakes in Formula E history. That in itself was enough justification to include Evans in this list.
The struggle bus:
The TV director
Whilst a handful of drivers had bad days at the office, no one had a worse day than the FE television director, who is driving the struggle bus for failing to show important replays during the race.
I counted at least three replays of da Costa’s Fanboost overtake on Robin Frijns, yet didn’t see a single replay of the first lap incident at Mirabeau with Stoffel Vandoorne. We also didn’t get a replay of how André Lotterer ran over the top of Mahindra’s Alexander Simms at the Grand Hotel Hairpin. There were at least another five yellow flags during the race and I have no idea what happened for any of them.
I am full of praise for how Formula E bounced back after Valencia, the one caveat is that we missed a fair bit of clarity on certain incidents in the race.
Nyck de Vries – Qualifying: 23rd (started 24th) | Race: DNF
Another difficult day for the Dutchman saw him lose the Championship lead again. His day was practically ruined when he hit the power switch during his fast lap, resulting in his car dropping down from full power. It would take 30 seconds to return to the full power of 235 kW/h, by which time de Vries had lost any chance of qualifying well.
In the end, de Vries would be the slowest of the 23 drivers to complete a qualifying lap, and would incur a 40-place grid penalty (converted into a 10-second stop-go penalty) for changing gearbox and powertrain components. His defending of track position from Jaguar’s Sam Bird on their warm-up lap was questionable as well.
Ultimately, Mercedes had thrown in the towel after qualifying to advantage Nyck later in the season, whilst he ran at the back for the race, his car came to a halt on lap 23 with an electrical issue, bringing an end to a very forgettable day for Nyck.
Sérgio Sette Câmara – Qualifying: DNQ (started 23rd) | Race: 15th
It was a suboptimal weekend for the belated introduction of Dragon / Penske Autosport’s new powertrain, the Penske EV-5. Sette Câmara, in particular, had a number of reliability issues during both free practice sessions. He was also rammed by Valencia race 2 winner, Jake Dennis, on the exit of Rascasse after stopping there in FP1.
Less than ideal preparation for Sérgio, yet the Brazilian’s issues in qualifying were his own making as he spun into the wall at Antony Nogues, bringing out a red flag and ruining not only his own lap, but those of Sébastien Buemi (Nissan e.dams) and Tom Blomqvist (NIO 333).
Though he was able to drive away, Sergio had to start at the back of the grid. His rise to 15th was the joint highest position gains in the race, which highlights that he could have had a shot at the points had he not ruined his qualifying.
After a successful return to Monaco, Formula E has a six-week break before heading across the Atlantic to Mexico. This year, the series will be racing at the rarely-used Autódromo Miguel E. Abed in Puebla, as the traditional round at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodriquez in Mexico City is unavailable. The track is currently being used as a makeshift hospital to treat COVID-19 patients.
Autódromo Miguel E. Abed is another permanent circuit to hopefully win some more naysayers over, but it will certainly be a venture into the unknown for all of the drivers on the grid. Tune in for the double-header on Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th June to find out who wins the inaugural Puebla ePrix.
In the meantime, if podcasts are your thing, we had the opportunity to interview Formula E Open Talent Call Winner, Derin Adetosoye in the gap between Valencia and Monaco. Check out the episode here to find out about Derin’s role in the paddock and all the gossip from the season so far.
