MERCEDES NEEDS TO ‘FACE THE MIRROR’
“THE TEAM IS LEAVING NO STONE UNTURNED TO MAKE SURE WE GET BACK IN THE GAME”
Mercedes opened this season in such strong fashion to score wins at the first three vastly different tracks in Saudi Arabia, Italy and Spain. This was a car that could adapt to a variety of conditions and asphalt types and enjoyed a wide operating window. At that point, if the Silver Arrows didn’t go on to win the teams’ title, it seemed as though it would be a crown lost rather than one won by its rivals.
But now the outfit must “face the mirror” and has become the Formula E “hunters” rather than the “hunted” after the long-time leader scored a fourth and fifth point-less race last weekend in
New York City from the last six events.
Mercedes now resides in fifth in the standings, and the worry going into the two-week break before London is that there was no clear and obvious fix for a weekend-long lack of speed.
Diriyah and Valencia E-prix victor Nyck de Vries said: “To be entirely honest, this weekend we were not competitive. We need to face the mirror. We were not strong enough. That’s just the reality.”
The 2019 FIA Formula 2 champion qualified 22nd after light rain hampered his group two position for Sunday’s race, but he could only climb as far as 18th come the flag. This comes in the context of Envision Virgin Racing driver Robin Frijns rising from 21st to score points in eighth. That ensures Frijns remains joint second in the drivers’ standings behind race-two winner Sam Bird, while his privateer squad and its Audi powertrain heads the points.
Mercedes team principal Ian James reckoned his outfit had become the “hunters” in Formula E after slipping from its perch and would seek to leave “no stone unturned” to arrest the dip in form.
He said: “Stepping onto the plane home without having scored a single point this weekend is more than disappointing. The team is leaving no stone unturned to make sure we can get ourselves back in the game. We are slowly starting to find ourselves the hunters, rather than the hunted.
“We’ve suffered more peaks and troughs than anybody in the championship this year. You go out there and aim for consistency. We’ve failed massively in that sense.”
Stoffel Vandoorne’s weekend was stymied by a puncture in both qualifying and the race on day one, meaning he had to carry over part of his abused Saturday tyre allocation into Sunday.
He said: “I was basically running around with tyres that had gone the whole race yesterday, struggling with the rear-right tyre that basically had no rubber left for starting the race.”
But he still reckoned there were bigger issues at play as the team was “lacking some general grip”.