How Formula E's most underrated driver is taming his Dragon

Amid the escalating drama that has pervaded the IndyCar and Formula 1 silly seasons, mainly down to one multi-discipline outfit collecting drivers as if they were football stickers, Formula E has remained surprisingly quiet.

That’s not as a result of any inertia, as there’s been a flurry of activity behind closed doors, but largely through waiting for one team to make an announcement. Then, the other pieces will fall into place. But while next year’s entry list is populated by TBAs and question marks, one can indulge in the speculation that silly season encourages. We’ll likely get the deluge of signings between the Seoul finale and when the music stops ahead of pre-season testing in December to keep FE in column inches.

Regardless, here’s a look behind the Formula E paddock curtain. Talk to anyone (at least, outside the teams and drivers) about the driver market, and they’ll say the same thing: “You know, if I was a team and I was going to hire someone, I’d go and sign Sergio Sette Camara...”

That’s largely because Sette Camara has been performing heroics with the Dragon Penske package this season, which finally resulted in his first points of the year in London with ninth place on Sunday. The 24-year-old Brazilian has excelled in qualifying, hurling his car into places it arguably shouldn’t be reaching, but Sunday’s breakthrough came a day after his long-time stint in fourth place came to an end having run out of useable energy.

Sette Camara had regularly been on the cusp of making it into the duels throughout the season, outqualifying some of the more illustrious drivers, but was perhaps guilty of over-doing it in Rome and found the barrier on a lap that could have earned him a top-eight berth for Sunday’s race. But it seemed only a matter of time before the Mineiro driver hauled himself into the knockout round – and duly did so in Berlin. It was a not-insignificant feat, given the relative pace of the Penske EV-5 package.

Dragon, for its part, doesn’t have the resources of the other Formula E teams on the grid. The team is expected to morph into a works DS operation next year, but for the time being it is almost wholly underwritten by Jay Penske – with the brands from his media conglomerate being the only consistently present sponsors on the car.

Sette Camara has gone under the radar at Dragon Penske Autosport this season

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images

The set-up has been particularly difficult for the incoming Antonio Giovinazzi, who departed the world of F1 to join one of the smallest teams on the FE grid – and was perhaps in for a bit of a culture shock. But Sette Camara, ever the pragmatist, has not let his head drop. Instead, he recognises the limitations of the machinery he has, crucial to understanding how to surpass them. He notes that last year’s four-group format was of considerably more benefit to Dragon, but feels that the team’s biggest drop in performance relative to 2020-21 is on race day.

“It isn't an easy season, in many ways, because we performed better last year, I would say, at the same point. Last year, we already had some points, and we had a few more superpole appearances, although it was a different qualifying format, which probably favoured us more,” Sette Camara explains to Autosport.

“But overall, not so much in qualifying, but especially in the race, it looks like we've fallen back a little bit. So it's never easy, because we were expecting to move ahead and it didn't really happen. In fact, the opposite. So that's been the tough part. But I've been enjoying every single minute with these guys, I enjoyed so much my time with Dragon, we have such a good team spirit. And it's been the same in the end, for me trying to achieve the best every single race, despite of the position being 10th, 15th to 20th, my objective is still the same. And I've been enjoying every single minute.”

"The engineers that are in the team, they're doing an exceptional job. It's five guys, and they're super-efficient at doing the job of 50 engineers. So it may look sometimes from TV that the engineers are not good and whatnot, but actually they're exceptional" Sergio Sette Camara

And after the difficult start to the year, Sette Camara has really got into the groove this season. He’s been able to continuously unlock a little extra from the Dragon package, and once again broke into the duels in New York City – eventually starting fourth on the Sunday race as Nick Cassidy was moved to the back of the grid for a battery change. But the Dragon is a thirsty car, and not as efficient as the others on the grid. So if Sette Camara and Giovinazzi use a few more joules on the exit of each corner, that begins to add up, meaning that they’ll drop a couple of percent behind the rest of the field on useable energy. At some point, they’ll have to slow down to make it to the end, which means at a circuit like Brooklyn, it’s a herculean task to hold position.

But at London, it’s less taxing. The relative lack of stop-start corners in London means that the drivers aren’t sinking energy into getting up to full speed, and thus the ExCeL circuit is the lowest-consumption circuit on the calendar. So much so, in fact, that the usual 52kWh maximum energy use was dropped down to 46kWh – but even then, some of the drivers suggested that the 6kWh reduction was conservative. Dragon looked to be in for a big weekend.

Sette Camara has hoped for a better points haul from the London double-header

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

Sette Camara then headed FP1 on Friday afternoon. He made it into the duels on Saturday, beat Oliver Askew to get to the semis, where he trailed championship leader Stoffel Vandoorne by 0.3s. From fourth, Sette Camara even passed Nyck de Vries for third in the early stages of the race – and looked good for a tasty haul of points. But Dragon had its own issues, and a series of systems issues meant that neither the team nor Sette Camara could keep tabs on energy consumption. The Brazilian began to drop down the order, missing out on his first points of the year as his useable energy levels ran dry.

“It's a similar movie to what we see in other places like New York,” Sette Camara explained after the race, “as I was P4 for quite a while. The difference in London, we managed to sustain that for longer. Because this is not an energy sensitive track, because this is a difficult track to overtake, it's actually if you do everything perfect, possible to stay there in P4 or P5.

“Best case scenario today I think we could have finished P5 in front of Askew. Worst case scenario, I think we could have finished P9. The scenario that happened was the catastrophe scenario! I didn't get the last lap dash, I didn't know how much energy was left in the car, and the team didn't know. We could have managed it much better if I was given the call to just spread that energy through the last three laps, drive very slowly, and we would have at least scored and if our system was working, I could have kept the flat race to the end.

“Maybe if I had, if we had that target since the beginning of the race, we could have had a more efficient race and kept Askew behind and finished P5 or P6. We could have left the track with good points in the bag, or even small points in the bag. We ended up with nothing, so it's a bit of a waste.

“But I’d also like to highlight that the engineers that are in the team, they're doing an exceptional job. It's five guys, and they're super-efficient at doing the job of 50 engineers. So it may look sometimes from TV that the engineers are not good and whatnot, but actually they're exceptional - just that's it's only five guys; other teams have 50 guys, there's one guy just for this, one just for that! In our team, it’s five guys doing everything plus engineering the cars.

His fortunes were somewhat reversed on Sunday. Sette Camara couldn’t quite get the lap in during qualifying and was overshadowed by Antonio Giovinazzi’s wondertour that opened the door for the Italian to grab third on the grid. But as Giovinazzi collected more penalties than a World Cup final, Sette Camara did the impossible in London and worked his way through the order. It was a stellar drive, and he claimed Dragon’s first points of the year with ninth. It even surprised the man himself.

Sette Camara was still happy to pick up his first Formula E points of the season with ninth in the second London race

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images

“When do we ever move forward in a race this season? Never!” Sette Camara laughed after the race. “Maybe you can move forward from P20 to P15, or whatever. But we moved from P19 to P9 so 10 positions in the race, and many of which I actually overtook on track. We were never expecting that.

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“It shows how much like not giving up matters. It's such a boring thing people say, ‘don't give up’, always the same thing but it really is [true] - I mean, I could have easily started today already not caring too much about the race and just finish, but we started pushing and then finally the points came. In a day like [Saturday] when you qualify P4 and you're P3 in the first laps and whatever, and it all goes wrong. So it's a bit crazy, this racing. I never get used to how unexpected and how it can catch you by surprise sometimes.”

There’s always an eloquence every time you speak to Sette Camara. Where some drivers like to stick to a sea of oft-employed cliches and pontificate at length, Sette Camara is both direct and illustrative, with a penchant for the odd idiom. He’d presumably be a good driver to engineer, if his feedback is anything similar. He’s also engaging about his junior career and the brief time spent as a Red Bull junior, his progression through F2, and brief spell as an F1 reserve driver in 2019 and 2020 with McLaren and AlphaTauri respectively before focusing on FE full-time.

Sette Camara stands on the brink of his next challenge. Due to expected driver and manufacturer moves, which should result in a DS tie-up with Dragon and a new pairing behind the wheel, Sette Camara is looking for a new opportunity

Joining the Red Bull Junior Team at the age of 17, Sette Camara admits that he didn’t handle the pressure well at the time, feeling that being put in the notoriously tough environment came a little too early for him. But he points out that, although he was eventually dropped from the programme after just one year, it was enough for him to understand what he needed to be a professional racing driver.

“I learned a lot,” Sette Camara reflects. “That was my first real pressure season – yeah, we've always been under pressure in karting and everything, but that just took it to a different level. I didn't manage it so well at the time. But the amount I learned, the amount it was accelerating my learning curve, and my maturity was... I cannot even measure it. But it was a lot.

“And I got to drive the [Toro Rosso] Formula 1 car, speak with F1 engineers, and start to understand what they were expecting. It's such a different culture from the British as well, and you got to try to learn it quick. I took some time, and I wish it all had been a bit later - I think I would have done better. But nevertheless, it was great experience.”

A former Red Bull junior programme member, he was Red Bull and AlphaTauri test and development driver in 2020, having held the same role at McLaren in 2019

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

The Red Bull year preceded three years in Formula 2 – joining MP for 2017 where he won the Spa sprint race, before joining Carlin for 2018 alongside Lando Norris. The highly rated Briton was thrust into title contention, while various degrees of misfortune precluded Sette Camara from joining him. Still, the fact that he compared favourably to Norris gave McLaren enough incentive to bring the Belo Horizonte-born driver into the fold as a reserve driver – helped by mutual sponsor Petrobras.

With the British spine of MP comparing similarly to Carlin, Sette Camara felt that both teams were quite easy to get on with. But it was his move to DAMS for 2019 that was a shock to the system. He explained that, on joining the French squad alongside Nicholas Latifi, he had a much harder time with the Le Mans squad – likening their apparent rigidity to the military.

But although it was hard to deal with, Sette Camara admits that it was there that he learned the most.

“Yeah, with MP, it's like a family. And Carlin, it's also very friendly, very easy-going. I had a good time with both teams. In DAMS, it felt like the military. In the beginning, I struggled so much. But looking back, I think it's where I learned the most. DAMS gave me a hard time. Maybe my ultimate result that season could have been better if I stayed in my comfort zone with a friendlier team.

“But those guys taught me so much in the beginning of the season. I got in bad shape, it was such a difficult place to be after changing teams. But ultimately, I learned so much. And I think it just made me a better driver, because it put me through that challenge.”

Now, Sette Camara stands on the brink of his next challenge. Due to expected driver and manufacturer moves, which should result in a DS tie-up with Dragon and a new pairing behind the wheel, Sette Camara is looking for a new opportunity – and, thanks to his transcendent results with Dragon, he deserves a shot at a team that can fight for more than mere scraps. Certainly, his London performances should have at least placed him in the shop window for next season.

And ultimately, Sette Camara wants to stay in Formula E.

Sette Camara sees his future remaining in Formula E

Photo by: Alastair Staley / Motorsport Images

“More than anything, I want to keep being a professional race car driver, doing what I love. And that's the ultimate goal. But to do that, in Formula E, I think it's a really good place to be because I really believe in the growth of the championship. And I've been saying that since I joined and actually a few years before I joined, even when I still had my eyes on Formula 1.

“I think it's such a good place to really invest your career and grow in the championship. I’m 24 years old now so I think I'm in a good position to do that. Hopefully I can stay, but I cannot say anything - I wish I could say something like official, but it's not the case yet. I've got nothing confirmed. I know there's some seats - not many, but a few seats open - and I hope I can be filling one of them.”

"In Formula E I think it's a really good place to be because I really believe in the growth of the championship" Sergio Sette Camara

As his countryman Lucas di Grassi stands on the brink of his 1000th Formula E point and his 100th Formula E race, Sette Camara will hope to find a team with which he can achieve that level of longevity in the series. In an off-season that’s going to resemble musical chairs on a mass scale, there will be many left disappointed if Sette Camara doesn’t land in a seat in which he can really demonstrate his talent.

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Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images