How Mercedes and De Vries achieved Formula E glory the hard way

The pandemic created a sliding doors moment for Mercedes. There’s what happened in reality, in which it snared the drivers’ and teams’ Formula E title double. But what took place on the other side of the glass was almost certainly less prosperous.

In either case, Daimler likely would have announced its plan to kill the electric programme at the end of next season. The pivotal point in question came as a result of the High Performance Powertrains site at Brixworth being repurposed to manufacture breathing aids to support the battle against COVID-19. Engineers fully switched over to assist the hugely commendable venture and, understandably in the circumstances, the Formula E effort ground to an absolute halt. 

Although the exact start date of the 2021 calendar was in doubt for some time due to the cancellation of the Santiago and Mexico City rounds, Mercedes had a critical decision to make as its attention returned to racing. Its personnel were split down the middle. Should it rush the development of a new powertrain in time for the start of term, or make use of revised cost-saving homologation rules to carry over the machine that won the final round of 2019-20? 

“There were those who said a new car was too risky,” reflects team principal Ian James. “But we took the decision and bit the bullet. We knew we could just about deliver the new car in time from a hardware perspective. The question was, could we ensure the reliability was going to be there? That was the question we needed to answer. It was really bloody tight.”

A gamble to rapidly usher in the Silver Arrow 02 successor looked to have paid off the moment the competition commenced in Saudi Arabia in late February. For the first of a record-breaking 15 rounds, eventual champion Nyck de Vries was beyond reach. He topped both practice sessions, group qualifying and superpole, before winning the race at a canter. And team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne took fastest lap.

“That was really quite masterful,” recalls James. “It was a massive boost to the team, a really significant proof point in terms of making sure that we delivered on our targets.” 

De Vries dominated the season opener in Saudi Arabia, but controversy would soon follow

Photo by: Alastair Staley / Motorsport Images

But the jubilation was snuffed out only hours later. On the Sunday morning, Edoardo Mortara lined up to complete his practice start, but his Mercedes-powered Venturi Racing customer car never slowed, and he dived head-first into the TecPro barriers. He was taken away for further checks in hospital and, until Mercedes could satisfactorily prove to the FIA that it had fixed the software code that caused the rear-brake failure, the works and customer cars were chucked out of qualifying in what was the “right decision”.

“We wanted to make sure that we were 100% sure we resolved the issue and it couldn’t happen again,” continues James. “Otherwise, we’d never have thought about competing.”

Resolve it they did, and de Vries climbed from 20th to bag ninth place, albeit after five cars ahead of him were given at least one 24-second penalty for either failing to use attack mode fully, speeding under the virtual safety car or breaching throttle-map limits. 

As the season wore on, the group qualifying format and operational team blunders would do their best to hide the car supremacy for the factory squad. But the potency of the Venturi Racing charge, led by Mortara, proved the Mercedes powertrain was the benchmark

But on that day, it was the Saudi skyline that dominated headlines. Sam Bird was victorious even as a military coalition intercepted missiles supposedly fired at the paddock by Yemen’s Houthi rebels in what The Sun lazily described as “racetrack terror” (those on the ground were oblivious). Meanwhile, Alex Lynn somersaulted through the air after contact with Mitch Evans, requiring another driver to be escorted away in the back of an ambulance.  

PLUS: Why the 2021 Formula E season got off to such a controversial start

Rome was an almost relaxing weekend by comparison, save for Oliver Turvey failing to adhere to the practice start procedure and careering into the back of stationary cars on the dummy grid. Mercedes again proved the pick of the litter as Vandoorne claimed pole and held first place before he was swiftly turned around by Andre Lotterer in one of many a clumsy moment for the vastly experienced Porsche racer. 

But a double retirement lay in wait for the team. When new leader Lucas di Grassi suffered a random driveshaft failure, a recovering Vandoorne took avoiding action and ran over a proud drain cover to smear into the wall. An unsighted de Vries clattered into his team-mate and the Dutch charger was in the wars the following day also, colliding with Bird on the penultimate lap.

But with Vandoorne claiming the race-two win, Mercedes had earned the spoils at the last three tracks it had visited, stretching back to Berlin in 2020. This was a car that proved super-fast whether doing its business on rough concrete in Germany, the smooth roads of Diriyah, or on a ‘proper’ Formula E street circuit in Italy.

Da Costa had De Vries beaten in Valencia, only for an additional lap to leave several cars in energy dire straits

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

As the season wore on, the group qualifying format and operational team blunders would do their best to hide the car supremacy for the factory squad. But the potency of the Venturi Racing charge, led by Mortara, proved the Mercedes powertrain was the benchmark.

The success that arrived in the form of a 1-3, led by de Vries, at Valencia was a touch less meritocratic in a race James refers to as “energy-gate”. A flurry of safety cars and subsequent kWh reductions by the FIA took their dramatic toll when reigning champion Antonio Felix da Costa crossed the timing line with 15s to spare and created an unexpected extra lap, which was his prerogative. The result, as cars supped the last dregs of their useable energy, was farcical. Just six drivers finished at anything close to racing speed.  

De Vries, running in second, laid a decent claim to the victory he would inherit. But Vandoorne had been chucked off pole when his car’s technical passport was wrongly recorded. Starting last, to all intents and purposes, he was out for the count and could do nothing but save energy for the duration.

That he finished third when so many others got it wrong was not a masterstroke of strategy, just good fortune. It left Mercedes caught in a crossfire as it tried to celebrate a somewhat fortunate but mesmeric result, while Formula E and the FIA had created a major public image problem as the season hit its nadir. 

PLUS: How Valencia E-Prix farce left Formula E with an image problem 

The run of form for the Three-Pointed Star would stop in its tracks for some time, however. Over the next six races, the team bagged just eight points, including five non-scores. A thrilling series debut on the full Monaco Grand Prix circuit, decided in da Costa’s favour by a brilliant last-lap dive on Evans, was a “painful” day for Mercedes. De Vries scuppered his qualifying hopes by knocking the car out of full power mode, while Vandoorne retired with ailing rear brakes, though that disguised a genuine lack of pace.  

The bad days that followed in Puebla and New York City were more circumstantial as the qualifying format and a litany of punctures welded the team to the midfield train. As James explains in deference to a mid-season tinker with car set-up: “You can sometimes take a more aggressive approach, which on paper should result in an increase in performance. But in reality, for a number of reasons, it doesn’t. That’s where we found ourselves.” 

Mercedes had to sit back and watch its 23-point lead evaporate into a deficit of 33 by the time London made its long-awaited calendar return in the form of the novel and partially indoor configuration around the ExCeL Centre.

New York marked the champion's worst weekend of the year, finishing outside the points in both races

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

James says: “I remember saying to the team on Thursday night in London, there was no reason that we shouldn’t have that belief in ourselves – but still with a good dose of humility. We shouldn’t shy away from the fact that we’ve got a package that can perform and can win.” 

The car that turned up was the one that had proved so deft in the early races. De Vries snared a brace of second places; Vandoorne was on pole for race two and likely would have won before he was punted out by Oliver Rowland.

PLUS: Why Formula E's London return delivered anarchy in the UK

His double podium hoisted de Vries into the championship lead ahead of the Berlin season finale. But as he admitted to Autosport, a qualifying system designed to hurt his prominence meant he was likely ‘screwed’ for Germany. In fact, he used less polite language. 

"We certainly didn’t take the easy route. It went right down to the wire. Do I want to repeat that next year? Absolutely, in terms of winning the double. But God, do I want to do it a lot earlier in the season, in a much more straightforward manner…" Ian James

That no fewer than 18 drivers rocked up at Tempelhof Airport with a mathematical shot of the crown reflected a season that many likened to a school sports day when everyone wins a medal. This was a year with no narrative, no clear barometer of who had the quickest car and who was the standout driver. Perhaps, then, it was apt that the lottery of car unreliability would play the final role in deciding who should be king.  

Mercedes botched its qualifying strategy on both days. Vandoorne and de Vries cooked their tyres and hit traffic, which dropped de Vries behind his chief rivals on the grid for the decider. Attention turned to third-starting Evans, who had put his costly wall tap that dropped him out of second place in New York City behind him. The Jaguar Racing driver had his best shot at electric glory when he formed up on the startline in third place. De Vries was down in 13th, and had a slender five-point cushion to defend.  

But for the second season in succession, title contender Evans was let down by his Big Cat in Berlin. The Kiwi lurched an inch or two out of his grid box at the start before a suspected inverter glitch caused his car to “trip”. He sat stationary on the grid, eyes darting towards his mirrors until they screwed tightly shut when an unsighted Mortara rocketed into his rear.

De Vries’s two biggest rivals had been wiped out, but he could have gone the same way. He had to slice his Mercedes to the inside and cut between the pitwall and the wreckages under a spray of carbonfibre. 

De Vries had to ride his luck in Berlin, but came away with maiden FE title

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

Attention then switched to breakout rookie sensation Jake Dennis. The BMW Andretti driver needed to overturn a four-point deficit to land a remarkable title and defy expectations one last time. On the second lap of the restarted contest, while running in eighth, he pulled his regen braking paddle and suffered a technical failure, which sent him spearing into the wall.  

Now, de Vries was certain of the title so long as he kept his nose clean. But he began trading paint and taking unnecessary risks – including pinching with his team-mate – in the final laps. Fortunately, it was an aggressive strategy he would not come to rue. De Vries became the deserved recipient of the first world championship FE title, while Mercedes clinched the teams’ spoils over Jaguar Racing by just four points.

PLUS: How de Vries rolled the dice and won in Berlin

“It’s phenomenal to have achieved that,” James concludes. “We certainly didn’t take the easy route. It went right down to the wire. Do I want to repeat that next year? Absolutely, in terms of winning the double. But God, do I want to do it a lot earlier in the season, in a much more straightforward manner…” 

Already setting the target of back-to-back titles might appear premature from James. But a two-year homologation tenure means the Silver Arrow 02 yardstick returns next season.

It also comes from a team used to consecutive championships in Formula 1. More than that, as Mercedes already prepares to pack its bags at the end of 2022, for James and his colleagues, it’s very much a case of ‘if not now, then when?’.

De Vries celebrates with team boss James after a nerve-jangling finale

Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Images