How Mercedes began its Formula E swansong in swaggering style

There was something quite poetic about the Diriyah circuit having to be quite literally dusted off as Formula E’s eighth season began in earnest. Desert sands and the seemingly never-ending backdrop of construction work had sprinkled a layer of dirt atop the track, depriving the drivers of grip during the early part of the season-opening weekend.

Unsurprisingly, the dustiness – and perhaps rustiness - claimed an early victim: the prized scalp of the reigning champion. Nyck de Vries made a somewhat inauspicious start to his title defence, slipping at Turn 3 at the start of the opening practice session to catch his left-rear corner against the wall. A vital 30 minutes of running was snatched away by the sands of time.

But de Vries doesn’t do ‘down and out’. A little over 24 hours later, the Dutchman stood aloft the colossal stage centre-pinning the Diriyah venue, clutching the winner’s trophy as Mercedes underlined its superiority once again. He was fortunate, certainly, pouncing on team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne’s attack mode faux-pas to take the lead, but it still presented a stunning overnight turnaround.

From a technical standpoint, Mercedes’ 1-2 finish in the opening wasn’t a surprise at all; after all, the departing German manufacturer has been phenomenally strong since entering Formula E as a full works team, and the carryover of homologated motors from last season ensured the squad was firmly billed as the 2021-22 favourites. But given the context of de Vries’ shortfall in seat time after losing FP1, it was an excellent recovery – even if the early stages looked like a Vandoorne benefit concert.

PLUS: Why Vandoorne is poised to deliver Mercedes a perfect Formula E sign-off

The Belgian drew first blood in Formula E’s all-new knock-out qualifying system, cruising through the group stages and making his way past Nick Cassidy and team-mate de Vries in his first two duels. He was up against Jake Dennis in the final, the Briton having dispatched Sam Bird and Andre Lotterer to get himself in the shoot-out for pole. But after banking a quicker first sector than Vandoorne, the Andretti driver ran over the dust and got out of step at Turns 6 and 7, shipping six tenths to his rival and ending his hunt for pole.

De Vries began his title defence with victory in race one, leading a Mercedes 1-2

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

It seemed that the rehashed qualifying format was popular among the drivers, especially those who’d had to regularly contend with the abyss of Group 1 in the old system – where track evolution gave the subsequent groups a clear advantage in making it to the superpole shootout.

Analysis: Was FE's new qualifying system a qualified success?

Now, everyone had an equal chance of making it all the way to the final – but qualifying still reserved the right to spring a few surprises. In Group A, Jean-Eric Vergne bemoaned an apparent block from Robin Frijns while Sebastien Buemi couldn’t put a clean lap together. Edoardo Mortara was too late in putting the anchors on towards the end of Group B, careening into the wall at Turn 1. Although Mortara had just put himself into the top four moments prior, sitting on the waiting list for a ticket into the duels, Lotterer posted a marginally better lap and booked himself a cup tie with Frijns.

It proved that Mercedes had the duels sussed out the best, and the only thing that precluded it from having both cars in the final was Vandoorne and de Vries getting drawn together in the same semi-final. But although Dennis proved to be the interloper on the grid, sitting beside Vandoorne in his reliveried Andretti machine – no longer bearing the colours of the departing BMW – it took mere metres for the two Mercedes to lead the ranks into the first corner.

"Everything [at the start] that I imagined what happened, happened," Dennis explained. “Stoffel would come over to the right of me, I'd have to brake early, Nyck comes down outside - and that's exactly what happened!”

"I basically handed the position to Nyck, and from there we stayed together. I'm a little bit disappointed obviously with the attack mode and not taking the loop correctly" Stoffel Vandoorne

Although de Vries was nipping at Vandoorne’s heels in the early phase of the race, the ex-F1 ace was able to keep the reigning champion at arms’ length, and caught absolutely everyone napping on a later safety car restart. A tussle between Frijns and Oliver Rowland, who'd swept to the quickest time in the two preceding practice sessions on his debut for Mahindra, ended in the two getting overly acquainted in Turn 14. Frijns was edged towards the wall, and responded at Turn 16 by assisting Rowland with his own, terminal, trip to the barrier.

Mitch Evans conceded that “everyone fell asleep” on the safety car restart apart from Vandoorne, who didn’t need to hang around to back up the pack. Aiming to tick off the second attack mode early, Mercedes instructed Vandoorne to pick up the three-minute boost of 30kW on lap 14 – and thus, invited the blunder that handed de Vries victory.

Vandoorne was candid about his mistake in the press conference, explaining "I missed the third attack loop on my second activation, which meant I just lost one-and-a-half, two seconds for nothing, basically. And there's only myself to blame for that.

Vandoorne dominated the early stages of the opening race, but an attack mode activation error cost him victory to de Vries

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images

“Everything before that, the race was going well: I was leading the pack, I think our pace was looking quite strong. But then I basically handed the position to Nyck, and from there we stayed together. I'm a little bit disappointed obviously with the attack mode and not taking the loop correctly...”

Dennis, meanwhile, had his own menace to contend with in a fierce on-track brawl with Lotterer, attempting to dummy the Porsche ace into taking the outside line into Turn 18 for an inside-line dive. But it came to nothing, instead going deep into the run-off. He eventually put a move on Lotterer the next time round as the German began to ail – freefalling out of the top 10 by the close of the race.

It concluded a difficult race for Porsche, with both drivers starting within the top 10 but neither able to crack the points. Lotterer’s downfall coincided with a late charge from rookie Oliver Askew, who’d recovered from an early-race tangle with Antonio Felix da Costa and Dan Ticktum to work his way into ninth.

“It was some of the most fun I've had in a race car in a long time,” the American mused post-race, and da Costa even threw some complimentary words his way, remarking he’d had a good race. The Portuguese, however, was less enamoured with Ticktum’s bid to dive past at Turn 1, calling the Formula 2 convert “overly aggressive” in his opening gambit which left the DS Techeetah driver with terminal suspension damage.

With groups now shuffled for the second race in a staggered championship order, Saturday’s running had already kicked things up a gear by practice as the track had been fully rubbered in – but by the end of the duels, Mercedes stood on pole again. De Vries couldn’t even give pole away and was visibly “disappointed” with his lap – but still beat Mortara by a scant 0.005s in the last head-to-head.

Diriyah’s second race, some may argue, ended the way that F1’s contentious Abu Dhabi finale should have ended: the safety car running out the clock until the final corner, with a Mercedes-powered driver claiming the spoils. But try as he might, de Vries couldn’t reel off back-to-back victories in Saudi Arabia, arguably taking attack mode too late into the race to fall behind the frontguard runners prior to Vergne’s full-body tackle at Turn 18.

Instead, it was Mortara and Venturi’s time to shine. Although the race ended in a static formation, thanks to the late safety car brought out for Alexander Sims’ wall-bothering antics at Turn 6, Mortara was absorbing the pressure from the cars behind ever since he’d taken the reins at the front.

Safety car to retrieve Sims's Mahindra gave Mortara a reprieve as the race ended under yellow

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

New Venturi signing Lucas Di Grassi was the spark that ignited a relatively tepid encounter at the front. The first runs of attack mode had kept the top four in the same order they’d started in, but di Grassi’s early activation second time around allowed him to undercut Mortara and Frijns ahead. The Brazilian then took the fight to de Vries, charging past at the favoured Turn 18 spot with more than just a hint of contact. The race one winner then began his ignominious descent down the order, leaving Mercedes’ hopes of doing the Diriyah double with Venturi.

Mortara then rounded di Grassi to pick up the lead and refused to succumb to the pressure of Frijns in the final stages.

“It was a very strategic race, very difficult for the nerves,” Mortara reflected after the race. “I didn’t have a lot of energy, but neither did my colleagues around me. They were playing strategy, trying to attack me and make me consume, so I tried to keep my head cool, and it worked.”

Now that Formula E’s qualifying is less of a lottery, a pattern has already started to emerge: Mercedes looks to be running rampant in this year’s championship

Di Grassi’s first podium of the season came after confusion reigned in his qualifying quarter-final against da Costa, with the world feed cutting to a stranded Venturi in the garage thanks to a bizarre moment of brain-fade from his rival. In their duel, da Costa was due to go out first, but missed his own green light and instead took di Grassi’s a few seconds later. Luckily for the latter, the universe produced its own karmic response – or rather, a mixture of DS Techeetah telling da Costa to back off at the end (and the FIA deleting lap time anyway) set di Grassi up for the semis against de Vries.

Now that Formula E’s qualifying is less of a lottery, a pattern has already started to emerge: Mercedes looks to be running rampant in this year’s championship. But it’s Mortara who leads the championship – and the Geneva-born driver celebrated his victory in style...with a midnight trip to the airport’s Burger King. Fittingly, we could have a whopper of a championship fight on our hands.

Edoardo Mortara celebrates victory in race two, which gave him the championship lead

Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Images