Why Mercedes is backing two McLaren F1 outcasts

Now there are four drivers who can say they race a Silver Arrows.

Where before it was just Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas racing works Mercedes single-seaters, now they will be joined - via a completely separate series - by Stoffel Vandoorne and Nyck de Vries.

This pair will form the first driver line-up for Mercedes' new venture in ABB FIA Formula E.

They go back a long way, racing against each other in karting as they hail from neighbouring countries Belgium and the Netherlands. They have also worked together before, as both were McLaren Formula 1 juniors for many years, with Vandoorne starting 41 grands prix for the team between 2016 and '18.

As Mercedes FE drivers, they will pilot the Silver Arrow 01 cars that the manufacturer has fitted with its new powertrain for its debut season in the electric category. Thanks to Mercedes' motorsport pedigree - and in particular its considerable success in F1 since 2014 - there's going to be a lot of attention on the team and its drivers in the upcoming campaign.

"I really enjoy our line-up," says Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff, who is CEO of the Mercedes-Benz Formula E Ltd operation behind the new FE squad.

"Nyck is an exciting, young, intelligent, charismatic racing driver that fits very much to Mercedes. He's in the lead of the Formula 2 championship, so it doesn't go any better for any young driver.

"And on the other side, Stoffel has some unfinished business in motor racing. He was one of the highest-rated young drivers and then somehow it didn't work out in Formula 1, [but] we're going to make it work in Formula E.

"I rate both of them and I believe that if the time would have been right and the opportunity would have arisen they would have deserved to be in a Formula 1 car and I think they would have done well.

"But Formula E is exciting and is a works platform and I'm particularly motivated to do well with the two of them."

"Formula E is a very particular car - and very different to everything we race through the ladder up to this point" Nyck De Vries

So, Mercedes wants to lift up two drivers who seem to have gone sideways on the single-seater career ladder. In Vandoorne's case, he arrived in F1 at the right place but at the wrong time as McLaren endured two disastrous seasons that led to its split from Honda at the end of 2017. His reputation, which was sky-high when he won the GP2 title at a canter in 2015, was left in tatters.

De Vries is highly likely to end 2019 as the F2 champion. But he'll actually make his FE debut one race before the final round of the F1-supporting category. He was a McLaren junior for seven years between '11 and '18, but never seemed to have the momentum to make an F1 tilt with the team, as Vandoorne (and before him Kevin Magnussen) enjoyed. McLaren then put its weight behind Lando Norris.

Joining FE doesn't necessarily mean the F1 dream is gone for de Vries - just ask Alex Albon, a racer at the senior Red Bull team one year after being announced at Nissan e.dams.

Mercedes' FE drivers have the CVs to match some of the best in the electric championship - although that of course does not mean guaranteed results.

Of the drivers already confirmed on the 2019/20 grid, de Vries is one of three rookies alongside Brendon Hartley and Neel Jani, who admittedly did start two races back at the start of '17/18. That will likely go against his chances of leading Mercedes to FE success immediately, but he has been around the FE paddock for a while.

He worked with Audi at the end of the 2017/18 season, acting as its reserve driver at the New York round and then testing its Gen2 car. He also drove for Envision Virgin Racing at the Marrakech rookie test back in January after completing the same session in Audi's Gen1 car the year before.

That's a solid base to start from, but de Vries will need to avoid making errors such as clouting a kerb during his running with Virgin, which damaged the car and led to the team losing a chunk of testing time.

"Formula E is a very particular car - and very different to everything we race through the ladder up to this point [F2]," de Vries says of his FE experience.

"It has no downforce, road tyres, very specific tracks and I think it's a very challenging category - the level of competition is extremely high, with very highly-rated drivers. The cars are relatively similar - regulations are not as open as Formula 1 despite the powertrain. And all that together makes it a very exciting championship.

"It's been a very interesting couple of months for me because [getting the Mercedes deal] was kind of happening in the background, and at the same time I still had my Formula 2 season going on, doing simulator work, and I'm also competing in LMP2. So, it's a very exciting time of my career.

"Mercedes have been very welcoming, very straightforward, honest - and so far I'm really enjoying myself. But obviously when the season really kicks off the job on track will matter."

A fired-up Vandoorne out to restore his reputation, with a rapid rookie team-mate, will be worth keeping an eye on this season

Given de Vries's relative lack of FE experience, Vandoorne surely must be considered Mercedes' team leader. He raced for HWA in 2018/19 when it conducted a learning year on Mercedes' behalf. It was a trying season for the team, with several reliability issues and unfortunate crashes, but it was Vandoorne who grabbed its standout moments.

These were his pole in Hong Kong, which earned HWA its first FE points, and third place in Rome. The latter achievement capped an impressive race performance where Vandoorne was in a league of his own - nestled between runaway leaders Mitch Evans and Andre Lotterer, and the rest. He even proved his pace immediately by taking fourth on the grid for his debut in Saudi Arabia.

What held HWA back was a combination of the team's FE inexperience, its reliability problems with its customer powertrain, and general struggles with energy management in the races compared to its rivals.

So, it would be fair to assume that Vandoorne - armed with a potent Mercedes package (should it indeed have produced one) - will be a contender in the upcoming campaign. But whe the inevitable question of an F1 return - with Mercedes support or otherwise - is put to him, he has an intriguing attitude.

"I wouldn't say that's on my mind right now [returning to F1]," he says. "To be honest, I really feel like I need to get back to winning first again - it's something I've been missing over the past couple of years, and my two years with McLaren haven't helped my case, let's say.

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"A lot of people remember the two bad years I had with them, but for me the target is to be competitive and to be winning as soon as possible again. I think if I manage to do that I'll be in a stronger position. I think the best chance for me to achieve that is right now to be with Mercedes in Formula E, so that's where all my focus goes."

A fired-up Vandoorne out to restore his reputation, with a rapid rookie team-mate, will be worth keeping an eye on this season. That drive, allied to a powertrain built by the same engineering division that produced the all-conquering V6 turbo hybrid engine in F1, could well be exactly what Mercedes needs to claim FE glory.