Why Sims is quitting Formula E to become the master of his own destiny

Motorsport is a capricious beast at the best of times. One discipline of racing can fit a driver like a glove and, in experimenting with a move to another category, that driver can suffer from an abrupt loss of form as they try to break old habits to fit their new environs. And it might be the case that they never truly feel comfortable.

Alexander Sims understands that. A multiple race-winner in GT racing, Sims got the call from BMW to join the Andretti Formula E squad ahead of its three-year partnership with the American squad in 2018.

Although he’d won with the team in 2019’s second Diriyah race, Sims hasn’t graced the top step of the podium since – and a move to Mahindra ahead of the 2020-21 season hasn’t yielded the results he’d hoped for, instead offering a single podium so far in last year’s second Rome E-Prix.

At the end of the season, Sims has hence made the call to depart from Formula E in search of a full-time GT racing gig. From 2014 to 2017, GT-based activities had made up most of Sims’ oeuvre, taking him from racing in British GT and the Blancpain categories (earning a Spa 24 Hours win in 2016) to the IMSA SportsCar Championship with the BMW-backed Rahal Letterman Lanigan squad. He’s dovetailed his Formula E duties with racing in the Nurburgring 24 Hours (winning it in 2020) and at Le Mans, getting close to a GTE Pro class victory with Corvette this year before being punted into the wall by LMP2 racer Francois Perrodo, but Sims now wants to focus on it full-time.

A lot of that, Sims tells Autosport, is in generally feeling less comfortable in Formula E. After four years of racing in the all-electric championship, Sims has had something of an epiphany. He’s said previously that he’s felt “lost” with the car, both on the good days and the bad, and it appears that he’s no longer willing to sink the hours into racing in a category that he feels less at ease.

Asked if he feels that a tough second year with Mahindra (before his fourth-place finish in the second New York City race, although we’ll get onto that in a moment) has helped inform his decision, Sims explains that his relative lack of comfort has been a consistent factor in his Formula E career.

“Honestly, it certainly doesn't help things,” he says, “but I would just say it's been a bit of a general feeling my whole time in Formula E. In my second year with BMW, and end of the first year of BMW, the results started to come even though to be fair, the whole first season the pace generally actually seemed alright.

“There were so many crashes and things happening in the races that results didn't go my way. But yeah, I just never felt 100% comfortable with the car. I just find myself finally feeling a little bit lost through all of the race days. Which to be honest, I think a lot of people probably do as well. But I go back to endurance racing and it's a known thing. And I feel just more comfortable, more confident in myself. And generally, it seems, you know, my performance level is higher in that relative to other people than I can achieve here throughout the whole season.

Sims says he's felt uncomfortable with the Formula E car on both his good days and bad days

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images

“And at some point you think I'm not going to have years and years of racing left me, it's not like I'm in my early 20s or something. I just decided to focus on what I enjoy from a pure driving and sporting point of view. It's a shame because obviously I love what Formula E stands for; I’m really, really passionate about electric cars and sustainability in general. It would have been lovely if it did fit from the sporting perspective better, but I've faced up to reality – now’s the time just to make the change myself.”

On that “sporting perspective”, Formula E is a real curate’s egg. Aside from the testing allotted to manufacturers ahead of new powertrain rules and the pre-season collective tests, seat time in the championship is incredibly limited. That, in combination with the technical regulations, has contributed to the series’ notoriously close field.

And Sims is torn on those characteristics. He sees the value of Formula E’s nuances to keep competition tight from a viewership standpoint, and says that increasing the time available to drivers on track would result in “more of a procession”.

"If you had Formula 1 levels of testing, then everyone would just optimise everything and then it would be a bit more of a procession and boring throughout the season. So yeah, it's just what it is. But I just decided the format doesn't quite work for me anymore" Alexander Sims

But equally, he notes that those aspects of the championship make it less enjoyable for him as a driver, and isn’t a fan of the lack of seat time in relation to working out whether a team’s work between races has yielded the effect hoped for. The British driver also points to the effect of the rock-solid treaded tyres, which tend to overheat more than a standard slick.

Ultimately, Sims’ choice to renounce Formula E means there’s not enough to keep him invested, be that with a change to how the cars handle or how the sporting regulations work.

“I think there's so many rules that combine to give the situation that we've got here in Formula E, I don't think it'll probably be one simple change,” Sims says about Formula E’s ability to keep any disenfranchised drivers on board.

“The whole format is seemingly designed to create inconsistency and the ability to make mistakes, which honestly from the outside I think is a good thing. I've always been supportive of that sort of approach to make it hard to have a clean race day. For the format that they've got I think it's interesting sporting wise, but it's just not so fun if I'm the one, for me anyway, who is being judged on that performance level and stuff.

Sims has one Formula E win to his name and two further podiums across the four seasons he's been in the series

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

“I'd say for me that one of the biggest things I struggle with is the treaded tyre, the feeling of a treaded tyre and the feeling with it overheating quite easily. And that's quite different feeling in the race car compared to other series. But honestly, it's a vast array of different things, to the amount of software work that we have to do to optimise it.

“In the work before the race events, you come here, you don't have much time to actually verify whether that's correct or not, pretty much you get into the race and you find out whether you've made the right decisions or not. On what region maps and energy-saving maps and things that you've come here with. And it just feels like a bit of a shit show, you know, like quite often.

“And that's for every team; that was the same when I was with BMW, and they're a brilliant team as well. I think it's just there's just a lack of track time, which is part of what why Formula E is also good, because if you had Formula 1 levels of testing, then everyone would just optimise everything and then it would be a bit more of a procession and boring throughout the season. So yeah, it's just what it is. But I just decided the format doesn't quite work for me anymore.”

And that’s fair – and perhaps a lesson other drivers can learn from. It’s all very well persisting with something not going the way one had hoped for, and racing drivers aren’t a breed of athlete predisposed to giving up, but there’s a limit. And Sims has found his.

One might think that, after calling his own departure, the 34-year-old might have something lined up in the world of GT racing – but in reality, he’s simply stating his intent to return with his actions. He says that he’s open to opportunities across a variety of categories, be it in the various categories in WEC or IMSA, or in the specialist GT championships populating the world. He just wants somewhere to feel comfortable.

“I've got nothing sorted for next year yet,” he says. “It's not that I've been able to like secure something and that's made my decision - it was purely from a personal point of view that I made the decision and we'll see what happens.

“I did IMSA before, I really enjoyed that racing. I'm fully open to all sorts of different things. I enjoy my work with BMW that I predominately do around the Nordschleife over the last couple of years, but there's a lot of racing around. I'm not assuming that I'll be at the top of anyone's list for any of it! But hopefully, I've still got some decent performances in me.”

At this year's Le Mans 24 Hours, Sims was fighting for GTE Pro victory for Corvette until an unfortunate crash triggered by an LMP2 scuffle

Photo by: Marc Fleury

Funnily enough, Sims enjoyed his best Formula E weekend of the season after his announcement, starting on the front row in the second NYC race and claiming fourth – a result he felt was “like a podium” despite getting shuffled out of the top three by Mitch Evans late on.

“It's probably one of those funny things where you take that sort of a decision, and actually it can free your mind up a little bit and you drive with less pressure. Ultimately, that's one of the things that I don't enjoy about this championship. So to race with a bit less pressure from myself has been nice. I don't think it's fundamental to the performance this weekend, but definitely makes me sleep better at night.”

PLUS: How Formula E's Big Apple crunch led to Cassidy joy and heartache

Even if the results do now start to come this season, Sims won’t take his decision to exit Formula E lightly and still has his mind set on a return to the endurance racing arena. For him, it’s about finding an employment opportunity in which he feels at home; he’s scratched any professional single-seater racing itch that may have been borne from his earlier Formula 3 career, and now wants to be a frontrunner again in a category more befitting of his talents.

Sims won’t take his decision to exit Formula E lightly and still has his mind set on a return to the endurance racing arena. For him, it’s about finding an employment opportunity in which he feels at home

And although his self-deprecative suggestion that “I'm not assuming that I'll be at the top of anyone's list” is probably wide of the mark, Sims instead will likely have a few offers to get back behind the wheel of a car bearing a roof. Out of those, it’s not about which drive will cast him into the stratosphere of motorsport, but the one that provides him with the best opportunity to win and is best for him and his young family.

In motorsport, it’s rare that a driver can become the master of their own destiny – unless armed with either multiple F1 titles or a wallet full of cash. Instead, drivers have to take the opportunities that they’re given and hope that it shapes their career in the way that they want it to. But Sims, a proven race winner in GT racing, has enough credit in the bank to now take control of his career.

Sims appears destined to focus on the endurance racing scene full-time

Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Images