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

Nyck de Vries cut through the most random of Formula E seasons last year to chalk two wins and a further brace of podiums, and he led the points for seven of the 15 races. He was a most deserving champion. But at a time when his Mercedes employer completed its ascent to the top of the teams’ standings, a coronation for stablemate Stoffel Vandoorne might have been the more fitting.

The Belgian beat de Vries to making a full-time electric switch when he joined debutant HWA Racelab ahead of the 2018-19 campaign. From a squad that rose from the ashes of an axed DTM programme and was a Mercedes attack in all but name, there was total unfamiliarity with this new discipline. Vandoorne navigated the adjustment period, and persistent driveshaft failures in the borrowed ZF powertrain, to land the Affalterbach team a first series pole (Hong Kong) and visit to the podium (Rome).

For the factory-fronted charge the season after, newly crowned FIA F2 champion de Vries – who’d missed out on an F1 seat – was signed to replace Gary Paffett. Vandoorne stayed put. The Dutch rookie endured the bulk of operational errors, while Vandoorne snared more history. He bagged two podiums on a maiden weekend for the works squad in Saudi Arabia, and then converted pole into a first victory on Merc home soil in Berlin. That last-gasp success catapulted him from ninth to runner-up in the points behind the dominant Antonio Felix da Costa.

But the intra-team fortunes reversed last term. While de Vries could convert his pace when it mattered, Vandoorne was punted out of the lead by Andre Lotterer in the Italian capital. As he recovered, a proud drain cover led both Mercs to wipe out as they avoided stricken race leader Lucas di Grassi. Vandoorne then lost pole to a technicality at Valencia and was tagged by Oliver Rowland in London.

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Had any one of those key events turned out differently, he would never have finished 17 points adrift of his champion team-mate down in ninth. Remarkably, Vandoorne wasn’t even among the long list of 13 drivers who could have, mathematically at least, clinched the crown heading into a final race at Tempelhof Airport, where he finished third.

Vandoorne led in London until contact with Rowland began his tumble back to an unrepresentative 15th

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

“I definitely had my share of bad luck,” reflects Vandoorne. “There were incidents where it wasn’t my fault. I probably only needed one of them not to happen and I would have won the championship. But I cannot change that.”

While Vandoorne missed the window to secure Mercedes its first title in Formula E, over the coming eight months he has every chance of bagging its last. That would complete his series journey with the marque and provide prosperous bookends for their time together.

As the works team prepares for a final campaign in the championship, at least in this current factory form, it carries over the Silver Arrow 02 machine of 2021. The financial impact of the pandemic led to a cost-saving two-year homologation cycle. That means the gearbox, motor and inverter hardware that won a third of all races last term – in both its works and Venturi Racing customer guises – is back for more.

"We also know the mistakes we made last season. We’ve got every opportunity to rectify them this year" Stoffel Vandoorne

“I know we’ve got a very strong car,” continues Vandoorne. “We also know the mistakes we made last season. We’ve got every opportunity to rectify them this year. Software-wise, I think everyone has made steps forward. We’ve just got to optimise ours every weekend and if we manage to do that, I’m confident we can fight for the top position.”

Thanks to a largely transparent relationship with Venturi, the engineers at Mercedes can tap into four cars’ worth of data rather than two. That should help in the software arms race to ensure the efforts of High Performance Powertrains in Brixworth remain the performance benchmark. What’s more, there’s no reason to expect a repeat of the slump in form that dogged the team and drivers in the thick of 2021.

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As Mercedes chased gains in its one-lap set-up to try to navigate the maligned and now ousted group qualifying format, it went massively off the boil in Monaco, Puebla and New York City. Neither de Vries nor Vandoorne troubled the top 10 for five painful races, and a run to both crowns might have slipped.

Taking a share of the responsibility, Vandoorne says: “We simply didn’t do a good enough job. The set-up direction we took wasn’t right. When you’re starting at the back, you’re in the mess. We weren’t fully switched on and left points on the table.

Vandoorne accepts he wasn't vocal enough in addressing problems that emerged last year

Photo by: Alastair Staley / Motorsport Images

“I played a part in that as well. I wasn’t vocal enough about pushing the team in the right direction. That’s why we got off track. That’s something we really learned from. We sat down after those races, and then we came back for the final part of the season in London and Berlin in very strong shape.”

Team principal Ian James and the star-studded engineering line-up that includes Tony Ross (Nico Rosberg’s F1 title-winning race engineer) and Nick Chester (former Renault technical director) recognise where they went wrong. It won’t be repeated.

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Furthermore, the switch to knockout qualifying – at the demise of a group system that gave too much prominence to track evolution and had a habit of placing the big hitters at the back of the grid – should help matters further. Formula E organisers want to dial back the haphazardness that created the 11 different race winners from 15 attempts last year. Instead, they want a handful of repeat victors that remain in the headlines and become faces for the series. That’s how bosses plan to grow the audience. Relentless popular vote fanboost winner Vandoorne will be among the regulars.

So, if Vandoorne is to cap off Mercedes’ Formula E swansong by doing the heavy lifting in the teams’ title race and winning a drivers’ crown of his own, the carried-over car and the adjustments to the qualifying format do nothing to hurt his credentials. But there is the small matter of beating his reigning champion team-mate over the record 16 races that lie in wait.

De Vries, 26, might almost be accused of plagiarising Vandoorne’s CV. Both were Formula Renault Eurocup champions, kings of GP2 Series/F2, they are keen LMP2 racers, and share the role of Mercedes F1 reserve. Vandoorne, three years older, got there first in each case, in addition to completing his uninspiring F1 stint alongside Fernando Alonso at McLaren.

It’s not so odd that Vandoorne and de Vries appear to have been made in the same mould. By having such similar experiences, there’s considerable overlap in their driving styles. That and a “really good relationship” allows Mercedes’ garage to be open. All conversations feed into the goal of improving performance. Little is lost by division or by minutely tailoring each car for its specific driver.

But if the overlap is so significant, how might Vandoorne go about beating his nearest and one of his dearest? Even with the old qualifying format, it was arguably only the shunts in Rome and London that cost a title. Now that the qualifying changes will reward the faster driver, Vandoorne should have an edge.

Vandoorne lost out to team-mate De Vries in 2021, but was the faster driver in qualifying

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images

Valencia aside, he chalked three poles to de Vries’s one. Excluding the grid for the second Saudi Arabian race after all Mercedes cars were banned from qualifying, plus Valencia, Vandoorne had the one-lap advantage on eight of the 13 remaining occasions last season. And despite the better grid slots, he also gained more positions in the races – 62 plays 41. That’s even with his artificial gain of a staggering 21 places in the Valencia energy debacle round discounted.

The reality is that there’s little to choose between de Vries and Vandoorne. That’s why they form one of the best driver pairings on the grid and delivered the goods for Mercedes last season. It also means there’s no reason why Vandoorne can’t be the one to take the trophy this time around as the manufacturer prepares to pack its bags.

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Vandoorne says of his Formula E tenure to date: “It’s a very nice story if you look at the timeframe from when we started with HWA. That was obviously a team that had a huge amount of success in DTM and had a lot of really good people on board. But we knew nothing about Formula E.

"I’m proud to have been part of this development. We’ve got one more season to go now and hopefully we can repeat what we’ve managed to accomplish last year with getting both championships. Hopefully I get the drivers’ one this time" Stoffel Vandoorne

“We definitely had our struggles in the beginning. We’ve built up the team from scratch, gone through a tough time and then transitioned into Mercedes. I finally got that first pole for them and getting the first victory, and now having won both championships, it’s an incredible story.

“I’m proud to have been part of this development. We’ve got one more season to go now and hopefully we can repeat what we’ve managed to accomplish last year with getting both championships. Hopefully I get the drivers’ one this time.”

While 2022 might not absolutely mark the end of Vandoorne or the race team’s participation in Formula E – Toto Wolff and James are seeking investment to keep the assets and personnel on the grid – it will spell the end of his partnership with the manufacturer in the series.

With a run of 16th, second and ninth in the championship, Vandoorne has already filled the lesser half of Mercedes co-architect Gottlieb Daimler’s motto ‘the best or nothing’. Now is his last and arguably greatest chance to fulfil the more inspiring half by winning the title to complete his Silver Arrows timeline in the most fitting way.

Vandoorne heads into the new season eager to end Mercedes' Formula E journey on top

Photo by: Alastair Staley / Motorsport Images