Autosport 2021 Top 50: #9 Nyck de Vries

While everyone else speculated about a possible Formula 1 future for Nyck de Vries and Mercedes quitting Formula E, the Dutchman remained undistracted.

He was imperious when the season started in Saudi Arabia and, amid the folly at Valencia, he only artificially gained one place to win again.

There was a mistake in Monaco qualifying, when he knocked the car out of full-power mode, but on the other occasions when one-lap pace was lacking it was due to his team pursuing the wrong development path.

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

Inconsistency was the perverse key to success in Formula E in 2021, and de Vries converted his chances by ensuring he was almost unbeatable on the good days to overcome the bad.

De Vries’s 2021: In his own words

“I’m realistic enough to understand that I could have easily been fifth or sixth in Formula E last season. The classification is not directly reflective of everyone, but it was a well-deserved championship for us. We did lead most of the year.

I must acknowledge that we had some luck on our side. And that it all came down to the final round in Berlin plays its part in why this title felt different. Most drivers are used to building championships as the year wears on. The qualifying format in Formula E makes that hard to do.

Champion Nyck de Vries, Mercedes-Benz EQ

Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Images

For example, after my two second places in the penultimate London event, we arrived in Berlin in the slowest first group in qualifying. And with Formula E it’s like, ‘Ah, man, you never know…’ You just hope it’s going to be good!

The way the season had gone, you almost accept that you can’t be consistent, you can’t constantly score points. You accept the moment and move on. I definitely reached that point towards the end. It was easier for me to accept a bad weekend because I understood it was the nature of the championship and its format this season.

To secure the title double, with Mercedes winning the teams’ championship, is testament to how hard we worked at the end of our debut 2019-20 season. We were already strong, but we did have some glitches. It was obviously our first season in the series, and we made too many mistakes. We were not entirely ready to take on a title fight.

PLUS: How Mercedes pulled off a silent coup in Formula E

We reacted by doing a lot of winter testing and analysing, and we focused on specific areas where we thought we needed to improve, and I think that approach has really paid off. It’s why I believe the start of the season was crucial in the outcome, because it really made our point clear that we did our work – we are here to win and not to participate.”