It is my view that championships are defined by your bad days. Nobody ever lost a championship because of the races they won, seasons turn on the weekends that didn’t go according to plan.
So my question is thus, was New York City the weekend that cost DS TECHEETAH's Jean-Eric Vergne his third title? Firstly, we still have four races to go, beginning with this weekend’s London double-header then two more to finish the year in Seoul, so there are still 116 points available and he is only 27 points off the Drivers' World Championship lead.
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But there’s no doubt that they were concerning results for Vergne across the two races in the Big Apple. Coming in to the weekend, he had only failed to make it into the Qualifying Duels on two occasions in the first 10 races of the season. New York doubled his tally, and 16th for race one was his lowest qualifying position of the season.
Admittedly, once you are in ‘the jungle’ – as some drivers have been known to call it – progress is very difficult. It’s not impossible, as Jaguar TCS Racing's Sam Bird proved by qualifying 17th and finishing fifth in race two in New York, but when Vergne got turned around on the opening lap at Turn 6, he was destined for his first failure to score of the season.
That in itself wasn’t a disaster for Vergne. Of his title rivals, Stoffel Vandoorne (Mercedes-EQ) only finished fourth, standings leader heading into Rounds 11 & 12, Edo Mortara only ninth, and Mitch Evans (Jaguar TCS Racing) was outside of the points, so Vergne wound up only 14 points off the championship lead.
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His teammate Antonio Felix da Costa managed to qualify second – which became Julius Baer Pole Position after Envision Racing's Nick Cassidy eas slapped with a penalty– but Vergne smacked the wall on the exit of the chicane on his quick effort, meaning he could only manage 13th fastest. A race-long slog meant he had only made it to 10th at the start of the penultimate lap, before a collision with Lucas di Grassi (ROKiT Venturi Racing) ended his race and denied him of that one championship point.
Vergne was aggrieved, but in the grand scheme of things I doubt that one point will be of any note come the final calculations. If he loses the same ground that he did in New York in London this weekend, his title challenge will be mathematically over.
Drivers like – nay love – to tell us that all races are worth the same points, so carry an equal level of importance, and that they simply have to treat each the same. I believe some of them. My illustrious co-commentator Dario Franchitti insists that he was able to focus in that way without too much effort, just because that is how his brain is wired.
Others, such as 2016 F1 World Champion Nico Rosberg, have admitted that keeping that focus and putting title scenarios out of your mind is incredibly difficult. Of course, we never know the inner workings of a drivers mind, and can only believe what they tell us as the truth.
And this is where I think Vergne could have the upper hand. The Frenchman has nothing to prove, having two Formula E titles in the bag already and is firmly established as one of the best drivers on the grid. None of the other drivers in the fight have won a Formula E title, and in fact none have won a championship in the last seven years.
That is not meant as a criticism in any way – how was Vandoorne supposed to win a title driving a McLaren in Formula 1 for two seasons – but more a comment that racing drivers exist to win races and championships, and the longer you go without one, the hungrier you become, and perhaps as a consequence the more pressure you put on yourself when the opportunity comes your way.
Vandoorne is actually the most recent champion outside of Formula E, after wrapping up the GP2 Series in 2015. Evans last won a title in 2012, when he beat da Costa and Daniel Abt to the GP3 crown, while for Mortara his last championship was the 2010 F3 Euroseries.
New York City was not a big scoring venue for any of our title protagonists, admittedly, and we now arrive in London for the penultimate race weekend of the season. There have been track changes, and the new qualifying format will deliver much cleaner racing than we saw last year.
Making it into the Qualifying Duels will be absolutely key. It is no coincidence that Vandoorne was the only one of the top four to make it into the Duels on both days in the USA and subsequently took home the biggest haul of points.
Drivers can say they are taking it one race at a time, and I will believe them to a point, but for everyone else the pressure is – like the route in and out of ExCeL’s unique indoor section – ramping up as we reach the business end of the fight for the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship.