Once again the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship treated us to an entertaining race on the streets of Monaco, but who gained ground and who lost out from the weekend?
Clear frontrunners
There’s a clear split now at the top of the standings, with the first four covered by just 10 points, then 22 points from fourth to fifth. In fact, the top four in the championship finished in the top four positions come the race, although not in exactly the right order! What exacerbated that gap was that fifth through seventh in the standings all retired from the E-Prix.
HIGHLIGHTS: Catch up with the Monaco E-Prix Round 6
Naturally, Mercedes-EQ's Stoffel Vandoorne was the big winner from Monaco after literally winning the race, and it was emotional to watch an emotional man after the race, as if a weight had been lifted from him. He drove a classy race after a strong fourth position in qualifying to finally deliver the win and grasp the Drivers' World Championship lead that he had been threatening for a long time.
How long can momentum last?
Jaguar TCS Racing's Mitch Evans is in a remarkable run of form. Only twice in Formula E history has a driver won three races in a row but Evans almost pulled it off in Monaco. The Kiwi was naturally frustrated that he couldn’t match Sebastien Buemi and Antonio Felix da Costa’s record, but two wins and a second place and a pole position in three races is an astonishing achievement. Because this is Formula E, a bad day is surely around the corner, but it’s runs like this that can create title-winning seasons.
Frijns the outsider
Since the start of Season 7, Mitch Evans has scored the most points with 162. Robin Frijns has scored 160. The Dutchman collected a fourth place to add to his haul for this season, but once again never looked like threatening for the race lead. It may be that he needs a win or two by the end of the season if he is to wrap up his first Formula E title.
Porsche problems
On the flight back to London from Monaco, I was sitting behind Kyle Wilson-Clarke, who is Pascal Wehrlein’s ace engineer. We exchanged the appropriate small talk, but I couldn’t help but offer my condolences for yet another weekend of entirely unfortunate circumstances.
This was Monday afternoon, and Porsche didn’t yet know what had gone wrong with Wehrlein’s car while he was comfortably leading the race causing it to completely shut down, but combine it with his last lap Mexico City loss in Season 5 and the Season 7 Puebla nightmare, I’d suggest that there aren’t many drivers who have had worse luck than the German.
With Andre Lotterer retiring as well after a collision with Oliver Rowland (Mahindra Racing), Porsche now seem a little adrift in the title fight, although there’s still a long way to go.
Big hitters out of the running?
Surely now it’s getting too late for Antonio Felix da Costa (DS TECHEETAH), Jake Dennis (Avalanche Andretti), and Sam Bird (Jaguar TCS Racing) to mount a title challenge?
Three drivers that would probably have been my picks to be serious contenders this season all had another difficult weekend in Monaco. Da Costa raced well to finished fifth, but it wasn’t the big points haul that he really needed to fire himself into championship contention.
It was a similar story for Dennis, after a mistake in qualifying left him in the midfield on the grid and he came through to finish ninth. Since his strong opening weekend in Diriyah, he has collected three points in four races. And for the second race in a row, Bird was forced to retire with accident damage after getting involved in scraps further down the order, in part thanks to a three-place grid drop for Monaco.
On to Berlin
A double header in Berlin is next up, so there’s lots of points on offer at a very specific circuit. Jaguar has never had a podium at the Templehof Airport Circuit, whereas DS TECHEETAH have had seven - illustrating just how some teams have got to grips with the concrete surface where others haven’t.
After Berlin, we will be into the second half of the season, so it could be a hugely pivotal weekend in the fight for the Season 8 title.