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With a brand new car, circuits and racing format to master, selecting the top 10 drivers of the inaugural Formula E season is far from easy. In total 35 drivers competed in the 2014-2015 season in some form so we asked TV commentator Jack Nicholls to give us his view on the 10 that impressed him the most…
10. Oliver Turvey
He may have only competed in the final round, but Turvey was mighty impressive. In Saturday’s dry qualifying session in London he qualified seventh, ahead of full season drivers like Senna, Bird, Duval, Heidfeld and Abt. Admittedly Jean-Eric Vergne and Scott Speed were impressive on their debuts, but that was much earlier in the season. The later in the season you join, the more catching up there is to do. The other four London debutants started together, from 16th to 19th on the grid. Turvey was also key in Nelson Piquet winning the title. In the mid part of the race he wrestled the fastest lap away from Buemi, and moved aside to let Piquet through into eighth place. And as if that wasn’t enough, in one weekend in London he scored the same amount of points as previous incumbents Pic, Tung and Garcia combined!
9. Nico Prost
At the halfway point of the season, Nico Prost would have been my number one. He’d secured two pole positions and launched himself into the championship lead by winning in Miami. I’m not sure you’d find many in the paddock who would have predicted that before the season began. Then it all went downhill. Since that Saturday afternoon on the East Coast of the USA, Prost never again finished in the top five, slipping down to sixth in the standings. In the same period, team-mate Buemi racked up three podiums, two wins and a title assault.
8. Jean-Eric Vergne
JEV is a mega driver. One of my highlights of the season has been watching his qualifying laps; a sensational debut pole in Punta del Este was followed by another two in Miami and Moscow. But for whatever reason, he never seemed to get the hang of driving the Formula E cars in race trim. Three pole positions in eight races in the series is impressive, but just two podiums and no wins is less so. He was passed by Piquet off the line in Punta and Moscow, while Sam Bird passed him for the lead in Miami. Later in that race, Andretti team-mate Scott Speed also passed the Frenchman on his way to finishing half a second behind race winner Prost. If Vergne returns next year, he will undoubtedly be a front runner, but work on energy management and race pace is a must.
7. Nick Heidfeld
I don’t believe in bad luck, unless you’re Nick Heidfeld. How different his season would have been had it not been for the crash in Beijing? I could write a book on the hypothetical Heidfeld season, but the facts are surprising. He led four out of the five opening races at some stage, but through a mixture of drive-through penalties and other incidents, the German emerged with just three points. After a stellar junior career, Heidfeld made 183 Formula 1 starts without winning a race, second only to Andrea de Cesaris’ 208 starts with no victories, and it seems as though that nearly-man status has followed him to Formula E. He’s not won a single-seater race since Formula 3000 at Spielberg in 1999, some 16 years ago! Nevertheless, he finally picked up a podium in Moscow, and don’t be surprised to see him finally return to the top step in 2015-16.
6. Jerome D’Ambrosio
It was an impressive if unspectacular season for Jerome. Only Nelson Piquet finished in the points more often than the Belgian racer, culminating in a strong weekend in London where two second places saw Dragon Racing finish as runners-up in the Teams’ Championship. D’Ambrosio looked strong as early as Malaysia. He set the third fastest qualifying time, only to be excluded for a power infringement. A series of top six finishes followed, before a maiden victory in Berlin after Lucas di Grassi’s disqualification. Consolidating two front row starts in London handed him fourth place in the drivers’ standings, and a lot of kudos.
5. Lucas di Grassi
Di Grassi never really looked like winning the title in London. It was an anonymous weekend for the Brazilian, who was admittedly an outside bet coming into the season’s climax. Di Grassi’s season – and perhaps mind-set - changed in Berlin. Having dominated the race, the Abt driver was disqualified after the race for technical infringements. Di Grassi and the team maintain the adjustments were not performance enhancing, but it took him from championship leader to championship outsider, and from there he never recovered. As the title favourite from the outset, it was a strong first half of the year. A gift of a victory at the season opener in Beijing was followed by a stunning drive from 18th to second in Malaysia, but the fact remains that he never won a race outright, in the way we saw Buemi and Piquet manage on multiple occasions. There’s no doubt he will be a front runner with Audi Sport Abt next season, and he will be desperate to secure his first ever championship title, after 13 years of racing.
4. Sam Bird
Sam’s single seater career had stagnated a little, after strong showings in Formula Renault 3.5 and GP2, but the Virgin team hired him alongside Jaime Alguersuari for Formula E. Most predicted Alguersuari to be the stronger of the two, and most were wrong, as the English driver finished the season fifth in the championship, to Jaime’s 13th. A podium in the opening race was followed by the most commanding victory of the entire season in Malaysia, where Bird stole the lead from Oriol Servia and disappeared into the distance. The middle part of the season was tough for Bird. He crashed out of both qualifying and the race in Punta del Este, before a radio problem in Miami meant he missed his pitstop while leading the race. Forced to limp around one extra lap to save energy, he did well to rescue fifth. At the London finale, he was on a mission. Like Silverstone and Mansell, Battersea seemed to inspire Bird to pass Duval in the pits and D’Ambrosio on track, before pressuring race leader Stephane Sarrazin into using too much energy, handing Bird a second victory of the season. Only he, Buemi and Piquet won multiple ePrix, and Bird’s were two of the most commanding. With DS joining Virgin for season two, expect a seriously competitive squad.
3. Antonio Felix Da Costa
Pre-season testing for Amlin Aguri was difficult, and throughout the season they struggled to match the pace of the front runners, especially in qualifying. Although that meant strong results were rare, we were treated to some superb drives from Portuguese superstar Antonio Felix Da Costa. The stats speak for themselves; Buenos Aires 8th to 1st, Miami 18th to 6th, Monaco 20th to 9th, Berlin 19th to 11th, Moscow 14th to 7th. His win in Argentina was probably the most remarkable of the season. It was admittedly a race of attrition, with both Buemi and Di Grassi crashing out of the race lead, but he still managed to beat Prost, Piquet, Alguersuari, Vergne and Bird, all of whom had been in front of him on the grid. To put it into perspective, he finished just behind Jean-Eric Vergne in the standings, despite entering one less race. Da Costa had a season best grid slot of seventh, while Vergne took three pole positions, but he took one race victory to Vergne’s none.
2. Sebastien Buemi
As in the championship battle, it was mighty tight between the top two. Harsh as it may be to say, Buemi cost himself the title in London. On Saturday, he was perfect. A lights to flag victory launched him into contention for Sunday’s finale. He was many people’s favourite as the lights went out on for the final race of the season, but the crucial moment was a spin at Prince Albert corner after the pitstops. That let Bruno Senna through, and lost him the championship. With three poles and three victories, it was a superb year for Buemi. After a slow start caused by mistakes in qualifying during the opening two rounds, the Swiss drove almost faultlessly. You could argue – and I did – that e.dams cost him the title with their catastrophic pitstop error in Moscow, as a guaranteed podium turned to ninth. With a factory built Renault motor for next season, Buemi will be right up there again in season two.
1. Nelson Piquet Jr
There’s no doubt in my mind that Nelson Piquet Jr drove the Formula E car better than anyone else this season. In a series where energy management is key, he and the NEXTEV TCR squad were consistently the most flexible and innovative in the field. Piquet arrived in Formula E with something to prove. A superb junior career saw him win Formula 3 in South America, then in the UK, before narrowly losing out to Lewis Hamilton in GP2. But then a lacklustre – and ultimately controversial – spell in Formula 1 looked to have put an end to a bright career. After doing some Rallycross and NASCAR, Formula E has reinvigorated Piquet. Taking his first Formula E win in Long Beach - where his father had recorded his first F1 win decades before - was a special moment, his win in Moscow was commanding. But climbing from 16th on the grid to finish 7th on Sunday in London was nothing short of a champion’s drive, especially after the weather in qualifying had conspired to make him an outsider for the championship he was leading. He kept his cool, focussed on the job in hand, and goes down in history as the first ever FIA Formula E Champion.