“I did not have the pace to come back” – Jean-Éric Vergne

Season Eight of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship couldn’t have arguably ended any worse for Jean-Éric Vergne, who saw his title hopes disintegrate after horrific luck.

The Frenchman ended the season fourth in the Drivers’ Championship, after an okay sixth-place finish at the Seoul E-Prix season finale. Vergne’s title hopes were effectively over after the London E-Prix, where he had failed to score a single point. Vergne did well to finish sixth at Seoul, after dropping some places early on. Race pace was clearly an issue for DS Techeetah, after team-mate António Félix Da Costa also struggled for performance during the final race of the season.

Vergne is hoping to come back stronger when Gen3 kicks-off in 2023, after missing a “couple of opportunities”.

“Today’s race was quite bad at the start because there was a crash between Di Grassi and Gunther and I lost some positions so I had to make them back. I started 8th, finished 6th.  I did not have the pace to come back much more than this. Obviously, we wanted more this year, I missed a couple of opportunities with 4 bad races but it’s motorsport, it’s unpredictable. Now we have a lot of work to do for the next generation of cars to be the best next year and come back stronger to win the championship.”

“Our story is that we were champions” – António Félix Da Costa

Da Costa ended his journey with DS Techeetah with a tenth-place finish in South Korea, but did manage to claim pole position for the E-Prix. Da Costa. who is joining TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team next season, battled hard early on to keep hold of the lead. The Portuguese dropped to third before suddenly falling all the way to the foot of the points.

Da Costa fell from third after being hit by Jake Dennis, resulting in the DS Techeetah driver having to come to almost a complete stop to avoid hitting the barrier. In Dennis’ defence, Da Costa gave him no room.

Having claimed pole, Da Costa would’ve hoped for better than tenth in his final race for the team. In his words, the season finale didn’t sum-up his “story” with the team.

“What a day for my last day in black and gold! I got pole position, showing everyone how we could race, showing our ambitions. It lasted for a bit of the race, but I did not have the pace to keep up with some of the guys. I was running third, then went to attack mode, trying to make a move for P2 and I got hit by another car which compromised our race. I went down to last position but still came back to 10th to score points. But that’s not my story of the 3 years with DS TECHEETAH. Our story is that we were champions, we accomplished a lot and I will never forget these guys.”

Credit: Sam Bloxham courtesy of FIA Formula E