Jake Hughes: “We just didn’t have the performance”

Jake Hughes put on a solid performance at the inaugural São Paulo E-Prix, with the Briton having claimed eighth place at the sixth round of the 2022/23 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship.

The rookie was once again stellar in qualifying, with Hughes having been the only Nissan-powered driver to make it into the duels. The NEOM McLaren Formula E Team driver ultimately started the race from sixth and did lose a couple of places in the race, after struggling for performance. He was nevertheless pleased to have claimed another points finish, although, he did slip from ninth to tenth in the Drivers’ Championship.

Hughes praised his team after the race for a well executed E-Prix but admitted that the new side do still have some areas to work on.

“It’s nice to have finished with some points in São Paulo this weekend. I’ve scored points in five out of six races so far, so it’s been a good start to the year – and  it’s continued today. I think we had a strong race, however the start was difficult. From that point onwards we managed to deliver a good race. We were really good with our energy management, something that has improved throughout the season.

“We just didn’t have the performance, balance or rear tyres to really do much more. We still have some areas to improve in, but for what we have right now, I think myself and the team managed a good race. We’re executing our races very well at the moment and hopefully we can bring some more points at our next race in Berlin in a few weeks.”

“We need to make progress” – René Rast

On the other side of the McLaren garage, René Rast did well to recover from eleventh on the grid to finish ninth, with the German having admitted after the race that he was “missing a bit of race pace”.

Brazil was one of Rast’s more difficult weekend’s of the season, with the usually rapid German having looked a little timid. He was unable to extract the car’s usually impeccable one-lap performance, before finding the going tough in the race. As a result of finishing ninth, he slipped from seventh to eighth in the Drivers’ Championship.

Reflecting on the weekend, Rast was pleased to score “solid points” but admitted that the team “need to investigate” what caused their race pace difficulties.

“We scored solid points today at the São Paulo E-Prix; Jake finished eighth and I finished ninth. Despite this, we would’ve liked to finish in a higher position. Sometimes it isn’t easy, today’s race wasn’t, I started 11th and finished ninth, so I made up two positions. We need to make progress, this weekend was a tough one. We weren’t on the pace in Qualifying like we were before.

“We were also missing a bit of race pace and we need to investigate why. Next up is my home race in Berlin, which I’m really looking forward to.”