JACK NICHOLLS: ‘Title-winning experience could hand Vergne edge in four-way fight’

That in itself was not a catastrophe for Vergne. Of his title rivals, Stoffel Vandoorne (Mercedes-EQ) only concluded fourth, standings leader heading into Rounds 11 & 12, Edo Mortara only ninth, and Mitch Evans (Jaguar TCS Racing) was outside the house of the points, so Vergne wound up only 14 factors off the championship guide.

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His teammate Antonio Felix da Costa managed to qualify 2nd – which turned Julius Baer Pole Posture just after Envision Racing’s Nick Cassidy eas slapped with a penalty – but Vergne smacked the wall on the exit of the chicane on his swift hard work, which means he could only handle 13^th fastest. A race-lengthy slog meant he had only designed it to 10th at the begin of the penultimate lap, in advance of a collision with Lucas di Grassi (ROKiT Venturi Racing) ended his race and denied him of that a single championship level.

Vergne was aggrieved, but in the grand plan of matters I question that 1 issue will be of any be aware appear the final calculations. If he loses the identical ground that he did in New York in London this weekend, his title obstacle will be mathematically over.

Motorists like – nay adore – to notify us that all races are truly worth the identical factors, so have an equivalent stage of worth, and that they simply just have to address just about every the very same. I feel some of them. My illustrious co-commentator Dario Franchitti insists that he was able to focus in that way without having far too a lot work, just since that is how his brain is wired.

Many others, these kinds of as 2016 F1 Environment Champion Nico Rosberg, have admitted that keeping that target and placing title eventualities out of your brain is extremely challenging. Of training course, we by no means know the interior workings of a drivers brain, and can only consider what they explain to us as the reality.

And this is where by I feel Vergne could have the higher hand. The Frenchman has almost nothing to show, owning two Method E titles in the bag now and is firmly set up as a person of the very best drivers on the grid. None of the other motorists in the fight have received a Formulation E title, and in reality none have won a championship in the previous seven yrs.

That is not intended as a criticism in any way – how was Vandoorne meant to acquire a title driving a McLaren in Method 1 for two seasons – but more a comment that racing drivers exist to win races and championships, and the extended you go with out a person, the hungrier you turn out to be, and maybe as a consequence the more tension you place on oneself when the possibility comes your way.

Vandoorne is actually the most latest champion outside the house of Formulation E, immediately after wrapping up the GP2 Sequence in 2015. Evans final gained a title in 2012, when he beat da Costa and Daniel Abt to the GP3 crown, although for Mortara his previous championship was the 2010 F3 Euroseries.

New York Town was not a major 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 structure will supply much cleaner racing than we saw past 12 months.

Generating it into the Qualifying Duels will be totally critical. It is no coincidence that Vandoorne was the only just one of the major four to make it into the Duels on the two times in the Usa and subsequently took house the largest haul of factors.

Motorists can say they are getting it one race at a time, and I will believe that them to a level, but for every person else the tension is – like the route in and out of ExCeL’s one of a kind indoor section – ramping up as we reach the small business stop of the combat for the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship.