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vandoorne: "The way you brake in Formula E is kind of not natural"

PHOTO: theedrive.com

F  RMULA

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Former F1 racer, Stoffel Vandoorne shares his views on Formula E and the ways he approaches driving in the full-electric series

23/5/2019

What was your motivation to join Formula E?
- I think that the championship is very new, very futuristic, there is a lot of interest from big manufacturers, and the fact that next year Mercedes and Porsche are joining the series shows that there is a big interest in this series, so I'm very happy to be a part of it in the early stages.


Was it easy to adapt to the Formula E car after driving in Formula 1?
- It's never easy to adapt to a car, but I got on with the car pretty quickly. From the first race, we had some good qualifyings, doing a lot of testing, and in the end, is all about this - you need to adapt to special conditions and different track layouts in a really short period of time. Every time is challenging.
 

How does racing in Formula E influence the driving style?
- It's very different than any kind of car that I have been racing in before in terms of the way you drive. It's kind of not natural, in a way you brake, it's very different, but all the rest is probably quite straight-forward I would say. Most difficult is to operate within the team, there's a lot of systems in the car which are difficult to manage, and that's the most complicated.


What is your opinion of the Formula E Gen2 car?
- I only know the Gen2 car. I never knew the Gen1 car, but for sure it looks like a big step forward compared to what we had previously. It will continue to develop and evolve massively, this technology is still very new and it's going to develop. These are exciting times for Formula E.


More-less it's the end of the season. What do you think are the strong features of your car, and what maybe needs to change or improve?
- I think that we have a package, which is maybe not the optimal package, but we know that if we do everything right, if we operate correctly, then we can score points and we can have some surprise results and I think we showed it on a couple of occasions this year with pole-position in Hong Kong, and with a podium in Rome. There is potential there, it's just that Formula E is so unpredictable, changes all the time so anything can happen.

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