Jake Hughes has mixed feelings about the way we currently go racing in Formula E. The 30-year-old thinks that the sport should be entertaining for the fans, but admits that it sometimes feels like ‘too much’ from the cockpit.
Hughes had qualified on P21 for the Saturday race in the London Excel, and knew it was going to be a challenge to score points. But after a fantastic start, in which he took full advantage of the crashes throughout the field, he managed to work himself up into the top ten. Unfortunately, an incident left him no choice but to retire the car in lap 26. “The race had actually gone quite well”, Hughes said to Pit Debrief on the Saturday in London.
“I was up to 10th – there was obviously a lot of carnage that led to that. I think I gained like 7 places in one lap with all the crashing that was happening. I went from 21st to 10th, with obviously a very good first 5 or 6 laps or so. And then, as anyone who watched the race probably saw, there was a lot of bumping and barging; a lot of damage that happened.”
“You quite often end up with these Constantine effects that can sometimes catch you out, and honestly it was my mistake.” When cars break for a tight corner, they often come closer together. When they then exit the corner, they hit the throttle at different times, which leads to them getting distance between them. This is also called the Constantine effect.
“I was racing Stoffel – into Turn 1 we were side by side, and we had quite a gap to the cars ahead. I think something must have happened three or four cars ahead. Effectively, everyone stopped at Turn 1. I was in control with the speed to make the corner in a normal scenario, but not in control when everyone had stopped before the apex. So I had to try and avoid a huge crash by effectively putting my own car into the barrier on the inside, which damaged the car.“
This past season, a lot of drivers have complained about the chaotic racing style Formula E seems to have adopted. Asked whether Hughes agrees with these complaints, he said: “It’s always a double-edged sword, because you have to take into account how it looks for fans and if they’re enjoying it or not. I don’t think I have the knowledge right now to answer that correctly. But from my side, in the cockpit, it honestly often feels like too much. That’s just me being honest.”
The British driver admitted that Formula E can’t just be compared to any other racing series. “Of course, it’s very different to any other series, so you’re not sort of warmed up to it in that sense. You don’t learn this racing through Formula 4, 3 and 2, for example. It is the same for everyone, so you score the same points as you would if it was a normal race.”
“You have to find the best way through it”, the British driver set to join Maserati emphasised. “But sometimes you have races where you feel like you didn’t do much wrong, but a traffic jam effectively ruins your race. That happens multiple times a race. If you come through it, you have a very good race and maybe finish on the podium; you feel great, and you love the style of racing. Of course, when you do have a bad day, it’s not your best friend.“
