Nyck de Vries: “A disappointing end to my race, but a fantastic result for the team”

Nyck de Vries ended the defence of his Drivers’ Championship with a retirement from race two of the Seoul E-Prix on Sunday, but he was happy to see the Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team clinch both titles for a second consecutive season.

Having won the title last season, the Dutchman started the year with a victory in the Diriyah E-Prix in Saudi Arabia, but inconsistency across the season meant he could only end the year ninth in the final standings, winning only once more in Berlin and taking only one further podium finish in London.

He scored less than half the points team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne managed in the other Mercedes as the Belgian went on his way to take the Drivers’ title, but combined it was enough to see Mercedes leave Formula E on a high with a second consecutive Teams’ title.

De Vries admitted his season did not go the way he would have hoped, with the lack of consistency playing a big part in his final place in the championship standings, but he thanked the whole Mercedes team for allowing him to be a part of their journey across the past two campaigns.

“A disappointing end to my race, but a fantastic result for the team,” said de Vries after Sunday’s race in Seoul.  “The only thing that counts today is that we won both World Championships.

“I’m obviously disappointed that I didn’t finish, but fortunately that didn’t change anything. I am very happy for the whole team. Congratulations to Stoffel, who’s had a fantastic season. He’s been very consistent and deserves the title.

“The team has done a great job over the years, and we couldn’t have asked for a better end to our journey together than this final result. I am super happy that we have managed to win both World Championship titles in each of the past two seasons. That’s a remarkable achievement in such a fiercely competitive race series.

“I’m not happy with the way my season went, of course, but it wasn’t always apparent from the outside what the problem was. It was a kind of snowball effect of small things that meant we weren’t able to score points on a consistent basis.”