Nyck de Vries feels his multiple sanctions for trying to clear his own Mercedes Formula E car from the track were “harsh” despite FIA race director Scot Elkins labelling what he did a “pretty dangerous manoeuvre”.
De Vries suffered a terminal technical issue and lost all power on his car just before the midway stage of Thursday night’s seventh round of the championship.
The car stopped at the side of the track and the Dutchman vacated his cockpit and attempted to push the car clear of the circuit and into a safe space.
“I thought I might as well take my car with me rather than leaving it in the middle of the track” :: Nyck de Vries
Drivers are specifically told to stay within their cockpits in the case of a stoppage on the track and await communication from Elkins, who has a direct line to each of the competitors.
Due to the nature of de Vries’ failure, he had lost all communications and upon seeing a green light to indicate that the car was safe to vacate, he then attempted to manoeuvre his Mercedes-Benz EQ Silver Arrow 01 at Turn 2.
“I lost everything, the radio comms in the car, everything and I kind of wanted to drag the car, just to a safe spot, but I just didn’t have enough kind of rolling speed to get there,” De Vries told The Race.
“I didn’t have any radio comms and the light was green and I thought I might as well take my car with me rather than leaving it in the middle of the track.
“I have to admit, and I’m just going to be honest about it, that I think that the sanctions were quite harsh.”
Elkins told The Race that he understood de Vries was “trying to do the right thing,” but because Formula E races on street or temporary tracks that are often quite narrow or with blind corners severe action was taken over the incident.
De Vries was docked five grid positions for today’s race, fined €5000 and given five penalty points in a combined sanction that took into account both leaving his car without the say of the race director and for “causing a dangerous situation, when he pushed his car in Turn 2 on the track when other cars were present”.
There have been notorious incidents in motorsport history where drivers and mechanics have been hurt attempting to push or start cars.
Ferrari driver Ignazio Giunti was killed at the 1971 Buenos Aires 1000kms when he hit the Matra 660 being pushed along the track by Jean-Pierre Beltoise.
“I’m sure his heart was in the right place to try and help, but at the end of the day, it just kind of made it worse” :: Scot Elkins
In 1981 at Formula 1’s Belgian Grand Prix, Arrows chief mechanic Dave Luckett was badly injured when he was hit by Siegfried Stohr as he attempted to start the engine of Stohr’s team-mate Riccardo Patrese on the starting grid.
“We’re really, really clear about the driver staying in the car, because that’s the safest place for them,” Elkins said. “Whenever that happens it goes against the [driver] briefing notes, and it goes against what we tell them.
“So we take it very, very seriously and in this case honestly, I think we were really lucky because that was a pretty dangerous manoeuvre.
“I’m sure his heart was in the right place to try and help, but at the end of the day, it just kind of made it worse.”
Mercedes now believes de Vries’ stoppage was due to a freak external issue rather than a mechanical failure – potentially debris hitting a switch on the car.
‘We believe that the marshal switch was activated during the race run,” team boss Ian James told The Race.
“The reason behind this is not yet clear, but could have been as simple as the handle coming into contact with some debris.”
