Season 8 of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship will climax in South Korea this weekend with the 2022 Hana Bank Seoul E-Prix where the champion driver and team will be crowned and the world’s first all-electric motorsport series will mark 100 races.
Stoffel Vandoorne leads the way for Mercedes-EQ in a bid to make it back-to-back wins following their Drivers’ and Teams’ World Championship success last year in Season 7. The Belgian extended his lead to 36-points over nearest rival Mitch Evans (Jaguar TCS Racing) during the SABIC London E-Prix two weeks ago that saw his closest competitors falter.
Consistency is critical in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship. While Vandoorne has achieved only one win this season compared to three each for Evans and Edoardo Mortara (ROKiT Venturi Racing) in third place, Vandoorne has the most podium finishes and has scored on 13 occasions this season, taking the honour from Daniel Abt as the most consistent points finisher in a campaign. Vandoorne’s last four rounds have all yielded top four finishes and a pair of podiums: the gauntlet has been thrown by the Mercedes-EQ driver.
In his fourth campaign, Vandoorne has been around the series long enough to know that securing his first World Championship title is far from a sure thing in Seoul, where race strategy will be affected by high humidity and record-breaking levels of rainfall this week that will demand outstanding planning and driving execution.
Mitch Evans (Jaguar TCS Racing) had worked his way into closest contention of top spot but a crushing technical problem in London put a huge dent in his chances. The Kiwi was on track to pin Vandoorne back to a 22-point lead, some 14 fewer than his current advantage but an inverter problem at the end of Round 14 saw him out of fourth and into retirement despite front-running pace.
But opportunity remains for Evans. He has dominated entire race weekends before, most notably in Rome this season, but the stakes are much higher this time around and Vandoorne only has to outdo the Jaguar driver in Round 15 for the battle to be over.
Eleven teams and 22 drivers have competed in Formula E’s biggest racing season to date with Rounds 15 and 16 to come this Saturday and Sunday and four drivers still in contention for the title at the top of the standings.
In third and fourth respectively, Edoardo Mortara and DS TECHEETAH’s Jean-Éric Vergne have it all to do. Mortara topped the standings at the halfway stage of the season after a run of two wins and two more podiums in Berlin and Jakarta. Since then, the Swiss has only managed two low-scoring points finishes in New York City and a pair of non-scores in London, but he remains just five points back from Evans.
Similarly, Vergne has hit his worst-ever run in Formula E, with four consecutive blanks for the very first time in the championship. While it’s an uncharacteristic return from the Frenchman, JEV is the only driver in the top four to have won the World Championship – twice – and experience could still earn a place on the podium.
Mercedes-EQ stretched its lead in London with silverware for both de Vries and Vandoorne. Back-to-back titles look to be on with a 36-point margin on ROKiT Venturi Racing in second, with DS TECHEETAH behind the Monegasque outfit by 11 points.
It will be the first time Formula E has raced in South Korea with the E-Prix taking place on a unique track constructed around and even looping through the Jamsil Olympic Stadium, the first world championship sporting event held at the venue since the Olympic Games in 1988.
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