The race-winning performances of Felix Rosenqvist ensured he grabbed all the headlines, but over the in DS Virgin Racing camp there was another rookie doing a quietly impressive job.
As the reigning World Touring Car Champion, there was a lot of expectation on Jose Maria Lopez, but this was also his first single-seater campaign since he raced the likes of Lewis Hamilton in GP2. In terms of scoring points, his season started slowly, but picked up pace as it went on, with podium finishes in Paris and Montreal ensuring he ended the season ninth in the standings despite missing the New York double header due to clashing World Endurance Championship commitments.
Q: How would you rate your season out of 10?
I’d probably go for a 7 for my first season. I had ups and downs, especially in the beginning it was a bit hard to get used to the system, to get used to single seaters, to get used to a lot of things that I had to learn again coming back from a long time in touring cars, but I would say from Mexico on my pace was very good. I was nearly always in Super Pole and trying to score points and podiums, so I think overall it was a positive season. If I don’t count New York where unfortunately I was unable to be there, I was able to score the same points as Sam [Bird], who is one of the best drivers in Formula E and more experienced, so as a rookie season I think it was good. And also being able to out-qualify him I think was one of my season’s high points. It maybe wasn’t the season I was looking for, I was hoping for a little bit more, but in the end I think it was positive and 7 would be the right number for my season.
Q: What surprised you most about racing in Formula E?
What surprised me most is how the series is growing up. It’s very impressive. On top of that is the fight you have in the races with the other drivers and the fact you need to manage your energy – there is a lot of things – but the level of the drivers of the teams was one of the things I like most about Formula E.
Q: What was your best performance of the season?
I think my best performance was the last race in Montreal where I was in Group 1 for qualifying, the track was not the best but I managed to be in front of [Sebastien] Buemi in his group but only 11th on the grid because of track conditions, but I can back to P3. That was definitely my strongest race, my pace was very good and I was able to pass many cars and fight for the podium.
Q: What was your worst performance of the season?
Marrakesh. It was just the second race of the year, coming after Hong Kong where I was able to qualify P3, but then didn’t manage to finish the race, so basically Marrakesh was my first-ever race in Formula E. It was really hard, I had two contacts with the wall in free practice and that made me arrive in qualifying with no confidence and being in Group 1 didn’t help, and I qualified outside of the top 10 and finished with just one point. It was not bad to score one point in my second race but anyway I was not really quick on that weekend and I was not able to match my team-mate and it was a very difficult race and I struggled a lot with the performance of the car.
Q: Who was your toughest rival on track?
It’s difficult to say, I can’t really give an answer because I think every driver is really strong in Formula E and every race you have a rival that you need to fight with. Overall everyone has been really tough fighting for position and in Formula E it’s really hard and it’s difficult to give just one name.
Q: Away from the track, what was your favourite city that we raced at?
Definitely Buenos Aires, my home race. I really enjoyed it, I think the track is fantastic and it’s really a shame that we are not coming back next season.
Q: What do you and the team have to do to fight for the title next season?
To fight for title for me would be another history. I would arrive in my second season I would have much more experience, I would understand things about the car, about the energy saving, about the grip, about the street circuits, I would be much more prepared and I think that I can give a fight for the title. As a team I think it’s very important to be consistent, you have a lot of things that are going through the weekend that don’t sometimes help you to be consistent and maybe you can be in the wrong group for qualifying and that can compromise the weekend, but being consistent in Formula E is very important.