Nyck de Vries’ return to Formula E proved to be a disappointment, with the former Red Bull F1 man finishing out of the points in 15th place in opening race of the new season.
De Vries secured a full-time F1 seat for 2023 after a surprising performance with Williams at the 2022 Italian Grand Prix at Monza, where he struggled as a replacement for Alex Albon.
The Dutchman signed for Red Bull AlphaTauri junior team as Pierre Gasly’s replacement for 2023 but dropped Daniel Ricciardo after just 10 races after battling alongside Yuki Tsunoda.
De Vries then announced his return to Formula E, where he was crowned world champion with Mercedes in 2021, and the 28-year-old will also compete with Toyota in the World Endurance Championship in 2024.
However, his return to Formula E went according to plan: De Vries finished last in qualifying for the Mexico City E-Prix at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodríguez, the same venue used for the F1 Mexican Grand Prix.
Mahindra Racing driver De Vries finished 15th in a race won for Porsche by Pascal Wehrlein, who spent two seasons in F1 with the Manor and Sauber teams in 2016/17.
Wehrlein finished just over a moment ahead of another former Red Bull F1 driver, Sebastien Buemi, who crashed at AlphaTauri (then Toro Rosso) at the end of the 2011 season.
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Before returning to Formula E in Mexico, De Vries revealed he needs to return to all-electric elegance after squandering his seat in F1 last summer.
He told the official Formula E website: “There was clearly always an interest from my side to come back to Formula E, hence why I decided to travel to the last race of the championship [in 2023].
“I’ll fly to London to get back to the paddock, meet up with old friends and see what it’s like. “
“That’s when Fred Bertrand [Mahindra’s CEO] and I bumped into each other by chance.
“From that moment, we planned a call and he explained his plans and where the team is aiming to go. It really appealed to me and together overtime, obviously not overnight, it all developed quite naturally.
“I still have to catch up a little bit. I also want to get used to everything a little more. Basically, I didn’t drive a Formula E car for 12 months.
“The racing is very different, so I still need a little bit more time to get up to speed with everything. But that’s part of the process.”
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