Formula E season seven is not over yet, but there are already teams and drivers starting to evaluate the journey they have made and visualizing improvements for the next championship.
The Chinese team NIO 333, which has had a hard time in all the races held this year, placing last in the overall standings, and its managers have acknowledged that so far there is a feeling of disappointment among the team’s staff.
The Asian team has barely scored points in five of nine races on the calendar. The best result achieved was Oliver Turvey’s sixth place in the first E-Prix in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia.
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Although it is true that so far the number of points obtained has already surpassed previous campaigns, it was not what the team expected when planning this year’s season. This was acknowledged by technical director Duncan Laycock. “Yes, there is an element of disappointment,” said to Autosport.
Yes, we would like to be in higher position than we are now. Our original goal was to score some points which we had achieved, but on the basis of our early performances this year, we’ve raised our expectations and we’d like to move up. Whether we make it or not remains to be seen
Duncan Laycock, NIO 333
“We definitely set our expectations higher than what we’ve achieved so far, but looking at the number of winners so far this year and seeing how close the standings are, I think we can be proud,” Laycock explained.
Motivated by parity
Nio’s executive is not intimidated despite the bad moment for the Chinese brand and insists that competitiveness and excitement in season seven can boost them up the table.
Laycock mentioned Edoardo Mortara, Venturi’s driver, who jumped from 11th place to the leadership after a win and a third place in just two races, as an example. “You can see it from Venturi’s weekend in Mexico. It’s not like there is someone who is a runaway leader. You can get two podiums and suddenly find yourself leading the championship.”
He assured that “with a couple of good results, we can take big steps and that’s how Dragon was able to get so many points ahead of us. We are still hopeful we can build on, improve our performance and take a step forward”.
Laycock emphasizes that the team is slowly but steadily getting closer to being a fixture in points scoring and making it to the Formula E podium on several occasions.
Written by I Jhonattan González
