De Vries welcomes change in Formula E: "Looks promising"

Nyck de Vries hoped to make his debut in Formula 1 in 2022, but the vacant seats at Williams and Alfa Romeo Racing went to Alexander Albon and Guanyu Zhou respectively. Next season, the 26-year-old will defend his world title in Formula E and he is looking forward to that.

There was particular criticism of the qualifying format in the electric class last year. In previous seasons, the field was split into different qualifying groups. The drivers ranked highest in the World Championship had to take to the track in the first group. This meant that they were almost always out of the running for a place in the decisive 'super pole'. The track conditions at the beginning of the qualifying session were a lot worse than when the last qualifying group was in action at the end.

As a result, the standings in the World Championship remained very exciting in an artificial way, because the leader in the World Championship automatically had a poor starting position during the race and often scored few points. This system is now in the past and that pleases De Vries. "The new format looks promising. It looks like it will be more balanced for everyone. That is why I am a big fan of this. Formula E is already exciting enough by itself and doesn't need external unpredictability."

Tyre management more important in FE

Formula E will undergo even more changes in 2022. Namely, it will be driven with more power. Whereas 200kW was driven in 2021, this will be as much as 220 kW (300 hp) next year. "That will put more strain on the rear tyres in particular and may possibly lead to tyre management becoming a little more important," De Vries said to Bild.