What is your feeling before returning to New York?
It has always been a good city for me in the past, it has always smiled at me. Even if the weekends did not go very well, they always ended well with the victory in the Championship (2018 and 2019). We have worked well, we are coming to a difficult weekend, but we also know that after the lows, there are always ups! So we push to make it a good weekend for us. We have confidence and we are well prepared.
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What is your assessment of this season so far?
(Annoyed) I won’t even dwell on the first part of the season … The most important thing is what happens. I am quite far in the standings (10th out of 25), but really close in terms of points (50 against 72 for Edoardo Mortara, the leader of the Championship). If I win a race here I can lead the Championship. Above all, you have to have a good season. Even the guy who is last today (Friday), he can still win the Championship! It’s so tight that I prefer that we focus on the races ahead, rather than looking in the rearview mirror … especially since it’s not extraordinary what happened, so we will leave that behind. There was a victory anyway (in Rome, April 10), but that does not take everything away (He was notably up against the state of the track in Puebla, Mexico and a bad driving experience following contact early in the Sunday race, after several complications this season).
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Can you explain to us what the weekend challenge consists of with two races on the program?
It’s quite tiring, because we get up extremely early in the morning and we always finish late. We have the first free practice at 7:30 am, or 8:00 am. Then the second free practice. Then the ” qualif ”, which starts at 3 p.m. or 4 p.m. On Sunday, we drive at 7 a.m. or 7:30 a.m. So it’s really early. And it’s even harder for mechanics and engineers. We, the drivers, when we finish the race, we just do our debriefing, we don’t need to work on the car. We return to the hotel to rest. From the outside it may seem like an individual sport, but you need the resources of everyone on the team. Especially to be on top on the second day.
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“They only know the NASCAR here! “
Jean-Éric Vergne, DS Techeetah driver
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What is your relationship with the New York and American public, for whom this Championship is a UFO compared to their culture of motor racing?
(Smile) The first time I come to the United States, for a Formula 1 race (he raced for Toro Rosso from 2012 to 2014 and was a test driver for Ferrari afterwards), I was asked: ” What is your profession? ”. I replied: ” F1 driver ”, they did not understand anything. When I explained, they said to me: ‘Ah, yes, Nascar!’ (he’s laughing)… They only know that, and a little IndyCar. But hey, there are fans too. And then I have a lot of friends in New York, so it’s pretty cool. There is always a good atmosphere in this race.
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Any particular anecdote?
When we did the pilots’ parade, here, we got into a cop car, with André (Lotterer, the German driver of Tag Heuer Porsche). Suddenly, we had done all the stupid things possible and imaginable in this policeman’s car. And he was happy, he was laughing, so we had a blast too.
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With so many good vibes, do you think there is something to be done?
Clearly. There is a move to play! Especially since I am in the second group in qualifying. In the first, it’s always a bit complicated. It’s not fair I think, but that’s how it is, that’s the nature of the Championship. “
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