"Mr Daruvala made sure it was a short race" - Sam Bird disappointed after London E-Prix & season 2024

The final Formula E race of the season in London brought neither Jake Hughes nor Sam Bird any points. This finally sealed McLaren's late defeat to Envision in the teams' world championship. The E-Prix was particularly annoying for Bird, who had to retire in a good position. A collision with Maserati's rookie Jehan Daruvala resulted in significant damage to the McLaren, meaning that the Briton was unable to continue.

The incident between the two drivers occurred on lap 7, moments before Bird was still in a battle with Oliver Rowland and Antonio Felix da Costa. When he was pushed wide, Daruvala took advantage and pulled alongside the Briton. In the upcoming left-hand bend, Bird stayed on the inside and Daruvala aggressively closed the door. The result was a collision and the McLaren driver's immediate retirement. The stewards judged the incident to be a racing accident.

OH NO! ?

Daruvala and Bird make contact and the NEOM McLaren driver is out of this race.

The @PorscheRaces Safety Car peels out of the pit lane and the race is neutralised.@Hankook_Sport #LondonEPrix pic.twitter.com/JAfNyEPDe7

- Formula E (@FIAFormulaE) July 21, 2024

Bird's failure a symbol of his bad luck in the 2024 season

At e-Formula.news, Bird was certain that the blame lay with his opponent: "Mr Daruvala made sure that it was a short race for me. I am very disappointed." Bird, who retired this time with a broken suspension, reflected on his bad luck this season: "We had reasonable potential, but too often didn't have the opportunity to realise it. In the end, we didn't score the points we wanted to."

In response to our question as to whether the McLaren did not have enough pace, Bird vehemently disagrees: "I completely disagree with you. We showed a lot of pace. Jake took two pole positions, I was in the duels seven times and we fought for victory very often. We were just unlucky too often. Your assessment of our pace is simply wrong."

We can only confirm that McLaren was sometimes plagued by bad luck. Bird himself lists some of the things that went wrong: "We were taken out of the race in Misano, and I had surgery on my hand after Monaco." His accident in the Principality cost him three races, in which he was replaced by Taylor Barnard. His biggest success this season remains his impressive victory in Brazil.

Daruvala: "Don't know what I'll do next year yet"

Daruvala's points tally at the end of his first Formula E season stands at just eight points. There seemed to be a good chance of gaining more points in London, as the Maserati had strong pace, as team-mate Max Günther proved. However, collisions in both races, for which he was not fully to blame, brought Daruvala to a premature halt. He had nothing to add about the accident with Bird - except that it was a racing accident.

The Indian's rookie season was not a furious one. As a result, he himself is questioning his future in the electric racing series. He told e-Formula.news: "I still don't know what I'm going to do next year. During the break, I'm concentrating on finding a seat. I would like to stay in Formula E." According to rumours, a transfer of Stoffel Vandoorne to Maserati is currently on the table - but supposedly in exchange for Max Günther, as The Race reports.