Two-class society at the wet Formula E race in Miami: "We made a mistake with the set-up"

While the drivers from Jaguar, Porsche, Envision and Mahindra finished in the top eight positions at the wet Miami E-Prix, many other drivers struggled with the pace. The reason: they had gambled on a drying track after the rain had subsided before the start in Miami. However, it rained again during the Formula E race, meaning that these drivers fell back without a chance.

It was clear from the first laps of the race that some drivers had obviously backed the wrong horse: After the race was released after five laps behind the safety car with a standing start, several drivers dropped back a long way. After five laps under green, the Nissan duo of Norman Nato and Oliver Rowland were already 25 seconds down on race leader Nyck de Vries, with Max Günther and Dan Ticktum a further ten seconds behind.

However, these four were not the only ones: The two Citroen drivers Nick Cassidy (the world championship leader after all) and Jean-Eric Vergne as well as Jake Dennis in the Andretti were also trailing with no chance. After rain set in again, several of these drivers were even lapped. An extremely rare occurrence in a Formula E race. Some drivers were correspondingly frustrated after the race - Ticktum even retired from the race after being lapped and having to change tyres.

Nissan driver Nato put it most clearly after the race: "Every race in Formula E is different and today we made a mistake with the set-up, thinking the track would dry in the race. In the end it was the wrong decision for both cars." His team-mate Rowland agrees: "We tried everything we could in the race. Usually we don't have great pace in the wet, so it was worth a gamble on the dry set-up. The performance was strong in the final few laps, but unfortunately it was too late. We were hoping the track would dry out and energy management would become important, but it never materialized."

Ticktum: "We gambled"

Cupra Kiro also stated in the press release that it had started the race with tyre pressures for dry conditions. "The rain meant that it would be difficult to make progress in the race, so we gambled on the rain stopping and the track trying, but it didn't work," Dan Ticktum said after the race.

"We took a risk with the car setup", said Max Günther, who finished two laps down in 19th place. "It did not pay off. We lacked the grip to be competitive, and that's frustrating because we showed very strong pace in dry conditions."

Vergne: "Can't remember such a bad race"

"The race ended up being a little bit wetter than we'd anticipated," admits Andretti team boss Roger Griffiths. "I think that caught us out a bit with a strategy that we were running with Jake."

"Just very poor performance in the race in the wet," describes Citroen driver Jean-Eric Vergne. "It was pretty bad, like two, three seconds off. I don't record having had such a bad race." However, his team-mate Cassidy is sure that this is just a snapshot: "I don't dwell on it too much and look forward to Jeddah where I'd be surprised if it's raining."

On 13 and 14 February, a double-header will take place in Saudi Arabia. Then we will see completely different races than in Miami: rain is really very unlikely in Saudi Arabia, and there will also be the first Pit Boost race of the season.