Formula E

Piquet Jr describes season so far as “mixed” despite NextEV progress

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Credit: NextEV

Nelson Piquet Jr has described his progress so far as “mixed” as the 2016-17 Formula E season ahead of the Monaco ePrix this weekend.

The NextEV NIO driver has been enjoying a far better season than last year, when his team finished last in the standings.

A new car and new personnel have seen a turn-around in fortunes however, with Piquet grabbing pole at the inaugural race in Hong Kong.

However despite strong qualifying performances, they haven’t yet translated into decent race finishes, with a fifth and a ninth the only top ten places the Brazilian has achieved.

When asked about the progress the team is making, Piquet said, “Feelings are a little mixed. We have shown that we are basically a different team to last year – we have made a lot of progress with the car and we have shown our pace – with my pole position in Hong Kong and Oliver’s in Mexico City.

“But at the moment we haven’t been able to convert that potential into results for a mixture of reasons and we need to turn the potential into points.

“The positives obviously are that we are in the mix this season and the team is working extremely hard to improve.”

He did stress however that the teams development was impressive given the change around in personnel over the last year.

Piquet added, “It’s definitely a huge step forward and you have to remember that we have essentially an entirely new team this year as NextEV took the whole team operations in-house and employed the staff whereas before the team was outsourced.”

His team-mate Oliver Turvey was also pleased with the progress the team was making, but said that they could not be happy until they were once again fighting for championships.

“I am happy with the progress we have made between last season and this year in season three, we have a much more competitive package thanks to all the effort of the team.

“We have shown our speed in the opening four races, having started on the front row twice and achieved a pole position in Mexico, but the team and I want to be fighting for the championship so we cannot be happy with our position especially as we haven’t scored all the points possible.”

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Formula E writer for TCF since 2015-16 and fascinated by all things electric.
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