NextEV NIO were left downtrodden after leaving Montreal with no points.
Despite a positive start to the season, including a pole positions in Hong Kong and Mexico, their performance tailed off towards the end of the year.
And although he ran in the points early on in the second race at Montreal, Nelson Piquet Jr was blighted by thermal issues which caused him to drop back.
Speaking after the race he said, “Obviously we are really disappointed with how the last few races of the season have gone.
“We hoped to end in a more positive way and were aiming for points this weekend but unfortunately that hasn’t happened due to the problems we’ve had with the car.
“I was unfortunate to be held up in the first corner incident today and then suffered some thermal issues with the powertrain which meant we had to change our strategy and do a shorter first stint. I was taking some risks in the second stint and it didn’t work out.”
Looking back at his season as a whole, Piquet admitted there were lows, but pointed out his pole position in Hong Kong and his fourth place in Monaco as particular highs.
“We have had some highs and lows this season; we were very happy with pole in Hong Kong and I was also pleased with the result in Monaco, but we still have a huge amount of work to do in order to fight at the top and that has to be the focus before we return to Hong Kong in December.”
His team-mate Oliver Turvey was similarly disappointed with his race in Montreal, but believed there were enough positives from this season to be optimistic for next year.
“Starting at the back is always hard,” he said. “I had quite a good start and the pace appeared good in the opening laps but the second stint was much harder and in the end we couldn’t keep position.
“It was a shame to end the season like this but we have to take some positives from the year.
“I got my first Formula E pole position in Mexico and led a race and to finish sixth in the manufacturers’ championship was a step forward from last year, so hopefully we can build on that for next season.”
The team’s results this season were a marked improvement on last year, where they finished bottom of the standings, but Team Principal of NextEV Gerry Hughes said that the team were hoping for more.
He also recognised the issues with race pace that the team had, and said that they would be concentrating their efforts on improving this over the off-season.
“Clearly this season has not been as successful for the NextEV NIO Formula-e Team as was originally hoped,” Hughes said.
“However, we have some positives to take away, particularly with our qualifying performances but our weakness has been our race performance.
“This is something that we will be focusing on in the off-season as we must come to the first race of Season 4 in Hong Kong with an all-round competitive package.”
Driver’s Championship
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Team’s Championship
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