Formula E rookie Jehan Daruvala believes he had the potential to score points in the second race of last weekend’s Diriyah E-Prix, had he not been forced to retire with a technical issue.
Daruvala is the only rookie on the grid this season in what is an incredibly challenging position to find himself, as it’s hard to compare his results to others. So far, he’s slowly settling into the series and Maserati MSG Racing; however, he showed some real speed at the Diriyah Street Circuit.
With last weekend having been a double-header, Daruvala was able to complete an entire race day and gain all the knowledge from it, before applying what he learnt the following day. It was clear that he was more confident on the second day, as he progressed to the duels completely on merit.
Whilst he was knocked out in the Quarter-Finals, his lap was good enough for a sensational P5 on the grid. In comparison, he started the first race of the weekend in 21st. Daruvala didn’t look out of place in the top 10, as he remained in the points for the bulk of the second race, before technical gremlins forced him into a sudden retirement.
He revealed after the race that he “lost regen in the rear”, which had a huge impact on his ability to brake. The Indian driver was disappointed, as he felt like he could score his first Formula E points.
“Don’t quite know, but, yeah, I lost regen in the rear, so I couldn’t really stop anymore,” Daruvala told Motorsport Week. “I only had my friction brakes and, yeah, I had to retire. So luckily, it had been in a corner where there was a lot of runoff. I could have probably fought at the end of the points, but, yeah, I just had an issue in the end and had to retire the car.”
Despite the unfortunate outcome after his best qualifying in Formula E so far, Daruvala has still grown in confidence from competing with the faster drivers on the grid. Daruvala admitted that he “had more confidence” on the second race day than the first and that he felt there was “an outside chance” that qualifying in the top eight was on the cards.
“I had more confidence when I went to bed overnight after the race yesterday,” he added. “I wouldn’t say that I was confident of being in the top five, but I thought I had an outside chance to maybe go into the duels.”
