McLaren has shown themselves to be an incredibly strong team in Season 11 of Formula E, and Ian James says they’re looking for another strong showing at the Monaco E-Prix.
Taylor Barnard has taken three podiums for McLaren in Season 11. Taking the title of the youngest points scorer, pole sitter and podium scorer. For Sam Bird, it’s been a season of points finishes, unfortunately marred by penalties that have pushed him down the championship order.
In Miami, they saw the first difficult weekend of Season 11. Still managing to leave with points but missing out on the opportunity to turn it into more.
However, Sam Bird earlier in the Monaco E-Prix weekend admitted that he was still happy with the pace of the car. Especially with the capability, it had to fight back through the pack. This was something their Team Principal, Ian James, echoed.
He told Fastest Formula News on Monaco E-Prix media day, “Both drivers are in really good form at the moment. They’re coming into this weekend feeling confident, but we also understand the challenge here in Monaco.”
“So the aim is always consistency throughout this championship, so we’ll be aiming to get both cars into the points and score as many as we possibly can.”
Pit Boost will be used on Saturday but not Sunday, adding variety to the double-header in the principality. James noted this and wanted to focus on just getting the cars safely into the points. He said, “think pit boost is going to give us two very different races between Saturday and Sunday, but no, I think we’re not looking to overcomplicate anything and just bring both cars home, as I say, safely in the points.”
Team mentality
With the close competitive fighting of Formula E, every result is vital for the championship fight. Though early in the season, McLaren have shown themselves as a team to be firmly in that fight at the front.
Ian James praised the closeness in the grid. He said,“You know, this championship, the beauty of it is how competitive it is. And, you know, I’ve got a sneaking suspicion we’re going to be in for another season where we’re going to be guessing who the winner’s going to be right up until the last couple of races.”
“And that’s exactly how it should be. That’s the beauty of it, and that gives the fans a huge amount of entertainment. And we’re very much in the mix.”
The one benefit of the difficult Miami E-Prix weekend was that it showed McLaren that a bad qualifying isn’t the end of the weekend for them. Especially with the effectiveness of Attack Mode in season 11.
Ian James noted how the strategy for the weekend change quickly depending on the qualifying position of both drivers. He told FFN, “What we always tend to do is, depending on how qualifying goes, then immediately get into, OK, what’s our strategy for the race?”
“And again, depending on where the two cars are relative to each other, it gives you opportunities then to potentially switch strategy or not.”
Last year in Monaco, Formula E saw a record number of overtakes in the principality. Which gives the team more opportunities to fight for wins. James noted this, saying, “Monaco always delivers to that end as well. I’m expecting a lot of overtaking. Attack mode is still massively potent here, as we’ve seen before.”
Championship hopes
With the huge step-up McLaren have had in the last year, it’s not far-fetched to assume they’ll find themselves fighting for both championships this season.
While Ian James told FFN that the team try to take expectations race by race, and he admitted that staying focused is the biggest goal.
“We do take it on a race by race basis because you can’t be distracted. Especially this early on when things are so open. It would be daft to think that either you’ve won or lost the championship. Regardless of the position you’re in, it’s all so tight.”
“We just very much focus on the job at hand here. There’s a lot going on at the moment, and we need to make sure the team is laser focused on executing their operational side of things effectively as well.”
