Jake Hughes distinguished himself on his Formula E debut by taking third place on the grid and fifth at the chequered flag following a race-long scrap with a series champion Lucas di Grassi.
That was well beyond the performance he expected after his McLaren team tested Formula E’s new ‘Gen3’ car for the first time in Spain last year.
“Valencia obviously went pretty well but Valencia is not really in Formula E terms a representative place,” Hughes told RaceFans from Diriyah, where the championship’s second round is taking place.
“That being said, you can definitely draw a lot of positives from Valencia going into Mexico, and that’s what we did. But I don’t think we had any idea how we would fare in Mexico, both from a one-lap point of view and an energy management point of view, how the powertrain is with our supplier Nissan. We had no idea of any of that.”
He arrived in Mexico with a “minimum soft goal” of scoring points. “So obviously to qualify third and then come away with fifth – which could have quite easily been a podium on a different day – was a pretty strong result.”
However he didn’t feel that way the instant he climbed out of the car, having lost fourth place to Andre Lotterer. “For the first 20 minutes after the race, I didn’t quite see it that way. Typical racing driver, always wanting more. But I think once once the dust had settled I was pretty happy with my performance.”
Hughes spent much of the race trying to prise third place from the grasp of 2016-17 champion di Grassi. “I was pretty much thrown into a sink-or-swim situation in that race with Lucas ahead of me and Andre behind,” he said. “Two very experienced guys in motorsport in general, let alone Formula E, and can be quite aggressive on the day.
“So having to watch ahead, trying to get a position ahead, and then watch behind, I had to manage that pretty well. But it was a good first FE race to be racing at the front, to learn how it needs to be done.”
Having probed Di Grassi’s defences repeatedly, Hughes only succumbed to Lotterer’s attack on the final lap as his car’s energy levels began to dip.
“I definitely learned some things in terms of how to manage the energy in small pockets of the race a little bit better,” he admitted, “because most of the race I was in a good place on energy compared to Lucas ahead of me.
“But then, for example, trying to get the place over a period of…
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