Formula E Diriyah ePrix II
Vandoorne: Dashboard, steering wheel glitch caused Diriyah FE penalty
A blank dashboard caused Stoffel Vandoorne's 24-second Diriyah E-Prix penalty, as an electronics glitch on his DS Penske Formula E car meant he couldn't arm attack mode.
Jake Boxall-Legge
Edited: Jan 30, 2023, 8:57 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
The Belgian was set for a points finish before a late tumble into 11th as Dan Ticktum made his way past to secure the final point of the Saturday race.
It proved irrelevant as Vandoorne was burdened with 24s added to his race time for failing to use both attack mode activations and dropped to the bottom of the race classification.
Explaining the issue, the reigning champion recalled that he had lost all of the steering wheel functions in the car early on in the race, which precluded him from talking on the radio and selecting the attack mode activation.
"It was quite straightforward, really - after five laps, I lost the dash and all the functionalities on the steering stopped working," Vandoorne told Motorsport.com.
"I simply couldn't activate it. I couldn't hear anything anymore, so I tried to take it doing the procedure, but I knew I was gonna get disqualified.
"I didn't know what energy I had. I couldn't see anything. So yeah, shit day."
Stoffel Vandoorne, DS Penske
Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
As Vandoorne had no readouts on his dashboard, he was unable to work out how much energy he was saving - and, to his surprise, he found that he was 4% up on useable energy compared to the cars around him late on.
He suggested that this was proof that the DS Penske package had good efficiency but was alarmed at the "trend" of the car's performance falling away from practice to the race.
"There's been a fairly clear trend right now where, for some reason, we are fast in free practice and we can't really convert it in a good result in qualifying," he explained.
"OK, [Saturday] was maybe a little bit better for me, and I managed to get into the duels for the first time this year, but we're still too far away.
"There's definitely some stuff we need to figure out to improve that. The race is hard to judge; I mean, the Porsches look obviously super strong.
"But then I think it's probably a more level-playing field after that. I think we're very good on energy, but we've not been able to use it so far, and today I had nothing that was working.
"Apparently I was still like 3-4% up [on energy] on anyone. Don't ask me how!"
Read Also:
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Diriyah E-Prix: Wehrlein defeats Dennis to complete double win
Next article Rast had to "creep" over Diriyah FE line to beat Bird to third
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Jake Boxall-Legge
George Russell: F1 2026 season a test of "character and resilience"
Formula 1
Formula 1
United States GP
1 h
George Russell: F1 2026 season a test of "character and resilience"
Esteban Ocon responds to Haas signing Rafael Camara for F1 2027
Formula 1
Formula 1
United States GP
18 h
Esteban Ocon responds to Haas signing Rafael Camara for F1 2027
More from
Stoffel Vandoorne
Stoffel Vandoorne to leave Peugeot’s WEC Hypercar team after Fuji
WEC
WEC
Fuji
Stoffel Vandoorne to leave Peugeot’s WEC Hypercar team after Fuji
Aston Martin retains Stoffel Vandoorne as simulator, test and reserve driver for 2026
Formula 1
Formula 1
Barcelona-Catalunya Pre-Season Testing
Aston Martin retains Stoffel Vandoorne as simulator, test and reserve driver for 2026
Stoffel Vandoorne to return to Peugeot in WEC 2026, replace Jean-Eric Vergne
WEC
WEC
Bahrain
Stoffel Vandoorne to return to Peugeot in WEC 2026, replace Jean-Eric Vergne
Latest news
George Russell: F1 2026 season a test of "character and resilience"
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
United States GP
1 h
George Russell: F1 2026 season a test of "character and resilience"
Marc Marquez: ‘Jorge Martin rides on instinct; he just attacks, and that’s his strength’
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Australian GP
2 h
Marc Marquez: ‘Jorge Martin rides on instinct; he just attacks, and that’s his strength’
Lamborghini Super Trofeo | North America, Race 2: Bamber dominates to take the win
Lamborghini Super Trofeo
LBST Lamborghini Super Trofeo
World Finals - Monza 2026
2 h
Lamborghini Super Trofeo | North America, Race 2: Bamber dominates to take the win
Belgian firm to take over Renault/Alpine engine facility in Viry
WEC
WEC WEC 3 h
Belgian firm to take over Renault/Alpine engine facility in Viry
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe