Vergne slams Berlin's "horrible" style of Formula E racing that "every driver hates"

The DS Penske driver finished second in the first of two races this weekend at the Tempelhof Airport circuit in Germany, where a new layout was used for the first time.

As expected, the 15-turn track produced a typically frenetic Formula E encounter on Saturday as drivers ran three-wide at various points and changes of position occurred on almost a corner-by-corner basis.

Following the race, Vergne was left unhappy with the style of racing currently on show in the all-electric championship and which caused a number of incidents throughout the race in Berlin and at other venues.

“It’s horrible, honestly, I really don’t like this style of racing, I hate it,” said Vergne.

“I think every driver hates it, but I think it’s the way we have to race.

“We’re here to compete, we’re here to win. If we have to drive in reverse, we are going to learn how to drive in reverse but it doesn’t mean that I like this kind of racing.

“It’s truly horrible from a driver point of view. You’re watching from the side, behind, above, below, it’s a mess.”

Vergne finished 4.6s behind Nick Cassidy, who took the lead of the race for the first time only four laps from the chequered flag having dropped to the back of the field in the beginning to save energy.

After slowly and carefully working his way through towards the front, and with more energy than those around him, Cassidy took a comfortable second win of the season to move back into the lead of the championship standings.

Post-race, the Jaguar driver claimed he “stayed out of trouble” having “never experienced anything like today’s Formula E race”.

“It wasn’t pre-planned [to drop back], at some point obviously I took it upon myself to maybe go towards that style of race,” said the Kiwi, who had started ninth.

“It was like the Daytona 500 out there. To be honest it feels really weird to have won today, it’s amazing, the team did a good job, but it almost wasn’t enjoyable.

“It was crazy, it was carnage and it’s really hard to be jumping up for the moon right now because I’m a little bit with Jean-Eric, I wish it was a bit more about pace and I wish the balance [of racing] was a bit better.”