Frijns keen to avoid costly “issues” that lost him Top 3 spot last season
Robin Frijns (Envision Virgin Racing), © FIA Formula E
Robin Frijns (Envision Virgin Racing), © FIA Formula E

Frijns keen to avoid costly “issues” that lost him Top 3 spot last season

believes his Envision Virgin team failed to extract the maximum from their car last season and suggests a top-three championship position was possible but for the bad luck he experienced.

The Dutchman ended last season a distant 11th in the standings having finished a strong fourth the season before. But for an impressive recovery at the season finale, it might have been even worse for Frijns as he scored all but 10 of his season’s haul of 58 points in Berlin.

“Season 6 last year was a disappointment. We started off well, we had a decent car and we didn’t get the maximum out of it because we just had issues and unlucky moments,” Frijns told Inside Electric.

“That’s the disappointment, definitely. In Season 7 it would be nice if on a bad day [we’re] still able to score points and on a good day be on the podium.”

Asked to clarify what the team could have done differently during the disrupted 2019-20 campaign, Frijns was typically philosophical on the matter but insists the opportunity was there to better the fourth-place classification he achieved the year prior.

“It belongs to motorsport, right? You cannot really do much about it. It’s a technical sport and if my car breaks down several times, that’s part of it,” said Frijns.

“The issues with the crashing, you know, having a puncture on Lap 1, getting t-boned in Mexico while fighting for third, all these things, and I’m sure if we didn’t have these issues we’d be able to finish in the top three in the drivers’ championship.

“If we’d just finished in the positions where we were, without these technical issues, we would definitely be up there. That is a disappointment, so let’s just hope we have a bit more luck on our side. As well, in Season 5, halfway through the season we were leading the championship and since then I had four DNFs because of crashing, and that [also was] a disappointment.”

>> Read our review of Robin Frijns’ 2019-20 season here <<

About to embark on his fifth season in Formula E, Frijns says he still has ambitions to fulfil in Formula E and doesn’t see himself moving away from the series anytime soon.

“I think quite some things that will be changing in the next months or years, the news from Audi [that they will leave Formula E] so everything changes a bit. You never know what the future holds,” Frijns said.

“The last two years, I had decent seasons with Virgin but I was never really satisfied with myself. I think I showed some good potential in some races and some good results, I just want to maximise that. I will definitely not stop racing in the next five years, that’s clear for me. Hopefully, that’s Formula E or something else, I don’t know. It depends on what comes along in my career.”

“In Formula E the competition is super high, all the good drivers are here and that’s where you want to be as a driver. You want to compete against the best and this is definitely one of those series where the best are driving in it.

“It’s a very challenging car, a very difficult car to understand, and that’s one of the main reasons why I’m here.”

The Envision Virgin driver also had some kind words for Antonio Felix da Costa, his former teammate who secured a surprisingly dominant title win last season.

“I was racing against [Antonio] in karting so I knew for many, many years [how good he was] and being his team-mate in Season 3 with Andretti was good fun, even though we didn’t have the best car.

“I was happy that he won the championship last year because he clearly deserved it. He was the best driver out there last year so I’m really happy for him. I just hope I can challenge him this year.”

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Written by
Hazel Southwell
Rob Watts
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