Current Formula E driver Frijns is highly critical: 'It's like cycling'

Much has been said about it in recent months: the WEC and Formula E failed to reschedule either the endurance race in Belgium or the Formula E races to avoid a clash of events as was eventually the case. As a result, drivers competing in both classes had to make a choice: WEC or Formula E. The likes of Nyck de Vries, Sebastien Buemi and Stoffel Vandoorne had to cancel one event. This is also the case for Frijns. Contractually, those were the FE races.

Dash to race two in Formula E for Frijns

After Spa - where Frijns finished thirteenth with BMW - the Dutchman would have loved to get into his Envision Racing car this Sunday. "But there is a rule in the FIA. you are not allowed to replace a driver during the weekend without a special reason. If you break your arm you can or you have to be sick, but even then it has to be confirmed by the FIA doctor. Then it can be done. But not for this," Frijns says, as the irritation can be read off his face.

So fans will not get to see the best drivers in both WEC and Formula E, and are thus the big losers. "One hundred per cent," Frijns confirms. "If you look at Spa: Stoffel [Vandoorne] is not there. One of the great Belgians is not there. Nobody wins with this. It has been a discussion, because nobody wanted to shift and people said, 'We are better'. It was really a mess. Hopefully they realise they made a mistake and it can't happen again next year."

Frijns currently prefer WEC

At first glance, Frijns would probably have had a better chance of a podium in Formula E with Envision Racing than with debutant BMW in the WEC. "That's definitely true. But I'm more keen on WEC than Formula E at the moment, because I'm having a really bad season in FE. I've always been fast the last FE weekends, but it doesn't really come out in terms of points in the races."

Take Misano for example, where Frijns was knocked out early in the second race. A furious Dutchman then got out of his car. "I was really uncomfortable, no," he said. Then he says: "A Formula E race is no longer enjoyable to drive. Such a race as in Misano... The last free practice I was the fastest, but it has nothing to do with it. It has more to do with luck and staying out of trouble than anything else."

'Formula E like cycling these days'

Regular races in Formula E are particularly strange, is what Frijns points out. For example, it has become almost normal for drivers to want to avoid driving in the lead precisely because in that case they consume more energy than the competition. "It's cycling. It's peloton. Of course, as a driver, you don't want that. In the Gen-2, it wasn't at all. If you were fast then, you were at the front and could win or get on the podium. In Gen-3, that is no longer the case." And that kills a motorsport class? "One hundred per cent."

While Formula E is struggling, the WEC is flourishing. "We obviously have a lot of manufacturers and that is very nice for the fans in the stands," says Frijns, who points out that competition has increased enormously. "You no longer wonder which Toyota is going to win. That is no longer the case."

BMW still has a long way to go

But BMW is not yet ready to compete for the top places. "It is BMW's first season. We know we have very successful teams driving around here, teams that have more experience than us. We just have to stay out of trouble; and whether that's P6 or P12 results.... We don't have the car at the moment to run top five. In Imola, we were fourth at one point, in the rain. Then our car is better than normal. But in Spa it was dry..."