Parc Femme attended their first in-person race weekend of the 2024 season, with Chelle and Coco visiting Italy for the very first Misano E-Prix at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli.

With a double-header on the cards this weekend, Formula E in its ever chaotic style, did not disappoint. Over the two rounds, fans witnessed multiple different race leaders, multiple retirements due to contact between drivers, disqualifications of race leaders, and race wins being decided on the final lap.

Parc Femme joined the media pen post-race after both rounds to hear from some of the drivers on their thoughts about the first Misano E-Prix.

Post Round 6:

Mitch Evans:

Chelle: Hello, congratulations on the competition. It was a crazy race from a viewing perspective, but how was it in the car? 

Evans: Yeah, the race was pretty chaotic today. It was a little bit too extreme in my opinion to be honest, but yeah, we’ll see what happens tomorrow. Tomorrow’s will be two laps less, so a completely different style of racing. It just didn’t go the way I would have liked in the race. [In terms of] qualifying, I can leave today with some positivity and a couple of points.

Chelle: Do you feel more prepared now that you know how it is on track? Or tomorrow [with] a completely different race, still don’t know?

Evans: I totally agree. But yeah, it’s a different race, a different style of racing tomorrow. The main thing is hopefully I’m still quick over one lap so I can qualify at the front because track position will be more critical. But, we’ll see, if we can qualify at the front tomorrow, then we should have a good race.

Dan Ticktum:

Chelle: First of all, a huge congratulations. I think this is a very good result for you. From a viewing point, it looked like a very good and chaotic race to watch. But how was that in the car?

Ticktum: Well, I mean, I had about five, ten minutes of that race feeling what it would be like to be in a Porsche or a Jag. So that was quite fun. Lifting later than other cars around me is quite a rare occurrence. I think we just executed everything very well. We made a few changes mechanically and also the systems throughout the weekend. I think I drove well, and the strategy was good. I just think it was one of those races that fell into place. [I’m] very surprised other teams didn’t try a similar strategy if i’m honest because i don’t think it was too clever really, but  like i say, we did everything we could. I think tomorrow it won’t be as extreme, but I think after today’s result there still will be that at the start, and we’ll probably see some other people trying to save a bit more after all.

Antonio Felix da Costa:

Chelle: First of all, huge congratulations. What an incredible race. It was really great from a viewing perspective. How was it from the car? 

Da Costa: It was a mess, an organized mess. The thing is, when you have everyone wanting to be in the same place at the same time, obviously it leads to bad things. And I think that was the key for us to keep the car clean, not touch anyone, be efficient at the same time and we had the car to then pull the trigger and win the race at the end.

Chelle: Do you feel like you want to be in front in this kind of race or do you want to be more at the back, to wait and see what happens and then take your chances? 

Da Costa: There are those two approaches. I think there are some people out there today that have had a good race by doing the opposite of what I did. So yeah, I mean, I prefer to be at the front and keep it clean. But as I said, so many people wanted to be at the same place at the same time. There were some hairy moments out there. 

Chelle: So double header, double win? 

Da Costa: That’s the goal. Double header, double win, double cookies.

Post Round 7:

Pascal Wehrlein:

Coco: Hello, how are you feeling today after being the only driver so far in season 10 to be a double winner? 

Wehrlein: You always feel great after a win. [It was an] awesome day for us, qualifying again, having a strong pace, which is not that important on this race track, but nevertheless it’s a good feeling, and then the race was chaotic initially but we made the right calls, we used the correct strategy I think. I was not sure if I got the information about Oliver [Rowland] until I saw it in the last lap. Overall a great day for us and for the whole weekend.

Coco: How are you finding the Misano E-Prix in general, seeing as it is the first time it’s been on the calendar? 

Wehrlein: Yeah, I think overall it was a nice track, but still there could be some improvements made, especially with track limits and the big sausage curbs which we have. It would be quite dangerous for us if we hit them hard. But, for the race, I just think we need to do too much energy saving and especially with how the racing is at the beginning I’m not a big fan of because it’s just [hard] keeping it clean in the beginning. So overall it was good but still there are so many improvements to do if we come here again.

Robin Frijns:

Coco: First of all, obviously, first ever Misano E-Prix. How are you feeling leaving the weekend?

Frijns: Very bad. Coming here with a decent car, especially today with a good car, being quick in the free practice and then going home with zero points.

Coco: Well, you’re racing again next weekend in Imola [World Endurance Championship]. How are you feeling heading into the race weekend? Is it difficult to switch between the different types of cars?

Frijns: No, no, not really; because actually, I drove the LMDh car last weekend testing and jumping in here [Formula E] again. And in between, I also did GT3 testing, so I do lots of different cars, but I have never had issues jumping in and then needing ten laps to get used to it. Again, this is not the case because they’re all very different to drive and you don’t really get used to one or the other and implement what you learn there to implement in Formula E. But I am looking forward to next weekend, but I do not know if we’re actually going to be competitive. I don’t think so.

Parc Femme will trackside again on the 20/21st April in Imola for the FIA World Endurance Championship 6 Hours of Imola.