Parc Femme travelled to Berlin for Rounds 9 and 10, and interacted with many of those familiar faces fans love to see, pushing their cars and themselves to the limit. In particular, the girls were lucky enough to be able to interview a few of the drivers multiple times over the weekend. Read on to hear what they have to say…

Taylor Barnard

Friday

Pedi: You had a great race in Monaco, how do you feel coming into this weekend with a new track layout?

Barnard: Yeah, so [I feel] a lot more confident than I was in Monaco. Obviously, I’ll be driving from the first session, which is more beneficial for me in terms of learning and still the goal is to learn as much as possible. I would like some points, but it depends on how fast we are really, to be realistic, but I would say I’m fairly confident.

Pedi: My other question was do you think points are a possibility this weekend?

Barnard: When you watch the way these races work, I think anybody starting from any position can get points, whether I’m a rookie, fastest car, slowest car, I don’t think it matters. It depends on how the race works, how many crashes, and safety cars, [so] you have to be very lucky but I don’t think [the race] is going to be perfect. I think the chaos of Misano, I saw with everyone changing positions so often, it proves it doesn’t matter, anyone could be anywhere at any point.

Pedi: What do you think of the actual track, after seeing the paved sections?

Barnard: It’s different that’s for sure. It’s something I need to pick up on and learn very quickly. All of these guys have driven here before. I know its a different layout but it’s still the surface that we’re driving that is the same. So in terms of the tyre warm-up and how you manage your race. It’s quite unique on any calendar,but I’m usually quite fast with adapting to things, so I’m not sure I’ll struggle but obviously that’s a topic I need to get on very quickly.

Pedi: Okay, Good Luck, Thank you.

Saturday

Chelle: You are the youngest point scorer in Formula E history, congratulations for that. Does that give you more confidence going into tomorrow?

Barnard: Definitely, I honestly didn’t know where I’d finished until like five minutes after the race, it was complete chaos. Everytime I get asked a question about, how was the race? I don’t know what to tell you beacuse it was chaos, you guys all saw it on the TV. I have no words of what to say, I cam in for a pit stop, and I managed to recover quite well after that. We struggled a little bit more on pace than what we probably expected, something to lean from tomorrow from the engineering side and I would say my side as well.

Barnard: Obviously, with it being my first race in this kind of environment, on these energy sensitive tracks, there’s definitely a lot to learn. I lost quite a lot of positions just from inexperience, I would put it that way. I definitely need to learn the lesson for tomorrow and hopefully it gets better.

Chelle: You say inexperience, but after Monaco and today, do you feel more comfortable in the car?

Barnard: Definitely. I think qualifying proved that my confidence and my feeling in the car is definitely getting higher and better, because I managed to perform in qualifying and I had quite a good feeling with the car. Obviously, the race isn’t really down to the ultimate performance of the car, its more about decision making and things like that. So, something that I could improve for tomorrow, but the qualifying is looking good, so if I take the lessons from today in this race and build them with what I had today in qualifying, I think we can have a good day tomorrow. 

Sunday

Pedi: How do you feel at the end of this weekend? When we spoke on Friday, you said points were a possibility, how does it feel to be the youngest point scorer in Formula E history and get a career best finish in your third race?

Barnard: It feel great, I think if you would have said that I’m coming away with five points, I would be very very happy, two points finished. The kind of races they’ve been as well, to finish that high up an fight your way and hold your ground, I’m definitely very happy. Not expected, obviously I said that in the beginning that it was the aim but to actually get them and then the kind of races it was on, I’m very happy.

Pedi: Obviously, going back to Formula 2 next weekend. Is there anything you’ve learnt this weekend that you’re going to take back into next weekend? 

Barnard: Definitely, I learnt some racecraft here. You see the kind of races here, there’s hundreds of rotations of positions in every race, so that’s definitely helped me in close wheel-to-wheel racing. But in other terms, the races are so different, there’s so much more overtaking, so much more chaos and it’s a street circuit, with completely different cars. So, there’s obviously limited things that I can take over, but racecraft would be the biggest thing. 

Antonio Felix da Costa

Friday

Pedi: Just a couple of questions. What are your thoughts on the new track layout? Have you spent more time than previous years familiarising yourself with the track?

Da Costa: We actually did not. It was a public holiday in Germany last week, so we only got 2 days in the sim. Which was lovely, we normally do a bit more than that, and I think we’re all prepared anyway. The track, obviously the same place but a different layout and still loads of opportunities to overtake, so I would say similar concept but again, different corners.

Pedi: We’ve now passed the halfway point in the season, how have your goals or visions changed compared to the start of the season?

Da Costa: Well, yeah obviously. I feel like I’ve been through a massive rollercoaster this year, with a bad start and then bouncing back, winning a race and back in the championship fight and then a few hours later it was taken away from us. At the moment we’re appealing those points, and I have, I want to race assuming that I have them, which yeah it’s one scenario, at the moment without those points the championship is far away from us I would say. But if we do get those points back then we are kind of in the fight, so… yeah it’s a weird situation for me at the moment just thinking race by race.

Saturday

Coco: So we saw the chaos in Misano, and it seems to be back here in Berlin. What are your tactics for this kind of situation?

Da Costa: Well not, uh, losing my front wing. That was accomplished. Not hitting anyone, that was accomplished. Um, so you know ultimately, at the end of the last 6 or 7 laps, I think we were leading with not many laps to go, and we just took uh, yeah, we just took some not so great decisions and, the track position kind of went away from us and then I was kinda lucked out there.

Coco: Dennis locked up and you had to avoid crashing with him, do you feel that ruined your chances on a podium and possible win?

Da Costa: Yeah, 100% that one really. He had a puncture, which he’s saying I gave it to him, but, he had a puncture, lost the car and I lost two positions there, and that, that really hurt my day.

Sunday

Chelle: Redemption day today of sorts. You’re currently 8th in the championship, with maybe the points from Misano. What do you think realistically is possible to achieve at the end of the season?

Da Costa: Its not a total disaster of a season. We’re in such a competitive environment theses days, that it’s just good to be there amd be one to watch always. I think that’s where I’ve always worked to be seen as. Obviously, at the start of the season was little bit of a disaster for us and there’s nothing we can do about that now, just got to move and move forwards, and score as many points as possible, to help us and help the team to try and take these championships home.

Chelle: You are someone who never gives up anywhere. In this race today, did you ever feel like it was slipping away from you, podium wise, or were you confident the whole race?

Da Costa: No, you never know, I was just trying not to slip back in some of the crucial moments, and I was really well guided by my team today, we had a clear picture of what needed to be done to take this one and I think we executed it well. But, yeah it’s never relaxed, that’s for sure.

Mitch Evans

Friday

Pedi: Great result in Monaco. We’ve got four double headers to go, are you looking forward to a possible championship already? 

Evans: Always. Yeah, I mean it’s why we’re here right is [the] title. We’re in a decent position now at the halfway point. Getting that win [in Monaco] was nice because I was over the moon, could have come a bit earlier in the season, but to get it at the halfway point of things, is a pretty cool moment.

Slight Technical Issues

Evans: I’m looking forward to it, I think it’s a slightly different approach to the second half of the season, running with eight races or four tracks, so hopefully we work well with those four tracks and I think we’re looking good.

Pedi: What are your thoughts on the new track layout, new corners and a change in direction? Have you spent more time familiarising yourself?

Evans: Actually its the same direction, it does look like it though. I thought the same as well, but actually it’s still anti-clockwise, it’s all just back to front because the pit lane is in a different place. But, honestly I spend the same amount of time [familiarising], whether its a new track or an existing track, after a few runs on the sim you understand the track pretty well, and you kind of get on with the rest of the program. Even with a different layout, it still feels a bit similar and i think it will feel relatively similar because of the unique surfaces. So, hopefully we are comfortable and we can do it. 

Pedi: So, with passing the halfway point of the season, have your goals or visions changed from the start of the season?

Evans: [Shakes head, smiling] No, it’s the same thing, championship for both driver and team championships.

Saturday

Coco: We saw the chaos in Misano, and it seems to be back here in Berlin. What are your tactics in this kind of situation?

Evans: You have to kind of go with your gut, to be honest. Its so hard to manage when it’s three wide, four wide, two wide for a lot of the laps, it’s hard, trying to keep your nose clean and looking at the mirrors all at the same time to not get hit, it’s chaos. You’re kind of looking back more than you’re looking forward to keep the car in one piece. But, yeah I think it worked out really well for me today. I think another podium could have been on the cards today for the team but, it just didn’t quite work out.

Coco: You started 10th, pretty early on you got back to the front, you even lead the race at one point. Does this pace give you a bit of confidence going into tomorrow? 

Evans: Yeah, it was just the kind of cycling effect, so it can be a little bit misleading. I didnt get a fair reading on the balance , but good enough. I feel like relatively our race pace is better than our qualifying pace, it just depends on tomorrow.