Lopez: “There’s been mistakes from my side”

Jose Maria Lopez opened up about his season at GEOX Dragon Racing ahead of the Monaco E-Prix, after a so far below-par season for the Argentine.

The past few rounds of the ABB FIA Formula E Championship has brought to light the unforgivable group qualifying format that has seen a few drivers vent out their frustrations, although Lopez sees the format as a different way of adding some excitement to the racing: “I think (the qualifying format) has brought much more difficulties for the guys who are at the front of the championship and at the same times it mixes things up and makes a it bit interesting,” says thr 36-year-old.

“Also, for the the guys who don’t have the opportunity to be on pole or fighting for Super Pole, they might have a chance sometimes because of this group qualifying. I think there are a few tracks where you don’t really see the difference but being in the first group is always a bit difficult,” he adds.

Another talking point of the weekend is the position of the attack mode located before Tabac corner of the narrow circuit: “Attack mode this weekend seems to be an easy one in terms of how we’re gonna be losing time instead of taking it,” says Lopez.

“You’d want to take it probably earliest as possible to be the most efficient, but it would also depend on what the other ones are doing. Also, it depends on which circuit you overtake at and I think this is one of the most difficult circuits to overtake in the season.

“I think attack mode would be interesting to see if by using it you can overtake here , but if you can do that in Monaco it would be worth it, but if you can’t overtake then, definitely this is a difficult track to overtake.”

The Argentinean has had a bit of a mixed Formula E season so far but is optimistic that the GEOX Dragon team will make the best of the remaining rounds this season, “It’s been a bit up and down,” said Lopez of his progress this season.

“I’m not really happy with my season. There’s been mistakes from my side and I believe 80% of  them are probably from something such as a system fail or a system glitch. I feel like I haven’t been able to show what the team and I are capable of.

“We’ve had some good results, partial results but we’ve never been able so far to put that together in the race, so I’m really looking forward to that. There’s still a few races to go and I believe in the team and I believe in myself to put together a good weekend.”

Meanwhile, his teammate, Max Günther was once again back on the grid in Monaco, how does Lopez feel having to work with a teammate who’s not a permanent driver within the team?

“I personally asked Jay [Penske] to keep Max a bit longer and at least to try and keep the same driver. This definitely helps with work on the car and to make progress which we really need today. I’m happy to see Max did really well in Paris, he’s a young kid, he wants to demonstrate. He’s been good for the team and I’m glad for that.”