De Vries: Troubled Formula E pre-season testing not "an excuse"

Nyck de Vries is not looking at a disrupted pre-season testing plan with Mahindra as “an excuse” for a lack of results on his return to Formula E this weekend.

The Dutchman will race in the all-electric championship for the first time since 2022 after his brief tenure in Formula 1 last season with AlphaTauri.

The 2020-21 Formula E champion makes his debut with Mahindra in the Mexico City E-Prix on Saturday but enters the event after a less than ideal pre-season.

Mahindra was restricted to only using one car in Valencia last October after a battery fire in the garage next door put de Vries’ car out of commission once testing resumed.

The team was given allowance to conduct a private test because of the lost track time, which it conducted at Monteblanco in Spain at the start of December.

Both de Vries and team-mate Edoardo Mortara got behind the wheel across two days but the test was hampered by wet weather and cold conditions.

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

Nyck de Vries, Mahindra Racing

Despite losing vital and relevant track time compared with their rivals, de Vries believes the team must make the most of the less-than-ideal situation on the eve of the new season.

“I think this is kind of heading into a direction of having, not necessarily an excuse, [but] for me it’s all irrelevant,” de Vries told Motorsport.com.

“It is what it is, we take what we can get and I’m also new to the Gen3 cars, racing is different and we’ll learn as we go along.

“We’re aware there is still a lot of work ahead of us but we’re also positive about the changes we’ve made so far and the progress we’ve done.”

This season will also mark de Vries’ first at the wheel of the Gen3 machine that was introduced last term, having only briefly sampled the car before his move to F1.

He admits that he is far from fully up to speed in the car but that this will come with time.

“I think it’s unfair to expect [I am fully integrated], I mean I did one and a half days in Valencia, one day in Monteblanco. Can I dream it [of being completely used to the car]? No,” he said.

“But it’s part of the process, I’m getting more and more familiar with everything and it’s also an ongoing development process, so things are changing. We’re moving in the right direction let’s put it that way.”