In a lackluster season in Formula E, Sam Bird admitted difficulty in qualifying pace and said he has no problem helping his teammate Mitch Evans in case of need
Completely overshadowed by his teammate in the Formula E race in 2022, Sam Bird has fond memories of the next round of the category, the New York eP. In addition to his victory last season, the Jaguar driver also won the first two races held in Brooklyn in 2017 to become the only driver with three wins there - no one else has more than one. However, the current season does not inspire as much hope.
While Mitch Evans is still fighting for the title, trying to close the gap to leader Edoardo Mortara, Bird is only 12th in the championship and has struggled to help Jaguar score points. And for the Briton, the problem has not been the racing, but the difficulty of achieving a strong qualifying time.
"The races have been going well and the race pace has been strong, so from that aspect I'm quite happy with my performance," Bird explained to the British portal The Race. "When you compare it, it's matching Mitch [Evans], which is great to know. What I'm not doing well enough is the qualifying," the Brit admitted.
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"It's not like we're saying I'm completely bad and I'm miles away. We're talking 0s1, maybe 0s2 occasionally compared to Mitch," he analyzed. "He's in the form of his life, and I admit I haven't found that 'extra' in qualifying like him yet. But it's there, I know. When it happens once, I think it will be like a snowball effect," he explained.
Bird pointed out that his teammate's confidence level is at a different level at the moment, with Evans fighting for the top positions in almost every race - so much so that he is fourth in the championship with 124 points, just 15 behind Mortara.
Bird's situation is completely different: the 12th place rider has only 31 points, with nine of them coming from the last four races - to give you an idea, in the same period of four races, Evans has 52. The Briton still believes, however, that he only needs to be well placed to be able to fight for a good position in the races.
"Mitch is totally confident at the moment and knows that when he gets in the car, he's going to operate at a very high level. I just need a strong qualifying that gives me extra confidence to get that extra mile," he stressed. "If you put me in the top-5, I have the competence in the race to get the podium or look for the win. I believe, yes, I am strong in the race," he noted.
Finally, Bird had to answer about a subject that will start to permeate the conversations in Formula E until the end of the championship: team orders. While DS Techeetah already made use of the strategy in Marrakech - wrongly - and Mercedes still prefers not to interfere between Stoffel Vandoorne and Nyck de Vries, Sam quietly admitted that he would help his teammate in case of need.
"If I'm leading both races and I don't win [by having to open up passage to Evans], I can still keep my head up for doing the best job for the team," he said. "I know I'm not fighting for the title this year and it's my first year in Formula E that I'm not fighting at this stage of the season - which says a lot about my career," he noted.
"I don't think anyone else can say that. I've had seven great seasons, and this is the first one where I didn't get things right. I think people are entitled to that in motorsports," he commented. "I'm going to do everything I can to make sure I get as many points as I can for the team, and if I need to help Mitch, I will. I would much rather Mitch win the world championship than anyone else in this pit-lane," Bird concluded.