Mercedes came, saw and conquered: what now for De Vries and Vandoorne?

Mercedes to FE

In the 2019-2020 season Mercedes made its appearance in Formula E, but the preliminary work had already been done a year earlier. Under the name of HWA Racelab, this team was already competing in the championship under a German flag in 2018-2019 and the foundations were laid for its later success. In this season the FE started with the Gen2 cars.

After a year, Mercedes had seen enough and took matters into its own hands. HWA was ninth in the championship with 44 points. Stoffel Vandoorne was retained by Mercedes, but Gary Paffett had to make way for a new driver: Nyck de Vries. Mercedes thus had two big names with whom it wanted to storm the top.

In the coronavirus infested season Mercedes already made a strong impression. The title of Antonio Felix da Costa was not within reach, but Vandoorne finished second in the championship. Mercedes finished third as a team, 97 points behind DS Techeetah.

The first world title

For the FE teams, however, the following season was all about it, as the FIA finally recognised the championship as a world championship and so a world champion would be crowned at the end of the season. De Vries took that honour with the drivers and Mercedes as a team. Barely present in the sport, but with the first world title in his pocket.

This season, Mercedes was again strong, but the roles of the drivers were reversed. Vandoorne now grabbed the power and won the world title in the last race of the season, while the team secured the world title again.

That, however, is the end of Mercedes' Formula E career (for now). In 2021 the team already announced to pull the plug at the end of this season. The attention had to be on other projects and F1 was the main focus. In the season of 2022-2023 the new Gen3 cars will be introduced and Mercedes will no longer be part of that.

Future De Vries and Vandoorne

With McLaren, a familiar name takes over the team from next season. Both drivers are also familiar with the team from Woking, as both Stoffel and Nyck drove for the junior team of McLaren and Vandoorne even drove in F1 for the team. However, the chances of the two remaining with the team are nil.

The Race In the meantime, the press has reported that Vandoorne is almost certainly joining the new DS Penske project. He will be teamed up with Jean-Eric Vergne, who has been racing for the DS (Techeetah) team for some time. Vergne has already won two titles in Formula E.

De Vries doesn't seem to be staying at McLaren either. The Dutchman, who is also said to be on the radar of various F1 teams, is reportedly signing a contract with Maserati. There he will be teammate of the number three of this world championship: Edoardo Mortara.

Thus, the name Mercedes disappears from Formula E after three extremely successful years and the main players also leave for other teams. The question is whether McLaren can build on the foundation that is there, although it must design a completely new car for the new regulations in 2022-2023 and find new stars for that car.