Jakarta International e-Prix Circuit, Saturday 3 June

Hear from NEOM McLaren Formula E Team drivers René Rast and Jake Hughes, and Team Principal Ian James after the Jakarta E-Prix.

“It was a challenging day, but we ended on a positive. I think we had strong pace in qualifying over one lap – it was just the lap that mattered where we didn’t have the car in the window. Earlier on in the session, we could’ve done a lap that would’ve been good enough for P3, and we boxed that lap, but that was always planned. Maybe we should’ve finished that lap, but that’s easy to say in hindsight. We’ll put our learnings from that into practice for the second race here tomorrow. Due to qualifying, we started the race in P20 and to finish P10 and earn a point is a good result. We were good with our energy management and the car balance was good. We go again tomorrow, and hopefully we can finish in the points again.” 

*René was awarded a five-second time penalty after the race for causing a collision 

"Today was a difficult day. We started well in qualifying, we finished third in our group and got through into the duels – finishing P8 overall. This was a decent finish considering the pace we had. The race was challenging, the start wasn’t great and I lost two positions due to wheelspin. I tried to stick with the pack and save energy. At the end of the race, a last lap collision with another driver meant I finished outside the points. It was an unfortunate end to the race, but sometimes things don’t go your way. I’m looking forward to getting back in the car tomorrow, when hopefully we can apply all our learnings from today.” 

“It is great to be back in Jakarta this year – the people here in Indonesia are as enthusiastic and welcoming as ever! 

“The other thing which you can always count on here in Jakarta is the heat. This not only has an impact on the human performance within the team, but also affects the behaviour of the car. Despite the usual diligence in our preparation for the event, our results throughout the free practice sessions and into qualifying show that we’ve not fully understood how the Gen3 car would perform on this circuit, in these conditions. We’ve also struggled to bring any consistency to the single-lap performance.  

“Having said that, we showed good pace during the race itself and the overall strategy was managed very well by the team. This, together with some accomplished driving, saw Jake power through the field from P20 to P10, scoring a point in the process. Unfortunately, René’s race was hampered by a poor start and, despite a strong performance for the majority of the laps, a couple of incidents towards the end dropped him out of the points.  

“Overall, we cannot be satisfied with the outcome of today’s race. However, we get another go tomorrow, albeit with two additional laps added to the race distance, which bring a new dynamic. Let’s go!” 

Standings after Round 10

Join the team

McLaren Plus is our free-to-join fan loyalty programme, bringing McLaren fans closer to the team with the most inclusive, rewarding and open-to-all fan programmes in motorsport.

Sign up now, or current members can amend their details in the form below if necessary.