Robin Frijns has expressed his frustration at Formula E’s Berlin E-Prix clashing with the World Endurance Championship’s (WEC) 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, something several drivers wanted to be avoided.
A noticeable feature on the recently confirmed calendar for season 10 was that the first of two races in Berlin still clashes with the WEC event, on May 11, 2024. This is something which has annoyed some drivers on the Formula E grid, who compete in both championships.
Frijns is one of the drivers in Formula E who also competes in the WEC, as does Stoffel Vandoorne, Jean-Éric Vergne, Envision Racing teammate Sébastian Buemi, Nyck de Vries, Nico Müller and potentially Norman Nato. Nato is yet to be confirmed on the 2024 WEC grid but did take part in the WEC Rookie test at the start of November.
DS Penske have already insisted that Vandoorne and Vergne will prioritise Formula E, meaning they’ll likely miss the 6 Hours of Spa. However, Envision will need to find two new drivers for the first race in Berlin, as Frijns and Buemi are set to race in the WEC event.
António Félix da Costa would’ve been on the list of drivers competing in both Formula E and WEC, but Porsche have made him drop the endurance series to purely focus on the all-electric championship.
It’s a less than ideal clash which both championships did hold talks to avoid, although no alternative was seemingly found. Frijns revealed that “six” Formula E drivers recently urged the FIA to find a solution to the calendar clash, which could prove costly if any of the absent drivers are in the title fight.
“There were about six of us lobbying for the FIA to avoid the clash. We were hoping for that to help, as no one is benefiting from the clash,” Frijns told Formula E Zone.
With the WEC event in Spa concluding on Saturday 11 May, those missing Formula E for it could potentially make the short trip from Belgium to the German capital and compete in the second race of the double-header.
For Frijns, missing just the first race in Berlin is the “worst case scenario”, but he admits that he would’ve “preferred” no “clash at all”.
“Worst case scenario for us is that we only miss one race in Berlin, and we can come back and do the Sunday race, but we would have preferred to not have any clash at all,” Frijns added.
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