The Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team is heading to New York City for the sixth race weekend of the 2020/21 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship. While the team will be contesting an E-Prix on the streets of New York for the first time, this will be the fourth appearance in Brooklyn, New York City, for the all-electric racing series.

Three double headers have taken place in New York City since its debut in Season 3 (2016/17) and there have been five different winners in the six Formula E races held there so far. The New York City E-Prix was cancelled in 2020 because of the worldwide pandemic, but Formula E will be returning to the United States of America later this week.

Formula E – Mercedes-Benz EQ Formula E Team, Stoffel Vandoorne

While the 1.44 mile street circuit may be new to Nyck de Vries, Stoffel Vandoorne is already familiar with it from the finale to Season 5. The track runs through the district of Red Hook, has 14 turns and is relatively unchanged since the last E-Prix in 2019. What is new, though, is where the activation zone for Attack Mode is now positioned. It has been relocated this year from the exit at Turn 5 to the outside of Turn 10. This may sound like a minor detail, but optimising Attack Mode has proven to be crucial at previous races this season.

Exciting events to the biggest and most relevant cities around the globe

Once again, the New York City E-Prix will be a double header with one race taking place on Saturday and then another on Sunday. Saturday’s (July 10) first race will get underway at 4:34pm EST while Round 2 will kick off at 1:34pm EST on Sunday (July 11).

Comments ahead of the New York City E-Prix 2021

Ian James, Team Principal:

“I’m excited to see the New York E-Prix back on the calendar for the first time since 2019. New York is one of the locations that reminds you what Formula E is all about: bringing exciting events to the biggest and most relevant cities around the globe. The global situation last year meant we couldn’t visit the cities we’d ideally wanted to and seeing us return to New York this weekend does give a sense of what is to come – albeit a visit under still slightly restricted circumstances. This will be the first race for the Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team in New York. That is challenging, but also very exciting. We have now passed the halfway point in the season. With the knowledge of how close the field is, and how little difference there is in points in both the team’ and drivers’ championship standings, the coming weeks and months are going to be crucial. Apart from being as clean as we can be in our delivery, we also need to realise how unique the challenge is we are facing, and how special an opportunity we have to fight for a championship with this amazing team.

After the Puebla E-Prix, I said the result mostly hurt knowing we had the potential to do better. Those words weren’t empty; they were echoed by the whole team. We know our potential and have delivered on that potential on several occasions already this season. That knowledge hurts, but most of all, it keeps us motivated to keep doing what we do, and keep fighting for all the championship points we can possibly score in the last three events of the season.”

Formula E – Mercedes-Benz EQ Formula E Team, Nyck de Vries

Nyck de Vries:

”In all honesty, in a championship like Formula E it’s very difficult to have any expectations heading into a race weekend, as the field is so evenly matched and is always good for a surprise or two. Of course, I’m really looking forward to going racing again. We were competitive during the last race weekend in Mexico and had a strong package, so I hope that this New York weekend will favour us more, that we’ll be able to deliver two strong races and come away with a good haul of points. I feel very positive about the race weekend and am really looking forward to it.”

Stoffel Vandoorne:

“I’m really pleased to be heading back to New York. It’s been a while since we last raced there. Last time was in Season 5, but I can still remember having a good qualifying and race. New York is a typical Formula E circuit, very winding, extremely narrow and the walls are very close, so quite different to last time out at Puebla, but still, I think it may be one that suits us more. I’ll be in Group 2 for qualifying on Saturday, which I hope will give me a little bit of an advantage. In any case, I’m excited to be back out on track. We’ve shown that we’ve got a competitive car and package. We’ll be contenders if we can put all the pieces together. As you would expect, the target is to try and score as many points as possible in New York this weekend.”

Be it 24 hours or 1,000 miles: races over particularly long distances are an extreme challenge in motorsport. After all, the performance of the competition vehicles is just as decisive here as their reliability under constant maximum stress.

Mercedes-Benz has been impressive in these areas since the beginning of the motorsport history of the brand. One of the first highlights was the Paris – Bordeaux – Paris road race, which was carried out from 11 to 14 June 1895 over a distance of 1,192 kilometres. Of the first eight vehicles to finish, there were six cars equipped with engines according to a Daimler licence and two Benz vehicles.

Sauber-Mercedes C 9 Group C racing car, Le Mans 24-hour race, 1989. With starting number 63, the winning vehicle of Jochen Mass/Manuel Reuter/Stanley Dickens. With starting number 62, the team of Jean-Louis Schlesser/Jean-Pierre Jabouille/Alain Cudini, which ended in fifth place. Photo from 1989.

In the tradition of the great European road races, in the mid-20th century, the Italian Mille Miglia stands out in particular. Mercedes-Benz was twice able to attain outstanding victories there. In 1931, Rudolf Caracciola and co-driver Wilhelm Sebastian in the Mercedes-Benz SKKL were the first to take overall victory as drivers not from Italy. In 1955, the masterpiece of the British team of Stirling Moss/Denis Jenkinson in the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR (W 196 S) racing car followed: Moss with the best time ever achieved at a Mille Miglia, ahead of team colleague Juan Manuel Fangio.

In 1957, the Mille Miglia was carried out as a classic road race for the last time. Mercedes-Benz, however, also continued to be very successful in such long-distance competitions outside of Europe in the following years. For example, the Argentine Touring Car Grand Prix, a strenuous race over almost 5,000 kilometres, was won by the brand from Stuttgart four times in a row with saloons of the W 111/112 model series: 1961 (one-two win), 1962 (win by Ewy Rosqvist/Ursula Wirth), 1963 (quadruple win) and 1964 (triple win).

Endurance races

The return of Mercedes-Benz to racing after the end of the Second World War was also connected to the Mille Miglia: the new 300 SL (W 194) racing car premiered on the Brescia to Rome and back endurance classic on 3 to 4 May 1952. Karl Kling and Hans Klenk came flying in with a respectable second place in the overall standings.

The 300 SL celebrated one of its greatest triumphs in an endurance race on the racetrack: Mercedes-Benz attained a one-two win at the Le Mans 24-hour race from 13 to 14 June 1952. The overall standings were led by Hermann Lang and Fritz Rieß ahead of their team colleagues Theo Helfrich and Helmut Niedermayr. Three years later in 1955, Mercedes-Benz was in the lead at Le Mans with its 300 SLR racing car. After the very tragic accident involving the Silver Arrow of Pierre Levegh, for which nobody was at fault, Mercedes-Benz withdrew its remaining vehicles out of respect for the victims of the accident.

Thirty years ago, the Silver Arrows once again won in Le Mans: the Sauber-Mercedes C 9 Group C racing car attained a one-two win at the 24-hour race from 10 to 11 June 1989. The teams of Jochen Mass/Stanley Dickens/Manuel Reuter as well as Mauro Baldi/Kenny Acheson/Gianfranco Brancatelli led the overall standings. This was a highlight of the return of Mercedes-Benz to racing on a racetrack.

Thirty years ago, Jean Louis Schlesser won the World Sportscar Championship in the Sauber-Mercedes C 9. The team title of the World Championship went to Sauber-Mercedes in 1989. Both title wins were repeated the following year with the Sauber-Mercedes C 11.

Successes in customer sport

Fascinating sports car races inspired the fans of the FIA GT Championship at the end of the 1990s. Mercedes-Benz dominated the first two years of this international racing series with the Mercedes-Benz CLK-GTR (1997, championship title for Bernd Schneider) and CLK-LM (1998, championship title for Klaus Ludwig and Ricardo Zonta) GT racing cars.

Modern day successes with the sign of the Mercedes star by the Mercedes-AMG customer sport teams are reminiscent of those triumphs. Amongst others, the BLACK FALCON team has already won the Dubai 24-hour race four times (2012, 2013, 2015, 2018). Maro Engel won in 2015 at the first FIA GT World Cup in Macau in the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3; Edoardo Mortara won in the same race in 2017 in the Mercedes-AMG GT3. The 2016 ADAC Zurich Nürburgring 24-hour race was completed by the Mercedes-AMG GT3 with an incomparable quadruple victory. Since 2018, alongside the GT3 racing cars, the near-production Mercedes-AMG GT4 customer sport racing cars have been used. With over 130 wins and more than 40 titles, the past year was the most successful season of Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing to date.

In every win and in every championship, there is the desire for competition – this is the theme for 125 years of motorsport with Mercedes-Benz.

After more than 22 years as Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport, Daimler AG Vice President Norbert Haug will conclude his career at the end of 2012. His contract will come to an end by mutual agreement with the Board of Management. Preparations for the forthcoming season continue as planned.

Norbert Haug began in the Motorsport division of Mercedes-Benz on October 1, 1990 with the intent to revive their motorsport credentials. And he did revive their program and so much more.  In Haug’s 22 years, Mercedes-Benz and its partners won six Formula One world championship titles and took 87 Formula One victories. In the DTM, Mercedes teams won a total of 32 titles under Haug’s leadership. Since the first title win in 1992, Mercedes-Benz has won 54% of all DTM races and about 60% of all DTM titles (drivers/manufacturers/teams). During that period of time Mercedes-Benz has competed in 986 races in total (Formula One, Champ Car, GT, Group C, Formula 3) under Haug’s leadership and won 439 of them (45.4%).

“Norbert Haug was the face of the Mercedes-Benz Motorsport programme for more than 20 years. For me, he put his stamp on a whole era and, as a highlight, he was responsible for the successful comeback of the Silver Arrows to Formula One. In the name of the Board of Management and the whole motorsport family, I would like to thank Norbert for his extraordinary commitment to the three-pointed star,” said Dr. Dieter Zetsche, Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars and CEO of Daimler AG.

“I would like to thank the best car company in the world for more than 22 years, which never had a single moment without passion for me. I particularly wish to thank the Board for the trust and freedom they have always given me with all my activities. Since 1991, we had tremendous achievements and wins, for which I want to thank all of my colleagues. Unfortunately, with one victory in 2012 since founding our own Formula One works team in 2010, we couldn’t fulfil our own expectations. However, we have taken the right steps to be successful in the future. Our team and our drivers will do everything to achieve these goals,” said Norbert Haug.