Taylor Barnard’s remarkable third position in the Sao Paulo EPrix last Saturday was all the more impressive after he resisted a do or die attempt to catch leader Mitch Evans and second placed Antonio Felix da Costa for an unlikely crack at a debut victory.
The NEOM McLaren driver ran last in the opening stages of the race and initially looked like he would not feature at all. But a strategy switch after a n early race penalty for an over power spike infraction paid dividends when the two red flags were unfurled and re-set the order.
After a chaotic race Barnard told FEN that “the best way to do that is to watch the race back as I still don’t know what happened myself.
“I just remembered that when we took the second attack it made life very easy for me to come back through, so the team did a great job on calling that strategy.
“Coming back through was a great feeling passing everyone, but then there was the scary crash with Pascal, so it’s great that he is OK.”
“Then there was the second red flag when I was third, that’s really the moment where I realised, I could really get the podium. I was extremely nervous to take the start but thankfully it was a rolling start and that made my life a little bit easier. The team did a great job.”
Barnard detailed how he was unable to exploit his energy advantage fully in the closing stages despite being close to the top two.
“I didn’t have the tyres at the end,” he said.
“I also had a bit of overheating, just because the restart was so fast, and I was pushing so hard to try to pass. I think not having the tyres made the temperature problem even worse, so I tried my best to attack. Sam (Bird) was defending for me as well; At that point it was just to secure the points for the team.”
McLaren Boss Lauds “Incredible” Barnard
NEOM McLaren team principal Ian James made a bold decision in replacing Maserati bound Jake Hughes with an unproven Barnard last summer but that now looks like all but a no-brainer after Barnard ticked off another milestone in his burgeoning Formula E career.
“I thought it was Incredible, this is why he fully deserves the seat,” said James.
“To come from a disappointing (qualifying) position, but to keep your cool in that chaos is testament to his maturity, which belies his age
“He’s now the youngest Formula E podium finisher, which is phenomenal. I think the fact that he recognised that despite the energy advantage, and we were clear to him before he went back out for that final stint that he did, or both cars had an energy advantage, but “Taylor was very much in a stronger position, that given the opportunity, he’d be able to use that.
James was especially content with Barnard’s rationalisation late in the race that tyre wear and rising thermal temperatures were negating his use of an energy advantage he had.
“Again, we’re not in a position, clearly, to really capitalise on it, and despite that, he didn’t get flustered, he didn’t decide to send it, and then cause yet another issue, and brought home some incredibly valuable points for him and the team, which is great.”
Barnard’s third and Bird’s fourth was the best combined points score for NEOM McLaren since they joined the all-electric World Championship at the end of 2022. Its previous best points haul was at its debut event in Riyadh when Rene Rast and Jake Hughes placed third and fifth in January 2023.
