The races took place at the ExCel Arena circuit in London, England
This Sunday (21st), the 10th season of the Formula E World Championship was concluded in a thrilling way. In electrifying races that literally extended to the final lap of the final race, German Pascal Wehrlein emerged as the champion by crossing the finish line in second place. In a good recovery race, Brazilian Sérgio Sette Câmara, who had started from 18th position, finished the race in 11th.
The Formula E season was very intense and, as has been the case for several years, spanned the five continents of the planet. In the rebranded ERT Formula E Team (formerly NIO333 Racing), the Brazilian driver, who competed in his fifth season in the series during 2024, had a challenging year but worked hard with his team on developing the Anglo-Chinese team’s GEN3 car.
This weekend’s races, held in a double-header format, were the 15th and 16th rounds of the World Championship. This format, by the way, has been increasingly pleasing to promoters and fans of the category, which will have six events with races on Saturdays and Sundays in 2025.
Although the technically demanding ExCel Arena layout was theoretically favorable to the ERT team cars, in practice, the drivers struggled a lot with lack of power and, primarily, lack of equipment reliability. Some problems with the car’s electronic control unit took away Sette Câmara’s chances of fighting for good positions in both Saturday’s and Sunday’s qualifying sessions.
In Saturday’s race, the 15th round of the Championship, Sérgio started literally from the last position on the grid – 22nd place. Without pace in his car, the Brazilian and his teammate were at the back of the pack for almost the entire race. In a stroke of luck, however, the safety car was deployed with about 10 laps to go and left the track with 7 laps remaining. With the pack realigned and about 8% more battery than the cars that had been fighting for positions throughout the race, Sérgio seized the opportunity to push as hard as possible, gained 10 positions, and crossed the finish line in 12th place.
On Sunday, in yet another frustrating qualifying session, the ERT team’s car #3 did not perform as expected, with the same electronic problem persisting throughout the weekend. Sette Câmara could only secure 18th position on the grid for the last and decisive race of the year. In a thrilling race, in which the title contenders fought fiercely for the top positions, the Brazilian was in the second half of the pack. Waiting for opportunities to move up the field, relying only on collisions and breakdowns of his competitors, Sérgio professionally persevered until the final lap when he finished in 11th place.
At the end of the 10th season of the Formula E World Championship, Sérgio Sette Câmara concluded the year in 20th place with a total of 11 points.
“I have a positive assessment of my personal participation this season. I am sure I extracted everything I could in terms of points. Unfortunately, in the Misano race, I ended up being penalized due to a technical penalty on the team and, with that, I lost 8 points, which would have moved me up 2 positions in the final season standings. We got the most out of the car, but it was a very complicated year. My car broke down a lot and left us in several difficult situations. Sometimes I couldn’t do free practice sessions, and other times it broke down in qualifying, leaving us to start from the back, as happened this weekend. In the race too, due to a software problem, I lost all positions at the start and, during the race, I had this same type of problem many times. In this scenario, it becomes impossible to get everything out of the equipment. I am sure I did my best on the track. The engineers and mechanics also did their best. These problems we had, most of the time, don’t happen because of the professionals but because of an engine that is in the car, and we can’t change that. I really hope that for the next season, with the changes for the GEN3 EVO, the team can overcome these problems once and for all and deliver the good results that all the drivers, engineers, mechanics, and directors deserve,” concluded the 26-year-old Brazilian.
Pictures: ERT Formula E Team
Press office of Sérgio Sette Câmara
Responsible journalist: Flávio Quick