Written by Jacob Awcock, Edited by Vyas Ponnuri
Maserati made strides in car performance, ensuring they departed Jeddah with double points in both races. Jake Hughes claimed a podium finish in round 4, as the team departed the Saudi coast sitting comfortably in fifth place in the team’s standings.
Arriving in Jeddah, the team had little to show after promising strong pace; Just eight points to their name meant the Monaco-based team sat eighth overall. Stoffel Vandoorne was the main points scorer, having claimed the final points position in Brazil, with tenth, and seventh in Mexico City.
Having secured Théo Pouchaire for the Rookie Free Practice session the Thursday before the race, the team arrived in Saudi hopeful of signs of progression. Fourth in the test provided Maserati momentum to build off of ahead of the first practice session. Yet, the pair didn't set the timing sheets alight, Vandoorne the highest placed driver in seventh, half a second off the top spot.
Second practice, though, ran smoothly for the iconic team, Hughes sitting comfortably in third, while teammate Vandoorne occupied eleventh.
But, with three minutes of the session remaining, Vandoorne was taken out by the Maserati of Nyck de Vries. As the pair headed into the turn 4 hairpin, the Dutchman locked up, sending his Mahindra straight into the side of the German.
The Maserati suffered minimal damage from the incident, though, and proved just one of the bumps in the road for the Monaco-based team. The first qualifying session of the weekend saw Hughes progress through to the duels and line up seventh, while teammate Vandoorne failed to emulate his teammate, managing 14th on the grid.
However, both drivers performed spectacularly in the race, managing their energy efficiently, with Vandoorne climbing up to the final points position at the chequered flag. Following an enthralling battle with McLaren’s Taylor Barnard, Hughes narrowly missed out on a Formula E podium, claiming fifth overall.
The subsequent round 4, though, was another opportunity for the team to build on their initial progress, yet this faltered in the only practice session available. Despite topping the timings early on in the session, Vandoorne could only manage 13th while on the other side of the garage fortunes were no better.
Midway through the session, the unmistakable sight of the Maserati Tipo Folgore ground to a halt on the start-finish straight. Having restarted the car, Hughes remained in the garage for the remainder of the session and propped up the timesheets at the end.
With the mechanics working overtime qualifying commenced and all their hard work bore fruit as Hughes progressed through to the duels having claimed second in his group overall, Vandoorne topping the other group to also send him through to the duels.
Both, however, fell at the semi-final stage with Hughes piping his teammate to third on the grid in the semi final. Another bump in the road awaited Maserati, and after failing to arm the fire extinguisher correctly in qualifying, Vandoorne was demoted to the rear of the field for the start of the race.
But in similar fashion to Friday’s race, Vandoorne fared much better in the race, battling his way up the order. The German managed sixth overall, climbing a phenomenal sixteen positions.
On the other side of the garage, Hughes provided an equally stellar performance. Continuing his battles with Barnard, Hughes battled his way to his first podium with Maserati in Formula E finishing third.
“I’m over the moon,” said Hughes. “I’m more happy for the team, they’ve done so well to get me up to speed and to be able to be pulling these results so early in the season, three races in the points this season two dual visits and a podium so just really over the moon with it.”
Following Maximilian Günther’s victory in the opening race of the weekend, optimism surrounding the Stellantis powertrain was high, with both DS Penske and Maserati faring well all weekend.
“We’re really encouraged with the (Stellantis) powertrain,” Hughes said. “I don’t know if I’d go so far to say we didn’t expect it but the points on the board and the results we’ve been getting have been a small surprise.”
“I don’t think we were expecting it to be this competitive so early in the season so that can only be seen as a positive.”
As the team leaves Saudi, Hughes sits highest of the pair in the Driver’s Championship: fifth overall for the British driver while teammate Vandoorne remains 11 points behind in thirteenth.
For the team, 20 points separates them from DS Penske in fourth, and with Mahindra just two points, behind progress will be key as the season progresses.
Formula E heads off to the party capital Miami in April, as the series returns to Miami for the first time since Season 1. Both Hughes and Vandoorne, along with the Maserati team will look to build on the progress they’ve made, and cement their place as regular contenders for race wins, and potentially a championship as well, if things do go their way and fall in place.
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