Vergne: “You're not really yourself” in F1

La Formula 1 is an unforgiving universe. Are you performing well? So you stay on the grid, and maybe you'll get a cutting edge steering wheel. But in case of poor form, it's a downfall. After three years of fighting in the reserve team of Red Bull, Toro Rosso, Jean-Éric Vergne was asked to look elsewhere at the end of 2014. A hard blow for the Frenchman, who remembers an inadequate attitude during his three F1 campaigns.

« I had a really big head, I told myself that I was the king, that I was going to kill everyone, beat everyone, he explains in a documentary on the YouTube channel of the Formula E. The first year (2012) was really hard; people saw me as a negative person, never happy, and it was true. It took me too long to understand that I should smile. For three years, I didn't smile. »

Put under pressure in the ultra-competitive world of F1 and facing his teammate Daniel Ricciardo always smiling, “JEV” could not stand the directives of this universe. “All my years in Formula 1, I was told: eat like this, sleep like that, do so many hours of sport a day, say this, don't say that, be like this, be like that, don't laugh, smile this time.

It's like being a robot. And when you get in the car, I wouldn't say that you no longer enjoy it, but you're not really yourself. » Disgusted by this joyless adventure, the fallen hope gradually found a second wind in Formula E, culminating in two titles for DS Techeetah.

“It took me at least two years to get back to a normal mentalityHe says. My first two years in Formula E I was in a very bad mood and I attracted a lot of bad things around me. »