Jerome D’Ambrosio’s (and Dragon Racing’s) fortunes improved markedly in Berlin. While the Belgian driver was eventually promoted to 1st place (after Lucas Di Grassi’s exclusion) to score his and the team’s first win in FormulaE and to propel them to 2ndplace in the Constructor Championship, DÁmbrosio’s outright pace was an encouraging sign for the Dragon outfit.
Bunmi Ade (@F1nomics) was at Tempelhof to speak with the winner-elect after the race.
Bunmi Ade: You had the pace, and you moved up from your 6th place in qualifying to finish 2nd on track, which of course translated into a win. You passed several drivers on raw pace. Things are looking up for Dragon Racing
Jerome D’Ambrosio: Yes as you say we had the pace but we still have to keep working hard and we are learning every race and we are improving every race. I’m focusing at the moment on FormulaE but for sure Loic came with experience from LeMans which has the lift-and-coast approach in the race so I learned a lot from him. So far, we’ve been really close and it is great to have someone that pushes you. That’s what the team needs.
BA: So there’s transparency between both teams in the garage?
JD: We get along very well and in the end, he went with my qualifying set up that I found, and I went with his race set-up this morning so that’s great. You need that interaction I think. I want to beat him and he wants to beat me but it’s got to stay positive. Not negative competition but something that drives the team forward.
BA: In terms of plans for next year, what are your thoughts?
JD: I’m very happy with Dragon (Racing) and the idea of driving for them was always to do something in the long term. It’s going great (at the moment) so we’ll wait for news