Duval: Formula E drivers talk it up because they are paid

Former Formula E competitor Loic Duval has asserted that his peers who say they like the category do so because they get paid to drive in it.

Duval was on the grid for most of the all-electric championship’s first three seasons, with Dragon Racing, during which he took two podiums.

The Frenchman then moved to DTM where he reunited with Audi, the marque with which he won the 24 Hours of Le Mans and World Endurance Championship in 2013.

In a varied career, he has also driven DPi, Class One, and Super Formula Cars, the former of which he is set to reacquaint himself with in a full season of IMSA SportsCar Championship competition in 2021.

Duval, however, is hardly a fan of Formula E.

“I don’t like Formula E because for me the cars are not quick,” he stated.

“And I’d like to say I like the locations they are doing, the format of the thing, I like the racing in the cities.

“But I have been able to race, to do few years in Formula E, I have been able to get behind the wheel. And behind the wheel as a driver, you don’t enjoy as much as other cars with more power and grip.

“Whichever driver is saying today that Formula E is great to drive, it’s because he’s in the championship and he gets paid for that, to race, so for sure he can’t be against it.

“But it cannot be as much enjoyable as an LMP car, as DTM car or Super GT car, that’s for sure.

“Out of an electric car you can still have a lot of fun. If the package is made with a lot of grip and performance, for sure you can enjoy it big time.”

Formula E’s 2020/21 season, the third with the Gen2 car as opposed to the Gen1 version which Duval raced, was to have commenced in mid-January in Santiago.

However, that event was postponed amid a new COVID-19 outbreak in Britain, where almost half of the championship’s teams are based, leaving the Diriyah double-header in late-February as the only currently confirmed races.