Heidfeld: Montagny is “a bit crazy”
Once again, Franck Montagny was involved in a collision that ended his race. Nick Heidfeld spoke about the Frenchman and revisited the incident at the Putrajaya ePrix.
Nick Heidfeld’s early career in Formula E is marked by incidents. Caught in the collision at the final corner in Beijing with Nicolas Prost when he seemed to be in a position to play for victory, the German experienced several incidents during the Putrajaya ePrix, including one with Franck Montagny, when the Andretti driver pushed him towards the outside wall.
The former BMW Sauber Formula 1 driver did not hesitate to revisit this incident: « Montagny, we all know he’s a bit crazy, which can usually produce a good show. But sometimes, unfortunately, it means his opponent is pushed off the track and sent into the tires, which was my case. »
« Basically, he just threw himself into a spot where it was a bit dangerous to do so. I could easily take the corner, but I turned to the left and his car was right there, and he drove me into the wall, » he explained to Autosport.
The Venturi driver refuses to talk about bad luck concerning the incidents he was involved in, even if he believes there was nothing he could do most of the time: « I don’t want to say that it’s just bad luck. I think if people look at it that way, it’s fine, but it’s too easy as an excuse. You’re always trying to improve yourself and the car. The crash during testing [in Putrajaya] was clearly my fault. I think that for the Beijing one, the fact that Nico was penalized showed that it wasn’t my mistake. And here, Brabham went too far trying to overtake Senna and hit me [early in the race, ed.], which damaged my car. »
