The latest addition to the Formula E calendar also played host to the championship's final rounds of the season. The Seoul ePrix had been scheduled to host an event in the series in 2020 but was canceled due to COVID. However, there were no such problems for 2022, and the circuit at the Jamsil Olympic Stadium in Seoul would host Formula E's most crucial double-header of the season for the title showdown.
Coming into the final race weekend of the season, Mercedes' Stoffel Vandoorne led the Drivers' championship by 36 points over his nearest rival, Jaguar TCS Racing's Mitch Evans. It would take a superhuman effort from the Kiwi to overhaul the points gap. However, if there was one driver capable of doing that this year, it would be Evans, who dominated both races in Rome earlier in the season to grab his first two wins. Evans had to recreate this performance in Seoul, or the spoils would go to Vandoorne and Mercedes.
On Saturday, it was a surprise pole in tricky wet conditions from Mahindra's Oliver Rowland, having beaten Venturi's Lucas Di Grassi in the final of the Duels. This P1 start was the Englishman's sixth pole position of his Formula E career but his first with Mahindra. Meanwhile, Vandoorne qualified seventh, behind both championship rivals Mitch Evans and Edoardo Mortara, who started third and sixth, respectively.
In a bizarre incident on the first lap of the race, eight cars missed the apex at Turn 21 due to poor visibility caused by the wet spray of the standing water and plowed head-on into the barrier, causing a red flag. As a result, reigning champion Nyck de Vries' Mercedes ended up stuck under the Nissan of Sebastien Buemi for close to ten minutes. The scene was similar to that seen during the New York ePrix earlier this year, with cars aquaplaning off the circuit and six drivers, including de Vries, retired.
Before that, Evans had the perfect getaway off the start line amongst slippery conditions, moving up from third to take the race lead ahead of Rowland and Di Grassi in just a matter of corners. The Jaguar driver led away confidently after the red flag period and, without issue, took the chequered flag for his fourth victory of the season. The result closed the gap to Vandoorne down to 21 points going into the season's final race, meaning that Evans would have to repeat his win to be victorious over the Belgian.
Mercedes were also looking to repeat their achievement from last year of winning both the Drivers' and Constructors' titles they just had to continue taking points in both races to win both championships. With de Vries out, it was down to Vandoorne to grab points in Race 1. The Belgian quietly made up a couple of places in the first race, ending up P5 at the flag and moving him one step to his first title since winning GP2 back in 2015.
Venturi came to Seoul with the distant dream of overcoming the deficit to Vandoorne and Mercedes to win both the Drivers' title with Edoardo Mortara and the Teams' title. However, Mortara received a five-second penalty early in the first race after 'repeated changes of direction,' which led to a collision while defending from Vergne. The contact caused a slow puncture, which ended his race and his chances of winning the title.
Meanwhile, his Venturi teammate Lucas Di Grassi continued his recent strong form, after winning in London last time out, to take P3 and his fourth podium of the season. This rostrum visit helped Venturi close the gap to Mercedes but would still require a massive point total on Sunday to beat the Silver Arrows.
Oliver Rowland scored his first podium for Mahindra in a difficult season for the Indian team. Unfortunately for the Brit, Rowland lost out on the chance for victory early on, with Evans passing him at the start. However, a solid drive should give Mahindra hope that next year they can return to race-winning form. Especially with 2017 Formula E champion Lucas Di Grassi joining their ranks next year.
Vandoorne did what he needed in Sunday's qualifying and made the Qualifying Duels, but for Evans, it was disastrous. The Kiwi failed to make the Duels after struggling with his setup and only qualified in P13. With such a lowly starting position, his fight with Vandoorne for the title became harder. DS Techeetah's Antnio Flix da Costa grabbed the final pole of the year, beating out Venturi's Edoardo Mortara in the final.
Meanwhile, Dan Ticktum gave the NIO 333 team their first appearance in the Duels all year, qualifying a season-high P7 to end his quiet rookie season. However, he retired early into the second race after Nissan's Maximilian Gnther pushed him into the wall after a move.
Starting in fourth, Vandoorne only needed to finish P7, and the championship would be his, regardless of where Evans finished. He avoided a chaotic start behind him and held P4. However, with his teammate Nyck de Vries retiring, the pressure was now solely upon the Belgian driver to bring home both championships for Mercedes.
The ROKiT Venturi team had both drivers in the top six from qualifying and needed to outscore Mercedes by 32 points to win the Constructors' title. For Edoardo Mortara, it had been a calamitous end to the season, having failed to score in the previous three races despite being the championship leader for the majority of the first half of the campaign. He wanted redemption in this final race, and with an extraordinary move on polesitter Da Costa, he gained the lead early on.
While Mortara held his lead in the fight for victory between himself and Avalanche Andretti's Jake Dennis, another puncture for the Venturi team, this time for Di Grassi, ended their teams' hopes of the Constructors' title. Nevertheless, Mortara comfortably took his fourth win of the season, and he took the curious record of winning the 50th and 100th Formula E races.
With Evans needing a miracle to have any chance of achieving the victory he needed, he got some luck early on and took advantage of a series of incidents to rise to P9 before taking his first Attack Mode. Just as the Jaguar driver began to lose momentum, being stuck behind Vergne, a Safety Car was deployed with just over 20 minutes due to the stricken Nissan of Gnther on the circuit. Evans was now in eighth place and needed to get to the front of the field while hoping Vandoorne retired.
At the restart, Jake Dennis in second place was swamped by Da Costa, who had Attack Mode, resulting in the pair coming together at Turn 1 and Da Costa losing control and hitting the wall head-on. Dennis was questionably adjudged to have caused the collision and got a five-second time penalty. This punishment resulted in him losing P2 and barely holding onto third place over Robin Frijns at the chequered flag.
As a result, Vandoorne rose from fourth and onto the podium for P2, with Evans getting up to P7. Unfortunately for Jaguar, Vandoorne had done more than enough to secure the title, meaning that Mercedes had won both championships for the second consecutive year. Mortara's victory helped Venturi finish second in the constructors' standings. Dennis' P3 and an impressive P5 from Oliver Askew meant that the Avalanche Andretti team finished above Porsche in the standings.
It had been an impressive season for both Mercedes and Stoffel Vandoorne as deserving winners of the final season of this generation of Formula E before the overhaul in 2023. Once again, both Mitch Evans and Edoardo Mortara came close to the title, but Vandoorne's consistency beat them this time. Despite only winning one race, the Belgian driver scored eight podium finishes throughout the season. He only failed to score points at the chaotic Mexico City ePrix in Round 3.
While the focus was on the battle for the two titles, the final race of the 2022 season was also the 100th Formula E race and the final one with the current Gen2 cars before we see the switch to Gen3 for next year. It was the end of a chapter for the series, with some expected significant changes to the driver line-ups for 2023. Formula E will return in 2023 on 14th January in Mexico City for the series' ninth season and the first for its new Gen3 cars.
