Formula E entered GEN3 in Season 9, welcoming new cars, new teams and new drivers to the all-electric championship. So far, Jake Dennis (Avalanche Andretti) and Pascal Wehrlein (TAG Heuer Porsche) have occupied the top 2 spots in the championship standings.
Here is the story of their season so far…
Race One: Mexico City
Qualifying
The opening pole of the season went to Mahindra’s Lucas Di Grassi, ahead of Jake Dennis taking P2 on the grid for the Race. Dennis looked quick across qualifying, but in the final duel he locked up in turn 3, upsetting the balance of the car into the hairpin and suffering another huge lockup. His mistakes meant that Di Grassi could cruise across the line to take pole.
Wehrlein had a quiet qualifying, sneaking into the duels but losing out to eventual title rival Dennis. Jake dominated the duel in the first half of the lap, but a collision with a bollard saw his lead almost lost entirely. He crossed the line with a 3 hundredth advantage over Wehrlein.
The Race
Dennis set off from P2 with a charge, sticking closely behind Di Grassi and fending off rookie Jake Hughes. Two separate safety car periods halted Dennis’ charge, but a mistake in turn one from Di Grassi allowed Dennis to take the lead into turn three. The opening laps would set the tone for the rest of the race, as Jake consistently built a lead from those behind that would be squashed by a safety car.
Pascal moved silently through the field, finding himself in the top 3 behind Dennis and Di Grassi. He would make his move on Di Grassi into the stadium section on lap 29, but trailing behind leading man Dennis by over 4 seconds.
Due to the number of safety car laps, race control added an additional 5 racing laps to the tally. With most of the field having around 15% energy remaining, energy conservation would be critical to get to the flag.
Drivers up and down the field, both rookies and those more experienced, struggled to manage their energy consumption and lost places as a result. Jake Dennis managed once again to pull a huge gap to those behind him, leading 2nd place Wehrlein by 7 seconds as Di Grassi managed to hold onto 3rd, 18 seconds away from Dennis.
Jake Dennis opened the season with a win, taking the point for fastest lap and leading the drivers championship ahead of Pascal Wehrlein in the TAG Heuer Porsche.
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Race Two: Diriyah
Qualifying
Qualifying for race one in Diriyah proved to be difficult up and down the field, as the track was dusty from the lack of support series’. Those in group A spent much of the session cleaning the track in preparation for their faster timed laps.
Dennis didn’t make it into the duels in group A, having a quiet session between the red flags and mistakes. He would line up P11 on the grid and in the thick of the mid-field.
Wehrlein went out in group B, following in Dennis’ footsteps and having a relatively quiet session. Before the final runs, Pascal was sitting in 2nd place behind Buemi, but found himself outside of the top 4 when the flag dropped. He would line up 9th on the grid, with Dennis breathing down his neck just behind.
The Race
Lap 1 of the Diriyah E-Prix saw carnage up and down the grid as the Mclaren’s and Jaguar’s battled for positions with the Mahindra’s. Dennis – who started 11th – quickly made his way into the top 10 when the safety car was deployed after Da Costa ran into the back of Rowland.
Both Dennis and Wehrlein quietly creep their way up the order, snatching positions from other drivers and benefiting from the fighting further up. Pascal fought closely with the Mclaren of Rast but swooped around the German to take P5. Up ahead, Buemi held onto top spot with Hughes nipping at his heels.
Dennis was in 6th place by the midpoint of the race and with a massive pace advantage over those around him he was lining up drivers ahead for the picking.
When the first round of attack mode activations happened, Wehrlein managed to jump ahead of both Mclarens. He was up into the podium positions with only Bird and Buemi ahead, the latter was yet to take attack mode with Wehrlein hot on his heels.
Dennis picked through the two Mclarens, trying to follow Wehrlein through to the podium with Buemi just ahead.
As soon as Buemi took attack mode and relinquished 2nd place, Wehrlein got stuck in with race leader Bird and the two fought tirelessly for the lead. Pascal clearly had a pace advantage, but the tight and twisty nature of the Diriyah circuit allowed Bird to place his car in just the right places to keep the TAG Heuer Porsche driver behind.
Wehrlein took the lead of the E-Prix on lap 30/39 and scattered into the distance, putting his pace advantage to good use and building a gap to the rest of the field
Dennis picked off Buemi and battled with Bird for 2nd after Wehrlein disapeared into the distance. He would come out on top of the scrap, leaving his countryman to fall behind him as he set after his title-rival.
In the dying stages of the race, Dennis was chasing Wehrlein down and forced the German to defend with everything he had to hold onto P1.
Crossing the finish line, Pascal Wehrlein won the Diriyah E-Prix as Dennis had to settle for 2nd place. Dennis would hold the championship lead by a single point, courtesy of a fastest lap point gained in Mexico City.
Pascal said: “The race was just amazing. I knew that we could make up some positions but I never imagined that we could win the race.”
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Race Three: Diriyah
Qualifying
After the dominant performance in race 1, the pace of Dennis and Wehrlein was no longer a secret and big things were expected from the rivals.
Dennis was quick off the marks, looking to capitalise on the previous day’s performance. He set the pace early and made his way into the duels from group A, boxing for new tyres to make the most of fresh rubber on a dusty track.
Pascal once again went under the radar in group B, sneaking into the top 4 and into the duels with a quiet confidence in the car beneath him.
Dennis faced the other Jake in the duels, both Brits fighting with their cars around every turn. Hughes held a sizable lead over Dennis throughout the lap and won by almost half a second. Dennis made no mistakes, but Hughes would go on to take pole position, this proved the lightning speed of the young rookie.
Wehrlein faced the other Mclaren of Rast and lost time in the first sector, eventually losing out to Rast as they crossed the line. Crucially, despite losing out to Rast his time was good enough to get ahead of Dennis on the starting grid.
Pascal would line up 5th on the grid, with Jake just behind in 6th. Hopes were high for the two rivals to repeat the performance from the previous day.
The Race
In almost identical fashion to the previous race, the two title protagonists carved their way through the field at lightning speed. They had learnt methods of overtaking from race 1 and put their superior pace to good use.
The experience of the two racers took them from lights to flag, a world above the others behind. They managed their energy usage whilst maximising pace and keeping their noses clear of danger.
The dominance of the two drivers also displayed the gains that Porsche had made with their powertrains – in the opening 3 races, the top 2 in every race had been either Dennis or Wehrlein and both are powered by a Porsche powertrain.
Pascal took the lead from Rast early on in the race, once again vanishing into the distance under the lights. Dennis was battling with those around him but by the midpoint had forced his way through to hunt Pascal down.
Wehrlein’s lead was crushed when the safety car came out for a crash by Nico Mueller of the ABT Cupra team.
At the restart, Dennis was pushing Wehrlein along and trying to force his way past before taking his first attack mode. He kept up with Wehrlein but struggled with energy management compared to the Porsche driver and was forced to hold position.
Pascal took his 3rd career win, and 2nd in as many days, with Jake taking P2 in both races. He was promoted to championship leader over Dennis and left Saudi Arabia with the silverware to show for his success.
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Race Four: Hyderabad
Qualifying
The all-electric series headed to Hyderabad, India, for race four of the season and the first time in the season’s history. Despite the excitement of a new track, qualifying brought a mass of confusion and mixed up results.
The circuit underwent changes ahead of qualifying to provide more safety in turn 1 and a new chicane was introduced. Due to the last minute change, a white line was painted but no barriers separated the track from the run off area. This enticed the drivers to push the limits more and more on every lap, placing their car as close to the line as possible without triggering the track limits penalty.
Track limits became the major talking point of the weekend and many drivers suffered lap deletions because of it.
Pascal Wehrlein didn’t make it into the duels as he was eliminated in group A by just 0.145s. In similar fashion, Jake was also knocked out of his group, which marked a rough day for the Porsche powered machines.
Pascal was on the backfoot for qualifying after suffering a major shunt in the opening Friday practice session which was caused by a control unit issue. Porsche made the decision to retire its remaining cars from the session and there were fears that all Porsche powered cars would not start the race.
Pascal lined up 9th on the grid with Jake in 11th.
The Race
The first ever Hyderabad E-Prix was eventful to say the least, with incidents bringing out the safety car, to track limits penalties and last minute energy crises.
In the opening few laps of the race, polesitter Mitch Evans collided with his Jaguar TCS Racing teammate Sam Bird. The Jaguar’s were spun around at the hairpin with rookie Fenestraz and Max Guenther being caught in the folds.
At this point in the race, both Dennis and Wehrlein were remaining under the radar and keeping their noses clear of any dangerous incidents.
Jake Hughes brought out the safety car when he collided with the wall, his Mclaren struck across the track.
At the restart, the other Mclaren of Rene Rast ran into the back of Jake Dennis. He picked up front wing damage whilst Jake suffered a puncture and some rear wing damage. The Andretti driver was forced into the pits and dropped to the back of the field.
The incident ruined Jake’s charge from 11th as he sat 3rd before the crash, a position high enough to have regained the championship lead from Pascal. Dennis would go on to pick up a 5-second penalty due to track limits violations, which truly ruined his afternoon.
Wehrlein went on to have a quiet race, finishing 4th behind his teammate and making back positions after dropping to 15th at the start. He extended the championship lead over Dennis to – points.
For Jake Dennis, the weekend ended with him in last place, with no points to take away from the Indian streets.
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Race Five: Cape Town
Qualifying
Qualifying in Cape Town brought the chance to run with the momentum Pascal had gained, whilst providing an opportunity for Jake to bounce back from a difficult Hyderabad.
Wehrlein made it into the duels, facing Nick Cassidy around the South African circuit. The Envision driver had looked quick throughout the practice sessions and proved to have the pace advantage over the Porsche driver. Pascal was knocked out by Cassidy in the quarter finals.
Jake was somewhat anonymous throughout the qualifying, something that has been common this season. He didn’t progress to the duels and was knocked out in his group.
Wehrlein lines up 5th, and Dennis sits 14th after a disappointing show for the Brit.
The Race
Cape Town’s first E-Prix was dominated by Nick Cassidy, Jean Eric Vergne and Antonio Felix Da Costa, the three drivers fighting it out for the win ahead of the rest of the field.
Pascal was starting higher up the grid than he previously had in the season, but his race very quickly went sideways.
He brought out an early safety car when he locked up into turn 10 and ran into the back of Buemi, ending his race and sending him home early.
Jake Dennis also had a miserable weekend, his second in a row. He was handed a race ending drive through penalty for a minimum tyre pressure infraction. Jake finished the race at the back of the field in 13th.
The top 2 in the championship ended the Cape Town E-Prix with 0 points to their name. Pascal would hold the lead of the championship ahead of Jake, but their mishaps are allowing the rest of the field to close up and creep closer to them.
Both Jake Dennis and Pascal Wehrlein have shown immense amounts of speed and determination in the opening races of Season 9 and the first of the Gen3 era. The story of their season so far paints a clear picture, silent qualifying performances provide dominant race pace. The two drivers took all 1st and 2nd in the first 3 races, a feat that cannot be ignored.
But at the same time, the very nature of racing in Formula E is painted in that picture as well – close battles, incident filled races, and an uphill battle against energy management. Formula E races cannot be whittled down to just one driver/team above all because every team and every driver has something amazing to offer the series.
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