How Wehrlein's Diriyah double reveals Formula E's form book shake-up

Three races in, and there’s a pattern emerging in Formula E’s new era. After Valencia’s pre-season testing, you’d have been hard pressed to predict that a Porsche would win the first three races of the season, given the German giant’s tepid showing in December. Yet, as the rest of the field tries to gather some semblance of a pecking order, Weissach’s finest has firmly become the manufacturer to beat.

The consummate ease with which Jake Dennis and Pascal Wehrlein scarpered off into the distance in the Mexico City opener was a hint of Porsche’s progress around the Christmas and New Year breaks. But it was nothing more than that; Porsche had dominated proceedings at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez last season, yet failed to follow up on that in the succeeding rounds. To commandeer and butcher a phrase from footballing parlance, could Porsche do it on a cold, dark night in Riyadh?

With Diriyah’s double-header now in the history books, we have our answer: a resounding yes. Wehrlein’s and Dennis’s swashbuckling drives in both Diriyah races painted a giant target on Porsche’s back, as both the works team and ‘customer’ Andretti operation illuminated the Arabian nights. Where Dennis had dominated in Mexico, Wehrlein’s pair of ripostes in Saudi Arabia lifted the German to the top of the early points standings. Neither has finished lower than second so far.

If there’s a weakness of the Porsche-powered cars, it’s qualifying. On one lap, the motor doesn’t quite have the braking performance of some of the other manufacturers, which means the drivers can’t quite attack the slower-speed corners with the same verve as their rivals. None of the four drivers across Porsche and Andretti made the duels in qualifying for Diriyah’s Friday race.

Instead, two members of the old guard impressed ahead of their Formula E century milestones; Envision’s Sebastien Buemi claimed his first pole since 2019, while Sam Bird looked rejuvenated after a dismal 2022 to grab third on the grid. Buemi beat Bird and his Jaguar team-mate Mitch Evans en route to the final, where the veteran Swiss faced up against rookie Jake Hughes.

Hughes’s start to life in Formula E has been nothing short of stunning; his promotion to a race seat could be construed as a gamble by McLaren, but he’s looked completely at home in the Nissan-powered orange machine. Buemi proved a bridge too far for the Briton in Friday’s final, but he later had a chance at retribution.

Buemi ended his long pole drought dating back to New York 2019 in race one, but faded to fourth after leading early on

Photo by: Alastair Staley / Motorsport Images

“Qualifying didn’t quite go as planned, although P9 was not so bad,” Wehrlein mused, as Porsche’s one-lap pace still left a little to be desired. But there were no such doubts about the race, and the black-and-red machine was demonstrably effective in his hands.

Bird’s opening salvo put the Briton in control in the opening stages when his patient offensive on polesitter Buemi increased in intensity, and ultimately proved too much for the Swiss to resist by the seventh lap. At the favoured Turn 18 braking zone into the chicane, Bird migrated north into the lead and set about leaving the Envision driver in his wake.

Buemi kept tabs on the Briton, maintaining a one-second gap as their common Jaguar powertrains ensured they were evenly matched. Of the two, Buemi was also consuming slightly more energy, giving Bird the advantage as the race progressed into its second half.

Thanks to his foresight and Porsche’s strategy, Wehrlein hadn’t needed to battle too hard to make up places, so had not expended his energy in frivolous fights through the order

Then Wehrlein entered from stage left in the lead battle. Elevated to sixth by the close of the first lap after Evans’s first-corner lock-up left him to tangle with the two Mahindras, Wehrlein dispatched Rene Rast and Dan Ticktum in the first 10 laps as the Porsche began to demonstrate its greater efficiency. Hughes was a tougher nut to crack, and Wehrlein instead camped out on the Brummie’s doorstep and waited for the McLaren driver to go off line at Turn 19 for attack mode.

Not only had Wehrlein manoeuvred his way into third place, but he was immediately on the tail of the Bird-Buemi leading dyad. Buemi was next to accept attack mode, which elevated Wehrlein into second and thrust him immediately into a stunning lead battle with Bird.

Thanks to his foresight and Porsche’s strategy, Wehrlein hadn’t needed to battle too hard to make up places, so had not expended his energy in frivolous fights through the order. Bird, however, wasn’t in any mood to hand Wehrlein the lead on a silver platter. With a run on the 25th lap (of 39) on the exit of Turn 17, Wehrlein stabbed at the brakes and looked to have threaded his car down the inside of Bird, but proved too boisterous and ran wide to allow the Londoner to reclaim track position.

Bird switched to a more defensive stance over the next four laps, covering off the inside down the straight to offer Wehrlein no incentives to pass. But the Jaguar driver’s efforts seemed to be delaying the inevitable, and on lap 30 Wehrlein’s assault was finally successful. The lead belonged to the Porsche ace.

Bird did his utmost to defend from Wehrlein, but couldn't repel the Porsche or the fast-advancing Dennis

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images

Dennis, meanwhile, had come into play in the second half after starting 11th. The cars around him, particularly the Envisions and the McLarens, expended more energy owing to their deficit to the Andretti Porsche’s strong efficiency. The Nuneaton-born driver could start to pick people off one by one, working his way up to Bird, who he passed with five laps remaining.

While Dennis had about 0.5% more useable energy than Wehrlein in the final stages and managed to catch the leader, Wehrlein had enough in the tank to claim his second Formula E win.

“I knew that we could make up some positions but I never imagined that we would win the race,” he admitted. “The strategy was perfect, the car felt amazing and I was able to save quite a lot of energy and use it for the overtakes. Strategy-wise, the times we took attack mode worked perfectly.”

In the interests of self-improvement, Porsche spent the night ironing out some of the creases in its qualifying performance. This time, Wehrlein and Dennis made it into the duels, but did not progress beyond the quarter-finals, as Hughes claimed his first pole after beating Dennis into the semis. The ex-Formula 3 mainstay cleared Buemi in their semi-final rematch, and then found a tenth over Evans in the final to start at the front.

Hughes attributed his lesser getaway off the line relative to Evans to the blue paint in the first-place starting slot, and he had to fold behind the Kiwi into the first corner. But with Wehrlein in a stronger grid position – fifth this time – in Saturday’s race, another buccaneering drive looked inevitable.

Wehrlein cleared Buemi into the first corner, and let the triumvirate of Evans, Hughes and Rast fight among themselves ahead. The leading trio swapped positions through their initial attack mode exchanges, as Hughes dropped to third and McLaren team-mate Rast performed a well-executed overcut on Evans to pick up the lead.

While fast, McLaren’s efficiency had not been at the same level as that of the manufacturer squads, and Hughes was a sitting duck for Wehrlein’s Turn 18 pass on lap 12. Evans was dispatched a lap later, and Wehrlein took the opportunity to use three minutes of attack mode to scythe away at Rast’s two-second lead. It took barely a lap for Wehrlein to catch his compatriot.

Dennis once again carved his way through the pack to move into second at the finish, repeating his race one result

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

An overtaking move looked inevitable and Rast knew this, deciding not to fight with the Porsche when it appeared in his mirrors and instead using the chance to take his own attack mode. Once again, Wehrlein was in command – and, once again, Dennis’s slowburning opener eventually escalated into challenging his powertrain stablemate.

The British driver’s passes were decisive as he clawed through the order, and his ascent was precipitated by Buemi taking attack mode. Edoardo Mortara was easy prey to Dennis’s advances, and quickfire moves on Hughes, Evans and Rast ensured that the top two from the previous day were once again controlling proceedings.

Dennis had yet to use any of his attack mode at this stage but, with the chasing pack at arm’s length behind him, he opted to swallow his first minute of 350kW power to pursue Wehrlein. It proved to be an irrelevance, however, as Nico Muller’s crash on lap 27 prompted the emergence of the safety car to wipe out Wehrlein’s advantage.

The die had been cast; the top two would remain the same across both races to demonstrate Porsche’s irrepressible dominance so far in 2023

Dennis attempted to cling onto Wehrlein’s coat-tails on the restart, but they were evenly matched and the Andretti driver had to seek solace in the final three minutes of attack mode to address the gap. This instead ran Dennis into an energy deficit relative to Wehrlein, and thus the die had been cast; the top two would remain the same across both races to demonstrate Porsche’s irrepressible dominance so far in 2023.

Bird, whose third place in Friday’s race was his first podium in over a year, was hoping to ensure that the same three drivers would appear on the rostrum. Rast had presided over the position when Bird had taken his three minutes of attack mode at the same time as Dennis, but was about 2% shy on energy compared to his pursuer. It appeared near-certain that Bird would mount a pass, but he overcooked it into Turn 18 on lap 33 to hand Rast a reprieve. When those three minutes elapsed, Bird used his final minute of attack to mount a final siege.

Despite his energy advantage and the close proximity at which he chased Rast through the downhill sweepers, Bird was caught out by the ex-Audi driver’s canny approach to the exit of Turn 17 and could not find enough traction to mount a pass. Rast held on, ensuring that the podium was at least slightly different across both Diriyah races and securing McLaren’s first top-three finish in Formula E.

Nonetheless, the weekend belonged to Porsche. Wehrlein and Dennis now have a healthy buffer in the championship stakes to third-placed Buemi, and the 99X Electro has been the early-season star in race trim. As Formula E heads to Hyderabad in India for the first time, the question is simply this: can anyone beat Porsche?

Wehrlein had waited almost a year for his second Formula E win, after breaking his duck in Mexico last February, but victory number three was almost immediate

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images