Formula E world champions Dennis and Cassidy win in Diriyah

Following Porsche driver Pascal Wehrlein’s victory in the opening race of the new Formula E season in Mexico, current world champion Jake Dennis (Andretti-Porsche) secured first place in the second race of the season ahead of Jean-Eric Vergne (DS-Penske) and Nick Cassidy (Jaguar). Jaguar newcomer Cassidy (last year still driving a customer Jaguar for Envision) had already finished third in the season opener.

However, the second race of the season on Friday evening was dominated by the world champion from Great Britain: In Mexico, Jake Dennis still had his problems after he was only able to start the race from 14th on the grid due to a mistake in qualifying. On the circuit in Diriyah, where overtaking is not easy due to the track layout, Dennis qualified in third place behind Jean-Eric Vergne in the DS and Mitch Evans in the Jaguar. Thanks to the skilful use of attack modes, Dennis took the lead in the customer Porsche – and never relinquished it until the finish. Nobody was able to follow the Briton on Friday evening anyway: At 13.3 seconds, Dennis had the second-largest lead in Formula E history at the finish.

Behind them, however, things were typically close in Formula E: there were only around three seconds between Vergne in second place and Wehrlein in eighth. The big loser in the leading group was Evans, who had started in second place: the Jaguar driver made a daring overtaking manoeuvre against Vergne on the last lap while in third place. The driver from New Zealand got past the Vergne, but was unable to make the turn. After a short drive through the run-off zone, Evans had to settle for fifth place.

The second round of the Diriyah E-Prix on Saturday was in no way a copy of Friday’s race. The special Formula E qualifying mode with a knockout system for the top eight also contributed to this. The track in Diriyah is usually very slippery at the start of the race weekend due to sand and dust, which is why the conditions improve with virtually every lap. The Nissan team was one of the best prepared for the new conditions on Saturday with more grip after the first race: After starting 14th and 15th on Friday, both drivers reached the knockout phase of the top 8 on Saturday, with Oliver Rowland even taking pole position.

However, the race itself was won by Nick Cassidy (Jaguar) ahead of Robin Frijns (Envsion-Jaguar) – Oliver Rowland in the Nissan finished third, which meant the first podium finish for the team in a long time.

The third race of the season was again characterized by the tactically clever use of Attack Mode. Attack Mode means a time-limited additional power of 50 kW, i.e. up to 350 kW at the peak instead of the 300 kW otherwise permitted in the race. This additional power is activated by driving over a specially marked zone on the track, very similar to well-known console games. In Saturday’s race, the first time the activation zone was passed – which meant a time loss of around two seconds due to the detour – the boost was available for two minutes, the second time for a full six minutes. As overtaking on the track in Diriyah (with the 300 kW standard power) is very difficult, as mentioned above, Attack Mode was particularly important: do you have a clear run after activating it and can you make full use of the additional power? Or do you fall behind an opponent due to the loss of time when activating and first have to overtake them again? Or does the rider I want to attack also activate the additional power in order to be able to defend against my attack?

With two appropriately chosen attack modes, Cassidy was able to hold his own against the competition and claimed his first victory for the Jaguar works team. With a 1.2-second lead, his performance was significantly less dominant than that of world champion Dennis on Friday, but the New Zealander has finished on the podium in all three races so far this season. Friday’s winner Dennis, on the other hand, only finished twelfth on Saturday (after starting from 14th on the grid) and thus remained without points.

Porsche cannot build on Mexico result

Although Mexico winner Wehrlein was able to score points in both races in Saudi Arabia, the German only scored a total of ten points with 8th and 7th place. In qualifying in particular, both Wehrlein and his team-mate Felix Antonio da Costa had problems keeping up with the pace of the competition on one lap. In Saturday’s race, Wehrlein was able to fight his way up from 10th on the grid to 7th, while da Costa moved up from 21st on the grid to 14th – a strong performance given the rarity of overtaking manoeuvres, but on the other hand, Porsche probably did not expect to finish 10th and 21st on the grid.

Like Wehrlein, the second German driver in the field, Maximilian Günther in the Maserati, scored points in both races in Saudi Arabia. He finished seventh and ninth, scoring eight points on the race weekend.

With Dennis’ dominant victory on Friday, Porsche showed that the 99X Electric is one of the fastest cars in the 2024 field. A Porsche has crossed the finish line first in two out of three races this season. As in the previous year, the Jaguar is also at the front of the field – with a high level of consistency and two strong drivers so far in 2024. In Saudi Arabia, the Stellantis-powered cars (DS and Maserati) and the Nissan teams (Nissan works team and McLaren) were also consistently among the front runners. This makes the Formula E race in Brazil on March 16 very exciting!

With his third and first place in Saudi Arabia, Cassidy took the lead in the drivers’ standings from Pascal Wehrlein (38 points) with 57 points and secured first place for Jaguar in the team standings with 78 points.

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