The first place in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia was by TAG Heuer Porsche driver, Pascal Wehrlein on Friday. Also, a second plant in the first race was conducted two weeks ago in Mexico City. Similarly, a Porsche-powered gen 3 car was the first place in Mexico and second in Saudi Arabia. The vehicle was driven by Jade Dennis of Avalance Andretti Autosport.
It appears that Porsche and its powered vehicles are going to dominate the races this year. This being the first season with a new car, there’s no surprise that the relatively fresh faces of Jake Dennis and Pascal Wehrlein took to the top of the leaderboards.
Thank you for sharing our @PWehrlein victory clip!
🤩🥇🏆 #MakeItMatter #PorscheFormulaE #DiriyahEPrix @FIAFormulaE pic.twitter.com/sjMFJ7W7eu— TAG Heuer Porsche FE Team (@PorscheFormulaE) January 27, 2023
Compared to last season, this is quite the departure, as both Porsche and Andretti finished middle of the pack. Clearly, both teams’ driver changes have resulted positively at the start of this season. Jaguar TCS Racing’s Sam Bird finished third, his first podium in almost two years and his 100th race in Formula E. While NEOM McLaren’s René Rast secured the fastest lap, earning extra points for his team on top of a 5th place finish.
EV technology
As of now, Jake Dennis still leads the overall leaderboard in points with 44 to Wehrlein’s 43, while a distant third place Sebastien Buemi has 23 points. These results seem to reflect in the Team standings where Avalanche Andretti holds a commanding lead of 58 points over second place TAG Heuer Porsche with 49. Though at such an early point in the season, team standings are still very much up in the air, with plenty of movement possible in the coming races.
Watching the racing, the change in technology to the third generation of vehicle has benefitted Formula E overall, with cars clearly quicker and more agile than in previous generations and racing far closer with the car’s smaller footprint. Overall, it was a far more exciting spectacle, and many look forward to the second race in Diriyah today. As Formula E enters its 9th season, it has become a far more serious competitor in the world of motorsports. Still, with Formula 1’s restart just around the corner, Formula E will need to continue to work to outshine its older and more popular sibling. Strangely enough, while many are familiar with Lucid’s involvement in Formula E, the company’s new motor isn’t actually used to drive the wheels of the newest-gen 3 FE car. Placed on the front axle, Lucid’s new drive unit is used exclusively for power regeneration, which removes half of the traditional braking system, further saving weight. Hopefully, with consumer sentiment on EVs overall shifting positively, it is seen continued viewership growth on top of last year’s viewership record.