- Porsche’s sixth win of the season via Antonio Felix da Costa on Sunday meant that they became the first team to register six victories in one season since Sebastien Buemi took wins with Renault e.dams at Hong Kong, Marrakesh, Buenos Aires, Monaco, Paris and Berlin in season three (2016-17).
- Jean-Eric’s Vergne Sunday pole was his 17th since he made his debut for Andretti at Punta del Este in December 2014. It ensured he now has one more than Sebastien Buemi, so becoming the record pole position holder.
- Nick Cassidy was initially concerned about large amounts of debris were left on the track for several laps after Pascal Wehrlein’s front wing section was run over by Sam Bird’s NEOM McLaren Nissan. The Kiwi radioed his team to ask for a safety car, saying that: “if that goes in to the air, someone will die.”
- “I mentioned on the radio about the carbon fibre on the track,” Cassidy told FEN. “For me, when Pascal’s wing came off it kind of had bits fly everywhere. That was super scary. I guess when I’m three quarters of a lap down saying the track is in bad condition you’re not going to listen to that guy because they’re crying for a safety car, right?
- “But it was true, there was a lot of carbon fibre, a lot of pieces out, especially on the back straight where we do use the width on the straight, we do go four wide, so I think they did the right thing of calling the safety car and clearing the track.”
- DS Penske’s Jean-Eric Vergne told FEN that he was hit on the helmet by a piece of Wehrlein’s wing and that it “was definitely not great and the reaction took too long and I’m sure it was, some teams were negotiating the safety car because they were far behind and it was too long.
- “I think the safety car didn’t come because of the debris; it came because of the pressure from the teams to join back on the field. And that’s why it was the safety car and not the full course yellow, so that’s why it was not great I think,” concluded the DS Penske driver.
- Pascal Wehrlein’s run to fourth place in Sunday’s second Portland EPrix was compromised by a detached front-wing assembly after he tagged the back of Edoardo Mortara’s Mahindra. The damage informed some of the later strategy employed by the team to maximise its combined teams’ points.
- “You could see in the long corners that he suffered from the damage,” TAG-Heuer Porsche Formula E chief Florian Modlinger told FEN. “We don’t want to give away a win which we think is possible to our main competition (Jaguar), so clearly we go for the victory with one car and maximise the result with the second one.”
- Jaguar TCS Racing team principal James Barclay opined that the unique nature of energy sensitive races in Formula E is such that stewards decisions need to reflect more the nuances and intricacies of races in the all-electric world championship.
- Barclay’s comments came after he felt that the incident between his driver Mitch Evans and NEOM McLaren’s Jake Hughes on Saturday triggered an unfair penalty for what many felt was a racing incident.
- “In normal racing, I think that (the penalty decision) would be different, but this is not, it’s Formula E, and I think you have to consider that we have cars taking attack modes, re-joining, different power levels, dropping back in order to protect and save energy, the cars are shuffling all the time, so they have to consider that in the moves they make.
- “I think the bespoke nature that we have means a bespoke nature of the decisions that need to be made.”
- Jaguar TCS Racing presented a Petition for Review but this found to be unfounded and the 5 sec time penalty (plus 1 penalty point) was upheld.
- The stewards outlined that there was new, significant and relevant evidence that was not available at the time of the original decision. This included data traces showing ‘speed, vertical acceleration, and throttle application.’
- The stewards stated that Evans could have ‘made even more of an effort to avoid contact’ and as such the decision was upheld.
- Michael Andretti told FEN on Friday that continuity with drivers was important for the team after a revolving door of teammates to Jake Dennis, from Maximilian Guenther, Oliver Askew, Andre Lotterer and Norman Nato in the last four seasons.
- “It (continuity) is, because it’s very unique the way the races are here and the way you drive cars and the things you have to do that jumping team to team is pretty tough. Because I think each teams probably got some different ways of doing things because of all the different types of technologies so I think it can’t be an easy thing.”
- Andretti is likely to make a definitive decision on whether or not it gives Nato a second season alongside Dennis next month.
- Abt Cupra’s Nico Mueller said that his fifth place on Saturday was “a little bit of a surprise.”
- “From the first few laps I had the feeling that, if we managed to put it all together, we could have a decent package here,” said the Swiss.
- “Even though Formula E is a lot about strategy, a lot about efficiency. But still when the car behaves how you want it to behave, it’s much easier to have a good weekend. We try to focus on that and it worked out.”
- The collaboration between Mahindra and the Mercedes HPP company based in the UK was confirmed to FEN after The Race revealed the two were working together earlier this season.
- Team Principal Frederic Bertrand said that the relationship is “a bit there and it could be a future relationship too for Gen4, for example.
- “We could maybe include the type of relationship we have, but for the moment we are far from that step because first of all, we must discover how we can develop around 3.5Evo, and second we need to decide what we want to do in Gen4. Once this is clear then we decide on the next steps,” added Bertrand.
- The progress with plans to race in the Thai city of Chiang Mai next March is ongoing with Formula E officials having visited the proposed location for a potential race in May. The deal to get the race on is said by one source close to the negotiations to be “positive” with a bureaucratic process ongoing
- There will be some subtle changes to the London EPrix venue at ExCeL Arena next month after building work in the eastern car park was completed recently. Among the differences will be the Turn 16 area where the attack mode activation area has been for the last two events. This will now be under cover rather than in the open following the construction work.
- Andretti will get its first testing opportunities of the Porsche Gen3Evo test and development car later this month as it readies for the 2024/25 season.
- “We’ve got a couple of testing opportunities in the Porsche manufacturer car coming up, so we’ll be taking advantage of those,” said its team principal Roger Griffiths.
- “We don’t want to be distracted by that whilst we’re still trying to focus on this championship but anything that we can learn ahead of Valencia is going to be super important for us.”
- Formula E CEO Jeff Dodds hosted a high-powered dinner on Friday evening that included several Liberty Media executives and team principals from the paddock. Dodds is heading to Liberty’s global headquarters in Denver this week after the recent announcement that the company has acquired a majority shareholding of 65% in Formula E.
- Movie star Brie Larson, best known for her performance as ‘Captain Marvel’, visited the Formula E paddock over the weekend as a guest of Nissan.
- Real-life super hero Robert Wickens was also in the Portland paddock and described his brief run in a Gen3 car as leaving him: “wanting a lot more.
- “Hopefully this will lead to more opportunities in the future and possibly a rookie test. I think right now, that would be the goal for me, to try and get onto the grid in Formula E for the future,” added the Canadian.
- FEN understands that a free-to-air broadcasting of the title deciding London EPrixs is in the offing later this month. Details of the potential plans are expected shortly for UK based fans.
- A full preview of the London EPrix will be included in the 17th July edition of Motorsport News, including an interview by FEN founder Sam Smith with reigning champion and two time London EPrix winner Jake Dennis.
