How much did the actually racing change in Season 11? Was it more refined, less hectic, and cleaner than in the previous two Gen3 seasons?
The answer is probably yes it was all of those things. Why? A likely combination of experience of running pack races or so-called peloton events with sturdier front wings, and more use of the ability to create a gap with the All-Wheel-Drive feature in attack mode. Then there are the tyres, which relatively anyway had more grip this season.
Andretti’s Jake Dennis has been in the thrust of some hectic races this season, and he sat done with Formula E Notebook in London last month to discuss the style and ethos of Gen3Evo racing this season just gone.
“I think generally the way the races have been this year, when it’s been an energy-sensitive race at this peloton racing, we’re all, if anything, slightly more aggressive because we know that the wings can take it,” reckons Dennis.
“But we’ve definitely still seen instances where they can break. But I think, honestly, we’re so used to this peloton racing now that we’re all just a bit better at it and we all understand, like saying ‘is this move 22 minutes into the race a key deciding to overtake? Probably not’.
“Whereas back in Season 9 (2022-23), you thought every overtake was the crucial one. You kind of pick your battles a little bit more now. The racing, the attack mode has definitely changed this year. You can go from the back to the front very quickly with the four-wheel drive, whereas 350 last year was probably just a straight negative.”
The re-emergence of the attack mode, which due to the lack of grip in 2024 was pretty much redundant, has been a major feature in the changing shape of the racing according to Dennis.
“The attack mode loss was so big over what you gain in four-wheel drive, just rear-wheel drive, 350,” he says. “So, I think everyone’s just sort of realised it’s not the end of the world if you lose two, three positions because you’re going to get it back in the 350kW mode.
“I think generally my favourite races are the ones like Tokyo, where you don’t quite have enough energy to lead it the whole way, but you can definitely hold your own.
“We should have that in London this weekend (that was mostly true). The target, what they’ve given us, or the energy they’ve given us is a real nice number.
“You should see that nice balance of, not peloton, but the guy at the front is really going to struggle to lead the whole thing. And that’s what we saw in Season 10 with Mitch, Nick, Pascal, that really good battle they had.
“So hopefully in the future they give us a little bit more of those races where they just give us that extra bit of energy, so we don’t have so much of this peloton racing. Obviously, I went in front in Berlin massively and was on the good end of it, but it’s also very frustrating when you qualify at the front and it’s actually a bit of a negative, to be honest.”
