The dramatic, chaotic and acrimonious London EPrix is not a distant memory. It is still fresh. And for Pascal Wehrlein it is quite clear what went on both above and below the surface.
Above it there was simply a job to do. To win his second championship. He had a few friends here watching out for him but he had far more hostile agitators gauging and probing, if not outright trying to eliminate him from his title quest.
At a media roundtable session held earlier this month, attended by Formula E Notebook, Wehrlein was asked if he anticipated the race director Marek Hanaczewski getting involved and taking action against some of the driving seen?
“No, I wasn’t hoping that race that the race director would do anything because there wasn’t anything illegal,” said Wehrlein.
“It was all within the rules, so there’s nothing to penalise. There’s even nothing I complained about there. I mean, the intention was clear, but for me the most important part was obviously looking at the championship.
“I didn’t wanted to lose the race with him. I think from his (da Costa’s) side he was a bit more open to that and to get involved into a collision. But obviously from my side there was zero interest to have a collision with him as he wasn’t in the championship fight.
Wehrlein had a clear priority – himself – in terms of the title fight. He knew Nico Mueller and the CUPRA Kiro cars of Dan Ticktum and Pepe Marti would assist him but they were greatly outnumbered by four Jaguars and also a host of ‘neutrals’ that were also being hostile to the Porsche.
Wehrlein was always informed where he was in relation to his title quest by his engineer Robert Sattler. When Mitch Evans overtook Wehrlein he was not worried as he knew the Kiwi had to win the race. But when Jake Denis did the same, capitalising on da Costa’s blocking mission it started to get concerning.
At one stage, lap 28, with da Costa backing Wehrelin in to the chasing pack, the Porsche lost six positions in three corners (including to Dennis), going from fifth to 11th position. A lap later Dennis was up to seventh place. All of a sudden Dennis was going to be champion by a single point.
“There was one lap in this race where it felt a bit uncomfortable, where I was in that position outside of the points, and I knew I have to fight my way back now into the points.”
Grabbing his second attack mode on lap 30 Wehrlein was able to clear da Costa and at least get in to the points. He was insuring himself.
“There on, the goal was clear, try to pass Dennis again, and going into Turn 16, there was a bit of chaos in front, where I’ve managed to put myself on the outside there next to Dennis, which then puts me on the inside for the next corner.
“I think it’s clear, when you’re on the inside of a corner, the corner is yours and that was very important to get back into that position.”
Had the incident not have taken place how might things have been resolved? Dennis had an extra minute of attack mode time to Wehrlein but was in deficit to Nick Cassidy in front of him. That pair would likely have cycled through to the tail of the trio of leaders – the two Mahindras of Nyck de Vries and Edoardo Mortara and ultimate winner Taylor Barnard.
The DS Penske with a two minute advantage over the Mahindras would always have been uncatchable but Dennis could have finished at least fourth. Would Wehrlein have covered him with the six point swing he needed? It would have been close, depending on how Wehrlein was able to fight it out with the likes of Vergne, Buemi, Marti and of course his chief nemesis da Costa.
But it never got that far and Jake Dennis’ puncture, which may in fact have been caused by a smash from da Costa’s Jaguar a corner before the Eriksson/Wehrlein/Dennis mess, was what ultimately and very contentiously brought the title to Wehrlein and Weissach.
