How Dennis dominated Formula E's new generation opener

An undercurrent of trepidation accompanied Formula E’s third-generation era. Throughout the off-season, a series of concerns became apparent, and threatened to take the sheen away from the all-electric championship’s next epoch. The paddock was hoping for a clean race, devoid of troubles; as the chequered flag fell in Mexico City, it appeared that it had got its wish.

Once last year’s Seoul finale came to a close, the venerable Gen2 cars were put out to pasture. Formula E’s facts and figures pertaining to the new car were impressive, but private and collective testing uncovered multiple teething issues. The new battery was prone to overheating and derating, requiring a packaging redesign. Supply chain problems interrupted manufacturer testing, meaning that spare parts were at a premium, but the biggest concern heading into Mexico’s season opener related to the brakes, particularly as the Gen3 machinery purely relies on the motor to stop the rear wheels.

It was a troubled birth for the new car, but Formula E chairman Alejandro Agag reckoned those difficulties were small-fry compared to those on the series’ first generation. History shows that the first Formula E race in Beijing, back in 2014, was surprisingly trouble-free – and it will show that the Gen3 era began in similar fashion. As the old saying goes: it’ll be alright on the night.

The start to the Gen3 era yielded more parallels to the early days of the previous two generations. Lucas di Grassi won that Beijing race, albeit helped by a collision between Nicolas Prost and Nick Heidfeld on the final lap. When Gen2 started in 2018, the BMW Andretti team secured the first victory of that era thanks to Antonio Felix da Costa’s efforts. That di Grassi secured pole in Mexico thanks to other drivers’ misfortune and Andretti kicked off Gen3 with a win courtesy of Jake Dennis’ crushing domination proved a befitting coincidence for the new season. The more things change…

Braking concerns remained at the forefront of peoples’ apprehensions before the weekend, and so the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez ‘short course’ was given a few tweaks. The barrier at Turn 1 was removed, offering the entire straight on the full course as potential runoff, while a chicane was added after the hairpin to slow things down heading into the Foro Sol section of the course. An emergency braking kit has been fast-tracked for the Diriyah round at the end of the month to act as a failsafe, which should fix those concerns in the future.

While it’s a fool’s errand to read into testing, particularly in Formula E, Valencia’s running suggested that the Maserati MSG team (formerly Venturi) and the new DS Penske alliance would go to Mexico as the firm favourites. Practice did nothing to scotch those opinions; DS Penske’s Jean-Eric Vergne was fastest in Friday’s FP1 despite not attempting a full 350kW lap, and 0.004 seconds behind Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein in FP2 after again resisting the temptation to try a run on the full allowance of power.

Formula E's new dawn was laced with trepidation which was soothed once running began in Mexico

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

Formula E, however, doesn’t do predictable. Vergne was arguably the biggest scalp taken in his qualifying group as he endured an incredibly messy session and, despite his efforts to find clear track by stopping on the exit of the stadium and waiting for Sebastien Buemi to come past, he couldn’t get into the duels. Instead, it was the first bellwether of Andretti’s seemingly sudden turn of speed as new recruit Andre Lotterer set the pace and could afford to sit back as it remained unbeaten. Envision’s Buemi knocked da Costa out, as di Grassi and rookie Sacha Fenestraz (Nissan) booked their spots in the knockouts, to much surprise.

Reigning champion Stoffel Vandoorne, now with DS Penske, couldn’t progress from the second group either. In a group containing his 2021-22 title rivals Mitch Evans and Edoardo Mortara, there was some expectation that one of the three would make it into the top four – but all fell by the wayside. Instead, the British trio of Dennis, Dan Ticktum – who showed great pace in a revitalised NIO 333 team – and McLaren rookie Jake Hughes progressed, as Wehrlein dumped Evans out in the final runs to set up a thrilling series of quarter-finals.

Di Grassi had perhaps confounded his own expectations already at this point. Mahindra had made no secret that it felt it was behind the other manufacturers owing to cancelled tests, and what the Brazilian described as “basic systems” for the interim as it aims to catch up on lost development. But he surprised again by dispatching old foe Buemi in their quarter-final bout, by a scant 0.019s to become the first qualifying semi-finalist of the season.

Although the Mahindra set-up had good one-lap performance, there were concerns about its race software. Abt driver Robin Frijns reckoned that “the efficiency is going to be fine, but we just don't have the software to run it smoothly”

Lotterer continued to show Andretti’s pace by eclipsing Fenestraz in another close battle. Hughes, meanwhile, secured a top-four on the grid first time out in defeating Ticktum.

The Dennis-Wehrlein quarter-final was one-way traffic in the opening two sectors; the Nuneaton native was four-tenths clear by the end of the second split, but an altercation with a bollard in the stadium wiped out his front-wing endplate and much of his patiently accrued buffer. Still, he had just enough in hand to progress, setting him up for a Great British Jake Off in the semi-finals with Hughes.

Despite going into his semi-final with di Grassi as the favourite, Lotterer’s chances of making the final were ended after going wide at the Turn 5 hairpin, giving di Grassi a safe passage into the shootout for pole. Dennis joined him there after progressing past Hughes, despite the FIA not granting him dispensation to change his front wing. With the car out of balance as the wing flapped about, Dennis suffered two lock-ups in the final shootout, and di Grassi simply had to keep it clean to secure his first FE pole in nearly five and a half years.

Di Grassi took his first Formula E pole since the 2017 Montreal E-Prix

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

Although the Mahindra set-up had good one-lap performance, there were concerns about its race software. Abt driver Robin Frijns reckoned that “the efficiency is going to be fine, but we just don't have the software to run it smoothly”. Di Grassi held the line at the start, as Dennis was preoccupied with getting the right line for Turn 1 to ward off a fast-starting Hughes, but a pin was put in proceedings when Frijns crashed into the back of Norman Nato at the Turn 9-10 chicane. The violent twitch on the steering wheel broke the Dutchman’s wrist, and his stranded Cupra-liveried Abt car prompted the emergence of the safety car.

Green flag running on the lap six restart was fleeting, as Sam Bird pulled over with a driveshaft failure to cap off a torrid weekend. Thus, di Grassi had barely needed to defend his lead in the opening 10 laps, but on the second restart quickly found that Dennis was going nowhere. On lap 12, the Paulista felt the pressure and made a mistake into Turn 1, granting the Briton an opportunity to make a play for the lead. He grasped that opportunity with both hands.

The difference between Andretti’s Porsche powertrain and the Mahindra became apparent in the succeeding laps. Porsche had dominated last year’s Mexico City round and seemed to be enjoying a repeat of its fortunes despite the different technology, as Dennis quickly began to stretch his advantage to leave di Grassi trailing in his wake. This was exacerbated once Dennis took his first minute of attack mode a lap later to build a one-second-plus gap, which continued to build to put the Andretti driver firmly in control.

With Dennis out of reach, di Grassi had to contend with Hughes and Lotterer behind him. Although in his first Formula E race, Hughes looked like part of the furniture having impressed throughout the weekend, and was attempting to pressure the car ahead into another mistake. Di Grassi’s pursuers took a minute of attack mode on lap 15 to try and forge a way past, but Wehrlein behind them had wisely decided to split his 350kW allowance into two sets of two minutes, which gave him the momentum to clear Lotterer for fourth.

Dennis was then reeled back in on lap 18, as Mortara lost the rear of his Maserati-powered car and hit the barrier backwards at Turn 1. This wiped out a near four-second lead out front, but di Grassi couldn’t cling to the leader’s coat-tails on the lap 21 restart and gave Dennis enough breathing space to rebuild his advantage.

Hughes continued his advances on di Grassi, hoping to snatch second place and chase after his namesake having built a 2% energy advantage on the Mahindra ahead. But di Grassi’s defensive moves were stellar, warding off any assaults into the Turn 5 hairpin by holding the inside line tightly and flooring the accelerator to get the drive out of the corner.

This continued to bring Wehrlein into play, and the German performed a repeat of the move he’d put on former team-mate Lotterer. After taking a second dose of attack mode a lap prior, Wehrlein followed Hughes through the stadium and, when the Birmingham-born driver took his own second activation, slipped past to claim third.

Despite being unable to hold off Dennis, polesitter di Grassi put in a stellar defensive display against Hughes

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

Wehrlein waited for di Grassi’s second attack mode, a three-minute spell of 350kW, to elapse before making an assault for second place. At this point, di Grassi was lower on energy compared to the cars around him and had to lift and coast into Turn 9, giving last year’s winner an easy route past into the chicane to collect second place.

With the Porsche behind him, albeit now four seconds down the road, Dennis admitted to thinking that he was perhaps going to come under pressure for his lead. “When Pascal got into second, I asked for the gap,” Dennis explained after the race. “But five laps later it was like another second bigger. So I’d surprised myself!”

The two were largely equal on power, but Dennis was ultimately quicker; as Wehrlein drew clear of di Grassi and the chasing pack, Dennis continued to expand his lead. Although the race was scheduled for 36 laps, the earlier safety car interruptions took it into extra time, with five laps added on to the end. The lead gap was 5.5s at the end of the 36th tour, but that hardly stopped Dennis from pressing on. At the flag on lap 41, Dennis wheeled away in celebration with a crushing 7.8s in hand over Wehrlein. Although the teams were different, Mexico yielded another Porsche 1-2.

"I'm a lot more confident than I was coming into this weekend; we were one of the slowest in Valencia, and to turn it around [even though] we haven't changed much" Jake Dennis

Di Grassi meanwhile continued to have the widest car on the track, albeit helped from Hughes’ renewed challenge when Rene Rast’s stranded McLaren came to a stop on the exit of Turn 7. A yellow flag meant that Hughes could not make a way past through the chicane, and ended up overconsuming energy owing to a lack of rear grip. Once the yellow had abated, di Grassi was too far ahead, and Hughes then fell to Lotterer on the final lap.

The day belonged to Dennis, however, who admitted that Andretti’s struggles in testing meant that a win (and the manner thereof) came as a surprise. “They don't come much better than that; I think it's my biggest Formula E win! I'm super happy, but I didn't expect it at all,” Dennis gushed after the race. “I'm a lot more confident than I was coming into this weekend; we were one of the slowest in Valencia, and to turn it around [even though] we haven't changed much...”

The difficult part was over for Formula E after the early worries and, despite Porsche’s domination, the 2022-23 season still promises to be thrilling and unpredictable. The new cars did their part – but there’s some way to go before the championship battle takes shape.

Formula E's new era is underway with Dennis leading the charge

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images