The key factors behind Porsche's strong start to Formula E's new era

After Valencia’s collective Formula E testing, Pascal Wehrlein was hardly at ease. Across the three-and-a-bit days of running at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo, once the best times were put together in order, Wehrlein was 12th overall. Of the four Porsche-powered cars on the grid in 2022-23 season, including the Andretti squad, Wehrlein’s 1m25.873s was the best of the quartet.

It’s usually pointless to look too deeply into the Valencia times themselves but, following the December running, Wehrlein was still not particularly confident heading into the Mexico City season opener – and nor was customer team Andretti’s Jake Dennis. It looked like Porsche had rather missed the boat with the all-new cars.

Three races have since passed in Formula E’s new Gen3 era. Dennis won in Mexico from Wehrlein, and Wehrlein won both races at Diriyah from Dennis in dominant Porsche displays. It’s probably safe to say that Wehrlein, standing atop the drivers’ championship after the opening trio of rounds, is not quite as worried these days. Instead, he could afford to recline in his Diriyah press conference chair, satisfied with the bountiful harvest from the opening two weeks of the season.

It was Diriyah, rather than Mexico, that was a more decisive indicator of Porsche’s performance with its new package. After all, a year ago the German manufacturer had waltzed to a 1-2 finish in Mexico City, having saved so much energy that Wehrlein could take the race to an extra lap and see off any threat from their energy-critical rivals. Thus, its prior form at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez suggested that it would have to wait and see where it really was at a more representative circuit.

Qualifying in Saudi Arabia hadn’t been particularly special, and none of the Porsche cars made it into the duels in race one. That mattered little, as Wehrlein and Dennis could sip at their energy while running in the pack and then drop the hammer once they had a clear advantage. The German and the Briton progressed into Saturday’s quarterfinals and displayed the strengths of the Porsche package across a wider window. When Wehrlein had made it up to the lead early on, he showed that the 99X Electro could also be fast and energy-conscious even when running in the lead, without a slipstream.

In qualifying trim, the Porsches do not appear to imbue the drivers with as much confidence on the brakes compared to some of the rival packages. There’s a bigger spread between its drivers; Wehrlein and Dennis seem to be able to corral the cars into the corners better than Andre Lotterer and Antonio Felix da Costa can, hence the current splits in qualifying relative to their respective team-mates. Driving a Formula E car on a hotlap requires a very different approach to handling it in the race, and the drivers are on a knife-edge as they attack the circuit with low-grip tyres and rely on software to maximise braking capabilities.

In a race, a driver touches the brakes less; the focus is on regeneration and on sweeping through the corners with a high minimum speed. That’s where Porsche seems to excel with its Gen3 package, and through a race seems to be able to bank energy more effectively in these early phases of the season.

Jake Dennis took victory for the Porsche powered Andretti squad in Mexico

Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Images

“Every little detail counts,” Porsche Formula E chief Florian Modlinger explains to Autosport, when asked why Porsche seems to have the advantage on efficiency. “This means it's the powertrain, but it's also the setup, it's minimum corner speeds, and it's the perfect execution of the race strategy. And every time when you avoid wasting energy and you make the move by strategy or through clever ways, you will gain compared to the others.

“In addition, the balance was really well set up, because if you have a little understeer or more oversteer, then you are also not that good in energy management because you slow down your apexes or you're struggling to put the power down in the exit. Car balance, traction was good and nearly no understeer.”

“Every little detail counts, this means it's the powertrain, but it's also the setup, it's minimum corner speeds, and it's the perfect execution of the race strategy" Porsche Formula E chief Florian Modlinger

A tall and imposing figure, Modlinger’s softly spoken nature belies his stature. A man for a crisis, you might contend; someone who can serenely guide a panic-stricken collective from choppy waters and onto dry land. While Porsche was hardly in such dire straits, Wehrlein’s earlier admittance to worrying about the team’s testing performance must have been shared in some corners of the team.

Based on what we’ve said about Modlinger, it’s almost folly to ask him if he shared the same worries. Suffice it to say that he didn’t - or at least, not outwardly.

“I think I said already in Valencia, the true pace and where we are, we will see after the qualifying in Mexico. Valencia was a very special case this year because the spare part situation was completely different to the years before. Therefore also the main target was to keep the cars in one piece.

"There was no damage at all, and for sure we saw our potential and where we were not the strongest and where we had weaknesses compared to the others. We worked really hard over Christmas, over New Year, to be ready for Mexico. And I did not expect that it's so close. In qualifying, we had five cars in Group A within one tenth, and if you are on the wrong side of this tenth, you are five, six, seven positions further down the grid.

“Every half a tenth counts and we showed in Mexico that we are strong. Now, we showed that with the race pace in Diriyah, two completely different tracks. But there are other track characteristics coming up, and we need to improve and show on every race track that we are strong. Therefore we need to work hard.”

Porsche Formula E chief Florian Modlinger is a calm head for the team

Photo by: Porsche Motorsport

Porsche had only won one Formula E race prior to this year; its command in Mexico last year could hardly have been a better way for the Weissach squad to open its account as the other teams were rendered subservient that day. Through Wehrlein, it’s won two already this year, and Dennis’ win in the opener has ensured the powertrain department has a clean sweep in Gen3 thus far.

In the Gen2 days, Porsche was often quick but inconsistent. It could have won in last year’s Monaco round too, but a failure on Wehrlein’s DCDC converter ensured the ex-Manor and Sauber F1 driver ground to a halt. A grid penalty taken for a fix to that DCDC unit compromised Wehrlein’s Jakarta race, while Morocco was stunted by an early power mode issue that left him tumbling down the order. In the meantime, Andre Lotterer had a strong start to the year, but his performance rather tailed off in the second half of the season.

Porsche motorsport director Thomas Laudenbach explained that the team had to spend the off-season licking its wounds slightly after a promising year had turned into a slightly bruising experience. There wasn’t an immediate silver-bullet solution to turning its fortunes around for 2022-23, he says, but rather a process of identifying the little details that had cost it and trying to mitigate their effect in the design of the new package.

“We were good last year in Mexico, but we had a few hiccups and I think that was difficult for the team,” he said after Wehrlein’s victory in the first Diriyah race. "We were leading Monaco and we had this technical problem. And don't forget, [Formula E] is so tight. It's really the small things that count.

“And of course after the season we went - because we were disappointed after the season, no question about that – and really sat together and went through every race, through every report and put down what wasn't really perfect - where did we have those small things? And what we found out is that there wasn't one area where we were weak. It was throughout the whole thing. No matter if it's the team, drivers, engineers, everything, it’s little things. But you pay a high price in Formula E if you do these little things, it's so tight.

"It was really a lot of details and the only thing we said was ‘the only chance we have is we have to focus, we have to minimise these little details. Honestly, I think that's what it is beside the fact, it will happen again. You can't do always a perfect job. But don't forget it's Gen3 now.

PLUS: How Wehrlein's Diriyah double reveals Formula E's form book shake-up

“I'm very careful because it's [early], but it looks like we are...we were good last year in qualifying, but we didn't make the points. I think we are now okay in qualifying. But it looks like, and again, I'm, I'm talking about the tendency out of two races, so we’ve got to be careful, but it looks like we are quite strong in the race with the Gen3 car. That’s my first analysis, not really going deep into the whole thing, but that's my first impression.”

Race winner Pascal Wehrlein celebrates in Diriyah

Photo by: Andreas Beil

At this stage of the year, Porsche has an undeniable advantage, but the other teams and manufacturers will continue to catch them. After a tough pre-season, Jaguar looks to be in the ascendancy; Sam Bird and Envision’s Sebastien Buemi benefitted from an overnight efficiency discovery in Saudi Arabia and appeared to have an energy surplus towards the end of race two. Bird reckons, had the FIA added on two extra laps rather than just one, that he could have potentially won.

If McLaren and Nissan can find more race day efficiency, they’ll have the ammunition to pose a threat on race day, given their impressive qualifying results so far. While it’s not been easy for Maserati MSG and DS Penske, the opening three rounds will provide food for thought; reigning champion Stoffel Vandoorne says that in terms of performance, the other manufacturers all seem to be evenly matched.

With three consecutive new venues coming up, the unknown nature of each course will provide further variables. Hyderabad, Cape Town and Sao Paulo may play into Porsche’s hands again, but there’s an equal chance that they could suit someone else – it all depends on their energy consumption profiles and who can get the best out of the tyres on the day.

For Porsche, it’s the first time in Formula E that it’s opened the season with the package to beat. But it’s not resting on its laurels

“Obviously the others are not sleeping - they're also catching up,” said Wehrlein after his second Diriyah win. “I’m very optimistic and positive for the future. We have a lot of work ahead of us, because the season is long but also it’s still the beginning of the Gen3 car. So, a lot of progress will be made during the year, that’s for sure, and we just need to keep working hard as I’m sure everyone else will.”

For Porsche, it’s the first time in Formula E that it’s opened the season with the package to beat. But it’s not resting on its laurels; the common mantra of continuing to work hard is at the forefront of everybody involved with the project, both at the works team and at the Andretti team it supplies with its products.

It’s a step into the unknown, but Porsche knows at its core that 2022-23 is its best chance of walking away with a title at the end of it. There’s just the small matter of 13 more races to preserve its advantage...

Can Pascal Wehrlein and Porsche continue its march?

Photo by: Andreas Beil