Formula E: Jake Dennis wins race in Mexico City

The 2023 motorsport season traditionally started with the legendary Dakar Marathon, which normally starts on January 1, and is now also a leg of the World Rally Raid Championship. But in track racing, the first highlight of the year was the Mexican Formula E round, which took place this weekend at the Rodriguez brothers circuit.

The electric series’ calendar consists mainly of urban races, and only in Mexico City, the participants compete on a stationary circuit, including a circuit with Formula 1 stages.19 turns.

Saturday’s race marked the debut for the new generation of Gen3 cars, drawing additional attention from fans who follow Formula E. But the season is not only interesting for that: the starting field of the World Electric Car Championship has changed considerably.

For example, since this year McLaren, which was created on the basis of the Mercedes works team, has been performing in it, and instead of DS Techeetah and Dragon Penske, DS Penske has appeared, where Stoffel Vandorn, the reigning world champion, has now moved. There are more teams with factory support: Maserati and ABT Cupra have been added to Jaguar, Nissan and Porsche.

Gen3 cars have become lighter, more compact and faster than previous generation vehicles – now they can reach speeds of up to 200 mph – in theory all of this should have a positive effect on the entertainment of racing mainly through an increase in the number of pick-ups. However, not all drivers agree: the nature of the behavior of the cars has also changed a lot, especially in the braking phase, and it is not yet a fact that this will contribute to frequent position changes. However, it is still too early to draw conclusions, as the pilots will gradually adapt and find approximations for all these characteristics.

In addition, electric vehicles have become more technologically advanced and it is quite possible that the likelihood of certain failures and malfunctions will increase, especially early in the season. It is also worth adding that the official rubber supplier has changed in Formula E: since 2023 it has become the Korean company Hankook.

Veteran Lucas di Grassi won qualifying in Mexico City, marking his debut as part of the Indian Mahindra Racing team. The second grid position went to Andretti’s Jake Dennis, who showed good speed and reached the final, but in the decisive moment he made a few mistakes: first he overdid it and hooked the barrier a bit, then went too deep into turn 5 hairpin, and it cost him nearly three seconds to lose.

Jake Hughes started the race from the second row, which is very commendable for a McLaren debutant, and 41-year-old Andre Lotterer, who became Dennis’ new partner this year. One of the surprises of qualifying was the fact that the DS Penske drivers didn’t make the top ten at all: Jean-Eric Vergne started just 11th and Vandoorne 14th overall. But in terms of number of titles with this team, none of the rivals can compare: Vergne is a two-time Formula E champion and Vandorn was champion last year.

Mexicans love motorsport, so the main grandstands of the autodrome were full of people: according to official statistics, 44,000 spectators gathered to watch the race.

Di Grassi started confidently and kept the lead, Hughes tried to attack Dennis straight away but he fought back. Overall, the entire top ten remained unchanged, but at the end of the first lap yellow flags appeared on the track and a safety car pulled out.

This was due to the retirement of Robin Fryance, who drives for ABT Cupra this year: he started from a distant 19th position, but apparently was ahead of Norman Nato, a Nissan racer. Frijns tried to recover and apparently made a mistake braking before the chicane. His electric car crashed into the NATO car and then stopped on the side of the road with a broken front suspension. However, the Frenchman also crashed, although he managed to reach the pits.

A restart was given in the 6th round. Di Grassi again accelerated well, but as soon as the peloton had time to pick up speed the electric safety car had to be released again – this time Sam Bird’s Jaguar stopped on track. The racer on the radio reported a failure in one of the drive shafts.

Three laps of the peloton followed the safety car, whose function in Formula E is fulfilled by the Porsche Taycan, after which the race was restarted.

Nick Cassidy and Stoffel Vandorn were the first drivers to activate Attack Mode – an attack mode in which the car gains extra power. Vergne soon followed suit. Stoffel managed to get ahead of Cassidy, and his partner overtook them both overall and moved into 10th position. But more interesting events happened: the leader changed in the race. Dennis managed to get ahead of di Grassi, taking advantage of the Brazilian’s mistake, and soon Jake activated the attack mode, which allowed him to noticeably increase the gap with his pursuers.

On lap 18, coming out of turn 1, Edoardo Mortara, a Maserati driver, either made a mistake himself or the brake by wire electronic braking system failed, but his car flipped and flew off the track. The electric safety car took off for the third time. Naturally, all the gaps were leveled and the pack rallied again.

There were no position changes on the restart, Dennis remained in the lead and soon managed to increase the lead to one and a half seconds and then reduce it to two seconds – despite the fact that behind him the peloton would be clearly closer.

Pascal Wehrlein, the Porsche driver, got ahead of Andre Lotterer, his former teammate, and was now running in 4th place. To overtake the leaders, he activated attack mode, which allowed him to overtake Hughes and move into third position, but it went no further: Dennis and di Grassi also used attack mode and also added.

However, this did not save Di Grassi: his car’s battery charge was less than that of his rivals, so he could not resist Wehrlein’s attack and dropped to third position, while Pascal moved into second and rushed to catch Dennis to catch up. . However, it was not easy to do this: Andretti’s driver was already more than four seconds ahead.

The Mexican e-Prix originally had a distance of 36 laps, but with three laps to go, the race board announced that five more were being added to make up for lost time behind the safety car.

In the closing stages of the race, the battle for top three places escalated with Hughes trying to put pressure on di Grassi and Jake himself being attacked by Lotterer. But Lukas defended well and collected a bunch of cars behind his Mahindra.

At the same time, contacts between cars took place in different parts of the pack, Vergne lost part of the front wing, for example, but continued to run in tenth. In the end, however, he lost a number of positions.

Nothing threatened Dennis’ leadership, as well as Wehrlein’s second-place finish, but several riders claimed the third step of the podium. They all fought with each other in the hope, if not to reach Lucas di Grassi, then at least to regain the position. But Hughes could do nothing against the 2017 Formula E champion and soon paid the price: Lotterer beat him to it. The German veteran did not have time to progress – the race ended and he lost just over half a second to the Brazilian.

Jake Dennis won the first round of the season by a convincing margin, beating Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein by nearly 8 seconds. By the way, the Andretti team also uses Porsche power plants. Wehrlein, the winner of last year’s race in Mexico City, started from sixth position and finished second, which speaks not only for his skill, but also for the efficiency of the famous German carmaker’s equipment.

Di Grassi, who also won in Mexico City once and climbed the podium today, was quite happy with third place and confirmed after the finish that no one could resist the speed of the Porsche, but the new car has potential, and after a while may add Mahindra.

The next phase of the electric series is a double and will be held in Saudi Arabia on January 27 and 28.