Reigning World Champion Jake Dennis heads into this weekend’s season-opening Mexico City E-Prix hoping of claiming an “incredible” back-to-back wins in the Mexican capital.
Dennis kickstarted his Season 9 campaign 12 months ago with a stunning victory in Mexico City, where he won by almost eight seconds. Winning by that sort of margin is unheard of in Formula E and isn’t expected to happen again this Saturday.
Given that all the teams and drivers have a much better understanding of the Gen3 machinery, the general expectation is that Saturday’s race will be much closer. Despite this, Dennis is still one of the favourites to start 2024 with a victory, in what would be the perfect way to get his title defence underway.
Andretti Formula E have been putting in the hours over the off-season to ensure that Dennis has a great chance at defending his crown, with the Briton now hoping that the American outfit’s efforts have “paid off”.
It’s remarkable to think that Dennis won the 2023 championship back in July last year, with him and the entire paddock now being “eager to get going”.
“The first race of the year is always a pretty special occasion, especially with the season kicking off in Mexico City where we’ve got some good memories having taken our first win of the year there,” Dennis said.
“It would be incredible if we could replicate what we did last time. Everyone has been putting in a great deal of work over the winter, and Mexico will be the first time we see if it has all paid off. I’m looking forward to being back with the whole team. It’s been a long time since July, and I think everyone is eager to get going.”
Being the reigning World Champion, Dennis was given the option of completing Season 10 with the #1 plate, something he has opted to do. Only Jean-Éric Vergne has successfully defended his first Formula E title, something Dennis is favoured to do if he replicates his 2023 consistency, which saw him claim a record-breaking 11 podiums.
