Jake Dennis’ defence of the Formula E Drivers’ Championship failed to start how he would’ve liked, after a frustrating weekend at the season-opening Mexico City E-Prix.
Having won the Season 9 race in the Mexican capital with absolute ease, Dennis was full of confidence ahead of the first round of Season 10, although he admitted straight away that the E-Prix itself wouldn’t follow a similar style to 12 months ago.
The 2023 Mexico City E-Prix was a strange affair because it was the first race of the Gen3 era, meaning very little was known about how to extract the most from the new machinery. Dennis, ultimately, won that race by eight seconds, a ridiculous margin in Formula E terms.
Despite knowing that winning by eight seconds was more than likely off the cards, Dennis was nevertheless confident that a strong result was possible. His pace at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez was actually very good, particularly in Free Practice 1, where he finished in fifth place.
The reigning World Champion was a favourite to progress to the duels, something he achieved on 11 occasions in 2023. However, a costly mistake at Turn 5 – the same corner where he lost pole position 12 months ago – saw him shockingly eliminated in the group stage, leaving him to start the race from 14th on the grid.
Scoring big points from that far down the grid simply wasn’t possible last Saturday because of how challenging overtaking was, with the grip off line having been non-existent due to an extreme amount of dust and dirt.
In actual fact, Dennis did very well to make up five places on the opening laps, although once he made it to ninth, he failed to make any further progress. He finished behind all three of his Season 9 title rivals, with Pascal Wehrlein having won the race, whilst Nick Cassidy and Mitch Evans finished third and fifth, respectively.
It all means that he already finds himself 26 points behind Wehrlein, ahead of next weekend’s Diriyah double-header where the German won both races. Dennis admits that he left Mexico City “feeling a little bit disappointed” and that he believed that Andretti Formula E “had a bit more potential” than ninth.
“The first race of the season is done, and we leave Mexico City with a double-point finish for the team,” said Dennis. “I think it was the best we could do after our qualifying positions but ultimately, I’m feeling a little bit disappointed with the overall result.
“I thought we had a bit more potential to finish better than ninth, but it’s good to get some points in the bag no matter how many. Congratulations to Pascal and Porsche for the pole position and win – it’s encouraging to see the Porsche package do well. Full focus now turns to Saudi where we’re hoping we can move forward and come away with a better result.”
