The 27-day wait between the last Formula E round and this weekend’s Jakarta E-Prix double-header has been a long one for Porsche following its worst event of the season.
Neither Pascal Wehrlein nor Antonio Felix da Costa finished in the points on the road in Monte Carlo, and although the former was promoted to 10th after a post-race penalty for Sam Bird, the one point was scant consolation. Of even more significance, the poor result coincided with Wehrlein and Porsche losing the lead in both championships, something which they’d headed since January.
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It seems a long time ago that the German manufacturer hit the ground running with the new-for-2023 Gen3 machines, Wehrlein taking back-to-back wins in Diriyah after finishing as runner-up in the Mexico City opener. Despite some rough opening races for team-mate da Costa, primarily due to struggling with confidence on the brakes over one lap, he took to the podium in Hyderabad before a last-lap pass on Jean-Eric Vergne handed him victory in Cape Town.
It all served to mark Porsche out as the dominant force in Formula E and, even at that early stage, the favourites for the championship with strong showings coming from Jake Dennis in the customer Andretti Autosport machine as well.
But since da Costa’s win in South Africa in February, neither he nor Wehrlein has stood on the podium let alone taken another victory. Yes, there have been strong points finishes as well as some unfortunate collisions along the way which have hindered results, but there has also noticeably been a stark shift in the hierarchy of performance.
“Regarding the performance we have to work hard and improve because as you see the Formula E grid is very close,” says Porsche Formula E team principal Florian Modlinger. “Everything is tight, and you need to perform and find the last tenths to be in the front and that’s the target for the second part of the season.”
Source: Autosport