“It would mean the world. Everyone in motorsport strives to be world champion at what they do.”
For Jake Dennis, this weekend’s London E-Prix double-header could well be the culmination of a lifetime’s ambition as he sits on the verge of being crowned the 2022-2023 Formula E world champion.
The Briton has every chance of walking away with the title this weekend – at his home event of all places – as he heads to ExCeL London’s unique indoor/outdoor circuit with a 24-point margin over his nearest rival, Envision Racing’s Nick Cassidy. Jaguar’s Mitch Evans and Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein are also mathematically in contention.
As well as a healthy points lead, Dennis arrives in the UK’s capital in fine form. He won last time out in Rome with a lights-to-flag performance, leading every lap from pole on his way to a second victory of the season.
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When you also factor in that the Andretti Autosport driver has taken five podiums from the last six races, as well as securing at least one victory at the London track in each of the last two years, it would be easy to assume his name is already being etched into the championship trophy. But Dennis knows that with such expectation comes extra pressure and the 28-year-old Red Bull Formula 1 simulator driver is intent on not changing his mindset for the two races.
“It's never easy [to manage pressure], I think it’s one of the harder things in any sport really to keep your head and keep level in difficult situations,” Dennis tells Autosport. “There’s only so much you can do. You don’t want to try and take too little risk because then you just keep going backwards in the race and before you know it, you’re out of the points and you may as well DNF. You just need to make calculated and educated risk versus reward [moves].
“If I’m fighting Nick then we can be a little bit more aggressive because neither of us can afford DNFs that’s for sure. And then on Sunday if we still have that healthy points lead then you can be even more calculated and even more risk diverse.”
Source: Autosport