Pascal Wehrlein is in a very unique position this weekend at the Diriyah E-Prix double-header, as he has the chance to complete a double-double.
The German enters the second and third rounds of Season 10 having been victorious in Mexico City two weeks ago, after successfully leading from lights-to-flag. Wehrlein, as a result, is the early championship leader and sits 10 points ahead of Sébastian Buemi.
Diriyah is a venue where the TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team driver can definitely build on his small advantage, as he won both races in Saudi Arabia 12 months ago. Both races were won after fighting through the field, although the entire paddock don’t expect that to be possible.
Winning both races in a double-header is “very rare” as it is but to do it in back-to-back seasons would be extraordinary, and a real sign of intention in terms of his title ambitions. Concerningly, for his rivals, he thinks it’s doable.
“In general, I think doing a double in Formula E is very rare,” Wehrlein told Motorsport Week in Diriyah. “Can we do it? I think, yeah, everything is possible. We had a strong weekend last year here and, obviously, we had a strong weekend two weeks ago, so I think we are in good shape.
“Yeah, obviously it’s a very different track, and we need to make sure that our performance here is good going into qualifying and the race. But then, in general, I believe that we can have a strong weekend.”
Whilst Wehrlein made an exceptional start to the championship last year, he just appears to have a newfound confidence and swagger about him this season. He’s determined to get the job done and become Formula E World Champion. It’s easy to forget that himself and Porsche led the standings for three months in 2023.
Wehrlein believes it’s not just him but the entire team who are in a better place compared to 12 months ago, as they’ve learnt from their Season 9 slump in performance. Their biggest issue last year was qualifying, as Wehrlein was often starting races outside the top 10.
This has been ferociously worked on by Porsche, with their work seemingly having been a success considering that Wehrlein claimed his first Gen3 pole position in the season-opener.
“I think as a team we’re all feeling better because we had our highs last season, but definitely towards mid and end of season we started to, let’s say, lose a bit compared to the others, and especially in qualifying, let’s say that was our weak area where just too many times we started outside of the top 10,” added the German.
“And it’s just difficult then to every time have a race like improving 10 positions or more. So therefore our focus was just improving, especially one-lap performance, improving our qualifying pace. And what is very positive is that we had our first pole position last weekend, so that seemed to pay off. And, yeah, hopefully we can continue that progress.”
Following the cancellation of the Hyderabad E-Prix, a seven-week break unfortunately follows this weekend’s action. That’s an eternity for a racing driver to not be competing, raising the question whether gaining momentum in Diriyah is vital.
Wehrlein doesn’t think so, with him treating every E-Prix as a “fresh start”.
“No, I generally don’t believe in, let’s say, momentum or energy from the last race, et cetera,” insisted Wehrlein. “I think every weekend is a kind of a fresh start and, obviously, we know that if we put everything together, we have a strong package, but let’s say it’s never a guarantee if the last race was strong that also your next one will be strong.
“So we just have to make sure every weekend we are on top of everything, we are not doing mistakes. We put the car in the best possible place and then also for us drivers to be faultless and extract everything out of the car. So for me, it’s always the same approach, no matter if the last weekend was good or bad.”
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