Reigning World Champion Jake Dennis and the majority of the Formula E paddock are expecting qualifying to be more important than the races this weekend, at the Diriyah E-Prix.
Friday and Saturday’s races are the only ones on the Season 10 calendar to take place in the evening, when track and air temperatures are beginning to drop off. Qualifying, on the other hand, takes place in the middle of the afternoon, when the sun is at its hottest.
Whilst this impacts how the track feels, the bigger issue is how challenging overtaking is at the Diriyah Street Circuit, with it being almost as difficult as the season-opener in Mexico City. The season-opener two weeks ago wasn’t a thriller, with a train having quickly formed.
A train formed due to energy management having been low, resulting in Dennis failing to make much progress from 14th on the grid. He found himself this far down following an error in qualifying, something which cost him a place in the duels. His pace was strong, but his poor qualifying meant he couldn’t capitalise on it.
Looking back on Mexico, he admits that “everyone was frustrated” that overtaking was so hard and that fighting through the field like the Porsches often did last season “won’t happen anymore”.
“I think everyone was frustrated,” Dennis admitted to Motorsport Week in Diriyah. “I think everyone was frustrated apart from the top three, you know, no one could overtake. It was pretty annoying. We obviously more so because we were the ones who had a lot of pace and couldn’t do much with it.
“But ultimately, a bit of a train-fest and not much action going on. I think here will be very similar as well. Qualifying will be absolutely crucial to having a good performance. So, yeah, it’s going to be important to start in the front two rows. That won’t happen anymore.
“Even if we repeated that race again with all the same equipment, the way everyone races now, it’s much, much more difficult to overtake and people understand the situation a lot more. So you need a big pace advantage over everyone. And obviously, with the whole field closing up now, it won’t really happen. So, yeah, for a good result, you need to start in the front two rows.”
Dennis pulled off several overtakes in Diriyah last season to claim second in both races, although with him believing this isn’t possible anymore, qualifying is effectively more important than both races. By qualifying well, the chances are big points will follow in the race.
He does think crazy races will return later in the year, but that for now, in the likes of Mexico City and Diriyah where the pace is “too fast” due to minimal energy management, qualifying is crucial.
“Absolutely, yeah,” said Dennis. “It’s cool to have that pressure in qualifying and this is what matters. But then I do think the best thing about Formula E, and one of the good things we bring compared to Formula 1 is the excitement in the racing. And I do think it’s important not to lose that.
“I think Brazil, Portland, Misano will generally go back to what we had before, where there’s loads of overtaking, which will be great. But nevertheless, I think for these first couple of rounds, we just didn’t quite get the energy management correct in terms of how much energy we start the race with. It’s just too fast, which ultimately leads to not much overtaking.”
With qualifying being so pivotal this weekend, Dennis is expecting the likes of the NEOM McLaren Formula E Team and DS Penske to be strong. DS have started the weekend well, with their drivers finishing second and third in Free Practice 1.
Dennis salvaged fourth in the opening session, although he fears that Diriyah doesn’t suit Andretti Formula E “all that well”.
“I mean, I don’t think we have the fastest car in qualifying over one-lap round here,” Dennis believes. “Generally, we really struggled here last year. McLaren and DS and Jaguar were extremely strong, so I think we’ll have a very good race car again.
“But qualifying around here probably doesn’t suit our package all that well. But it’s been a year on and everything’s changed, so I could be completely wrong and we start right near the front, but we just have to play it by ear, to be honest, so much happens in Formula E over one weekend or a year, it’s really difficult to predict.”
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