Pascal Wehrlein has never been lower in the 2023 Formula E world championship standings than he is right now. That he is third and just 16 points off new leader Jake Dennis says a great deal about the Porsche driver’s season so far.
But when Nick Cassidy and Dennis simply keep delivering the performances that they are race in, race out right now, Wehrlein knows his consistent yet often-thin points yields are just not good enough to keep his title desires alive.
What he does have on his side is the most competitive team-mate back-up of any of the main title contenders, with Cape Town race-winner and 2019/20 FE champion Antonio Felix da Costa on the other side of the Porsche garage, not in realistic title contention himself and eager to help.
Context is everything though in Formula E, especially when the energy saving is extreme. Wehrlein had a miserable qualifying again at Portland last weekend and an 18th place start set a wobbly foundation for his race. But while less than ideal, it should in truth have not been a major issue in terms of targeting points given the nature of the race and da Costa being ready and waiting to assist.
What was an issue was the jeopardy for a title challenger in the midst of the midfield, which at times resembled the local funfair bumper-car ride across the lake that flanks the Portland International Raceway site.
In the opposite Porsche pit, Wehrlein’s team-mate da Costa was in a much stronger position as he started from seventh spot. Da Costa made excellent progress, maybe too excellent according to team chief Florian Modlinger in relation to Wehrlein’s more turgid advancement, and eventually finished third compared to Wehrlein’s eighth.
Modlinger told The Race that “if you are not in the front three, four [rows], you were at risk to get damage, and to keep them out of damage we had also to lead some laps, which was, from an energy level, maybe not the best”.
“But we tried it and risked it in Jakarta and it worked. If the cars behind would have only a little incident and lose half a second to a second, we would have succeeded,” he said.
“Now it was not working out, but still with a podium coming from P7, a great achievement and he [Antonio] did a great race too.”
Da Costa did have a great race, but part of the narrative of his race should have been towing Wehrlein along with him into the leading group.
But due to a combination of the poor qualifying and delaying his attack mode activations, which were effectively little more than joker laps again, Wehrlein couldn’t get the necessary momentum to benefit from what would have been da Costa’s team-player generosity.
“We knew from the starting position for him it would be a very challenging, very difficult race, but we had a clear strategy which he executed very well,” Modlinger said of Wehrlein.
“He progressed when we asked him to. Then there was three incidents where he was involved with other cars, losing three to four positions.”
A particular incident with Maximilian Guenther was, according to Modlinger, a key moment in Wehrlein’s race. The lost positions and momentum from that incident could not be recovered, meaning the shining da Costa beacon up ahead became ineffectual for him.
The strategy was therefore “destroyed” as Modlinger put it rather brutally.
“It was a key factor to not take the attack mode in this lap, we had to wait, still progress and then take it,” he said.
“Otherwise, when you see when the incident happened, when he was pushed off in Turn 1, he was in front of [Mitch] Evans and [Sebastien] Buemi as this would have been the range of where we could have arrived, between P4 and P6.”
Da Costa was straight talking as usual after the race, describing his “team ethic role” for Wehrlein as “my job now is to help Pascal win this championship, but if he’s not there I’m still going to try and win the race myself”.
He added: “I was aware that, if he did arrive, I would have had to help him, but on the other hand we have the teams’ championship which, for me, I’ve set as my goal.
“Obviously I need Pascal there as well and he’s been doing amazing, so I foresee a good end of the season for the team and hopefully Pascal can come and take it back from these guys [Cassidy and Dennis].”
It all came down to positioning and perhaps it will serve Porsche well in the final four races when it is expected that less energy-sensitive races will evolve and play out in Rome and London.
At Portland, Modlinger and his troops knew that a lot would hinge on Wehrlein’s progress in the second half of the race after the final safety car.
“Actually, a lot depended on what position they would have been in, with the energy level they would have been, and there you have also to always consider if you make a decision, we are fighting for both championships, it’s the teams’ championship and the drivers’ championship,” he said.
“Without compromising any of these, if there is a chance to help Pascal, Antonio would have for sure helped Pascal.”
Wehrlein himself was looking at the positives despite losing ground to Dennis and Cassidy. Perhaps he knew that Rome, a race he’s scored points in on each of his past four appearances, could suit the Porsche 99X Electric down to the ground and re-energise a season that has occasionally lost big points momentum after a dominant start.
He was frank in his honest assessment of the ultra-hectic energy management races, saying that he’s “not sure yet if I really like those kind of races or not, but obviously it’s very different, so many cars side by side”.
“I think we did well, also strategy-wise it was a good job,” he said.
“I just think that if I wouldn’t have had two incidents we could have finished in the top five. I guess it would always happen in those races.”
Keyword: Why the wrong Porsche ended up on Portland Formula E podium