Yahoo Autos Unique London venue set to decide Formula E title race
The 2023-24 ABB Formula E World Championship season concludes this weekend with a pair of races on a unique indoor/outdoor circuit built at the ExCeL exhibition space in London.
After 14 rounds, seven of the series’ 22 full-time drivers remain in championship contention, with a total of 58 points — including three for a pole position and one for a fastest lap — still up for grabs.
Current points leader Nick Cassidy heads to the British capital as the favorite, despite the wide-open nature of the contest. The Jaguar TCS Racing driver, who’s in his first season with the team after moving from customer outfit Envision Racing, grabbed the lead at the first Berlin race back in May with a stunning victory in which he carved his way through the field after a masterful display of energy management.
Cassidy may have had a torrid time last time out in Portland, where he failed to score in both races across the weekend, but he was victorious from pole in London last year — a season where he was also in championship contention — which bodes well for his chances of locking up a first Formula E title there this weekend. Like his two nearest rivals, Cassidy has got two wins to his name already this season, claiming victory in the third race of the season in Saudi Arabia as well as in Berlin. But crucially, he has more podium finishes than anyone else.
Breathing down his neck is his fellow New Zealander and Jaguar teammate Mitch Evans, and there have been signs of tension between the two all season as they’ve been left to battle it out for championship supremacy.
Evans had something of a slower start to the season, not reaching the podium until round four in Sao Paulo, but a win on the streets of Monaco gave his campaign a shot in the arm. He followed that up with victory in Race 1 in Shanghai, and was also triumphant in the first Portland race until a penalty for a collision with NEOM McLaren’s Jake Hughes relegated him to eighth.
Nick Cassidy and Mitch Evans have both starred for Jaguar TCS Racing this season, although it hasn’t all been smooth sailing between the two. Andrew Ferraro/Motorsport Images
TAG Heuer Porsche’s pairing of Pascal Wehrlein and Antonio Felix da Costa are next up. Wehrlein is equal on points with Evans — on 155, 13 off Cassidy — but has had a less-than-stellar record in London which could prove to be his undoing. In the last six races at the ExCeL, Wehrlein has only finished in the top five once. Nevertheless, he has more points finishes than any of the other championship contenders this season, managing to remain consistent where others have had peaks and troughs to varying degrees.
Da Costa, meanwhile, heads to London on a hot streak. We arguably shouldn’t even be talking about him being a championship contender, after he had three point-less finishes at the start of the year which led to him facing the exit door at Porsche. But a remarkable turnaround — which had an aborted start in the first Misano race which he won only to later be disqualified from — has seen da Costa take four wins from the last five races, including each of the last three consecutively.
That puts him within one win of the series’ all-time record (13, by Sebastien Buemi), matching the consecutive win record again, having already shared it with Buemi from his previous hat trick in 2019-20, and within two of the most wins in a season record. The Portuguese driver’s recent run of form also moved him ahead of Nissan driver Oliver Rowland, who remains in championship contention despite missing the last two rounds due to illness.
A winner in Misano, Rowland has mastered the art of peloton-style racing brought about in the current GEN3 era, securing strong results for the somewhat unfancied Nissan powertrain compared to the Jaguars and Porsches. Cassidy’s double non-score in Portland certainly helped Rowland’s cause somewhat, but 36 points adrift with two rounds to go, he’s gone from being a dark horse to an outsider.
Two more outsiders are DS Penske’s Jean-Eric Vergne and reigning champion Jake Dennis of Andretti.
Vergne may be leading the series with the number of pole positions — both all-time (17), and this season, along with Wehrlein (3) — but the Stellantis package that DS Penske runs has been lacking in race trim. Unless he wins one of the two races this weekend, Vergne stands to have his second winless season in the last three, and only the third of his nine full formula E campaigns.
It’s been a frustrating campaign for Vergne, despite the odd positive moment, and the same can be said for Dennis. The British driver hasn’t won since the second round of the season in Saudi Arabia, having not managed to match the late-season charge that led to him claiming his and Andretti’s first Formula E crown last year.
While he’s the third Porsche-powered driver to still be in the championship fight — and is a two-time London winner who’s only failed to reach the podium there once in six attempts — a 45-point deficit makes it almost a certainty he won’t be retaining his title.
Still, miracles do happen. And this season, as with the nine that came before it, has proven that Formula E is anything but predictable.
Both London races will air live on the CBS broadcast network starting at 12pm ET both days, as well as the Roku network, which also airs practice and qualifying sessions.
