TopGear South Africa

In a nail-biting final race of the 23/24 Formula e season, Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein is crowned the season champion where both of Jaguar Racing’s drivers lost out on what seemed a certain victory.

Going into the final round of the 23/24 Formula E season, all three driver, team and manufacturer championships were up in the air. Three drivers were in close contention to win the race with Pascal Wehrlein, Mitch Evans and Nick Cassidy separated by just seven points after 15 rounds. After a dismal round 15 for Cassidy, his pole position for Sunday’s race was a display of his brilliance, and exactly what he needed to put himself into the best position to win the season. His Jaguar Racing teammate Mitch Evans was third on the grid, split by Maserati’s Max Gunther. Just behind Max, the third championship contender Werhlein lay in fourth, buoyed by his win the day before.

A clean start opened proceedings to a very tight battle with Werhlein very quickly overtaking Gunther for third place. And so this leading three-pack continued for the bulk of the race remaining neck and neck, with Cassidy choosing to take his Attack Mode early on in the session handing the positions to Evans and Wehrlein in doing so, but for most of the race, the strategy seemed the right thing to do. Keeping right on the rear wing of Werhlein for most of the race, Cassidy only needed to wait until both cars took their respective Attack Modes for Cassidy to reclaim the lead. Meanwhile, Evans was under constant pressure from Wehrlein who seemed to have the upper hand in pace and energy management but Wehrlein couldn’t make a move stick, with Evans defending with supreme skill and patience.

Things unravel for Jaguar while Nissan’s Rowland pounces out of nowehere.

It wasn’t until lap 28 when the race really turned around. Nissan’s Oliver Rowland found a burst of pace making up two positions quite quickly, whilst ahead of him, the leader’s battle went awry. Cassidy opted to take his last two minutes of Attack Mode before the two ahead of him, but it lost him enough time to put him into the clutches of Rowland but also put him into the path of Max Guenther who clipped his left rear wheel. The result of this was a puncture and damage for polesitter Cassidy and that marked the end of the race and any hopes of a championship. It was ultimately up to Evans for Jaguar Racing and Werhlein, both of whom found themselves staring at the possibility of a DNF because the pair has still not yet taken their Attack Modes. Leaving these incredibly late, Werhlein and Evans ran wide into the AM sensors at the same, allowing a prowling Oliver Rowland to take the lead. The drama unfolded further for Evans who, as it turned out, missed the Attack Mode sensor and therefore had to try and do it again, leaving his entire race compromised because time had run out.

Ultimately, the mistake from Evans and Jaguar Racing, meant that Oliver Rowland who started the race in 9^th position, took the win ahead of a patient Pascal Werhlein. It was a fantastic end of season for Nissan, a manufacturer who has seen steady progress and improvement in the sport amidst a significant amount of investment in Formula E as well as further commitment to the sport until 2030.

The end result means three separate winners for the three separate championships that make up Formula E.

· Pascal Wehrlein wins the driver’s title for Tag Heuer Porsche by just 7-points.

· Jaguar TCS Racing win the Team championship by 25-points.

· Porsche win the manufacturer championship by 13-points.

For Jaguar TCS, the emotion and heartbreak of both drivers essentially losing the opportunity of a drivers’ championship was palpable. A visibly dejected Nick Cassidy just couldn’t contain the emotion after what has been a very strong season for him and his team.

2024/2025 Formula E Season Changes

As the season draws to a close, the curtain closes on the Gen 3 Formula E car too. Where teams and driver line-ups will also change, the biggest news concerns the electric race cars themselves. Next season sees a slightly revised design and powertrain setup with the use of the front electric motor to drive the wheels. Where the previous generation only used the 250kW electric motor for regen only, the new Gen 3 Evo will incorporate its use for specific scenarios one of which will be for the race start/launch and another will be for Attack Mode uses. This new revision will see the Gen 3 Evo cars delivering even faster acceleration times with 0 – 100km/h quoted at 1,8-seconds.

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