Formula E: A Perfect Start for Porsche!

It took a long time: Until now, Porsche had to often settle for mid-tier placements in Formula E. The Zuffenhausen-based team rarely raced at the front and even more rarely made it to the podium. All the stronger then was the first race with the Gen-3 cars: Here, three Porsche-powered racers finished in the top four places, finally securing the long-desired role of favorites for the Zuffenhausen team.

But much more has changed: Besides new drives and bodies, Hankook has now replaced Michelin as the tire partner. And for the first time, the significant opening race of a Formula E season did not take place on the Asian continent. Also, the tracks are getting longer: With a length of 107.6 kilometers, the new Mexico City E-Prix is the longest race in Formula E history. Previously, this "record" was held by Berlin Tempelhof 2018 with just under 106.8 kilometers driven.

But let's start with the preparations: Seldom has there been so much worry behind the scenes before a season about reliability, safety, and recently also a lack of spare parts. However, the season opener in Mexico City went off without a hitch and it was a resounding success for Porsche. Noticeable: The new cars are more complex and now have drives at the front, which is why the drivers noticeably held back in terms of "contact." Even so, there were several restarts for the now 350 kW (476 hp) strong Gen3 machines after a total of three safety-car phases. It started with a collision involving Frijns, in which he broke his wrist, then Bird's technology failed, and finally, Mortara had an accident. Until last season, drivers always used these restarts for wild position battles, sometimes with heavy vehicle contact — the later the race, the fiercer. But this time, everyone remained much more cautious, likely also out of concern for the complex technology at the front axle.

With Andretti and Penske, two big US names join the fray

Nevertheless, the race was exciting in its own way. Nobody would have believed that Jake Dennis, with the current "Porsche customer team" Andretti, would achieve a very fast victory with almost eight seconds lead — in Formula E, that’s a lifetime! The Red Bull test driver claimed his victory from second starting position by overtaking pole-sitter di Grassi. Di Grassi's pole position was the second surprise, as his last one was in 2017 — seemingly ages ago. While he had to give up one place in his Mahindra, he still managed to secure third place despite a lack of energy at the end. Andretti's new addition, Andre Lotterer, secured fourth place. Fifth place went to Jake Hughes on Neom McLaren with a Nissan drive: The Brit was only beaten by pursuer Lotterer in the last lap. Annoying for McLaren: DTM star and now McLaren teammate Rene Rast dropped out shortly before the race ended. The top-10 in the points rankings were completed by Sebastien Buemi on Envision, Antonio Felix da Costa in the second Porsche, Mitch Evans on Jaguar, Nick Cassidy in the second Envision, and the reigning world champion Stoffel Vandoorne, who at least secured one point for DS Penske. Maximilian Günther on Maserati just missed out on the points: He managed to move up from 17th to 11th place. And Nissan and McLaren? Apart from fifth place, they had rather mediocre results. Abt Cupra with Mahindra drives also had little luck: Nico Müller finished 14th, Frijns dropped out after his accident.

Attack Mode: New regulation surprisingly doesn't necessarily make the race more exciting

The new Attack Mode regulation gives drivers and teams many more options. Previously, the number and duration of the extra power were precisely specified by the FIA. Now, teams can choose how to use the power-boost in two phases of 2+2 or 1+3 minutes. What should make the tactics more exciting rather became a bore, as in the first race it seemed more about defending positions than – as the name suggests – attacking to gain positions. The only one to do so was Pascal Wehrlein, who used the Attack Mode to boost himself from sixth starting position to the podium.

New favorites, strong customer teams 

In the end, aside from the Porsche drives, di Grassi in the Mahindra and Jake Hughes' strong fifth place on McLaren's debut with Nissan drives were also surprising. Jaguar can hope again, as the two Envision customer cars showed potential. Surprisingly weak were the Stellantis racers from DS and Maserati, despite heavy upgrading: DS switched to partner Penske and put world champion Stoffel Vandoorne and two-time champion Jean-Eric Vergne in the cockpit, and the "customer team" Maserati has strong and experienced Formula E pros at the wheel with Maximilian Günther and Edoardo Mortara. Overall speed also fell short of expectations: The Gen3 racers were not dramatically faster, which was also due to an additional chicane installed on the back straight of the main straight – it slowed down the field. But in individual sectors, the Gen-3 cars were noticeably faster than their predecessors.

The new tires also change a lot

The fact that the cars were faster on difficult sections could also be due to the new Hankook soles. The FIA's requirements for the new tires were that they should last even longer, degrade less quickly, and be generally more robust. And: They remained all-weather tires, which once had the disadvantage of massively degrading under wet conditions towards the end of the race, often leading to accidents. However, grip and speed are often at odds, which is why there is increasing consideration of operating with slick and rain tires in Formula E as well, to unlock the true potential of the cars - which, because of "series proximity", have to run with all-weather groove tires, even though these have little in common with Hankook's similarly named iON series tires, as Hankook's motorsport director Manfred Sandbichler explained to us.

What does this mean?

Successful start, missed record – that could broadly describe the first Formula E race of the year. There were indeed surprises and exciting moments, including new names on the podium, but the ratings did not rise dramatically. As the portal Motorsport-Magazin.com reports, ProSieben's prime-time viewers on Saturday evening were "manageable": a 1.8 percent market share overall – equivalent to around 480,000 viewers and a 4.0 percent market share (according to Motorsport-Magazin.com this is 230,000 viewers) in the target group were "below the average of the previous year". Therefore, it remains to be seen how the format will develop in general.