Robert Shwartzman was quickest in Formula E’s rookie test at Tempelhof Airport in Berlin, topping both the morning and afternoon sessions for DS Penske. The Ferrari Formula 1 test and reserve driver lapped the Berlin E-Prix course in 1m 2.150s in …
Robert Shwartzman was quickest in Formula E’s rookie test at Tempelhof Airport in Berlin, topping both the morning and afternoon sessions for DS Penske.
The Ferrari Formula 1 test and reserve driver lapped the Berlin E-Prix course in 1m 2.150s in the morning, going 0.071s quicker than last year’s rookie pacesetter Felipe Drugovich, who once again turned out for Maserati MSG Racing.
Shwartzman improved to 1m 1.937 in the warmer and quicker afternoon session, beating Andretti driver Jak Crawford with a time that was the only one under the 1m 2s barrier, and just 0.118 shy of Sunday polesitter Jake Dennis’ best time in qualifying. Overall he completed 94 laps throughout the day.
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Sheldon van der Linde was third quickest overall for Jaguar TCS Racing, ahead of Drugovich, with Kush Maini completing the top-five for Mahindra in the afternoon, again climbing one place up the order compared to his morning run.at the end of the day.
Enzo Fittipaldi was sixth for Jaguar, ahead of Mercedes F1 junior Frederik Vesti who enjoyed a top four run in the morning for Mahindra, with Zane Maloney (Andretti), Gabriele Mini (Nissan), and Caio Collet (Nissan) completing the overall top 10.
Both of the day’s otherwise uneventful three hour sessions featured a single red flag in each. Dries Vanthoor brought out the first around two and a half hours into the day after crashing his Envision Racing car at Turn 3. He didn’t return to the track for the remainder of the day, but finished the morning session down in 20th, and set the 21st quickest time of the day as a result of his curtailed program.
The second was caused by Drugovich just over half an hour into the afternoon session. It was a brief stoppage, with the team telling RACER that he was instructed to stop to prevent further damage from what was a “wheel issue”. The problem was quickly rectified and he returned to the track. He eventually completed more laps than anybody else across both sessions with 101.
Mini had the most in the morning session, completing 64 laps, with Envision Racing’s Alice Powell doing the most in the afternoon with 56.
After having his first win of the season taken away by a post-race ruling, Antonio Felix da Costa finally got a victory for keeps in the second half of the Berlin E-Prix. Although this one, too, came with a post-race scare when the stewards noted an …
After having his first win of the season taken away by a post-race ruling, Antonio Felix da Costa finally got a victory for keeps in the second half of the Berlin E-Prix. Although this one, too, came with a post-race scare when the stewards noted an “error in the identification number of declared equipment” on the winning car.
Thankfully the only penalty this time was a 1,000 Euro fine to be paid within 48 hours, meaning that while da Costa and Porsche’s win absolutely stands this time around, they’ll have a little less to put behind the bar when they celebrate tonight.
The TAG Heuer Porsche driver survived a race where contact was a significant ingredient to win by over six tenths from Jaguar’s Nick Cassidy and he says that it was him choosing his battles wisely that enabled him to emerge not just victorious, but unscathed too.
“I think if you treat the others well, they treat you well back. I see a lot of drivers around me hitting each other and then they get it right back, and rightly so,” he told RACER. “People are trying to stand their ground, but I always try and be fair.
“My car had zero scratches on it, which is quite impressive after a race like that. I’m very lucky to race against very experienced and respectful drivers so I know if you give some you get some.”
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The victory was da Costa’s second for Porsche, and first for over a year and comes after a huge amount of what he says is “hard work” to get him back on track after a tough start to the season where he had three straight races without registering a point while his teammate Pascal Wehrlien started the campaign off as a winner.
“I would say Pascal still has a little edge on me over one lap — he’s driving the package really well,” he said. “I’m still struggling to find the right balance; we want different balances from the race car, and that’s the work that’s been ongoing.
“We have done steps — I think it’s been seven duels this year where I’ve missed out in P5 by a few hundredths, so we have made steps but we do need to still find a bit of pace. Then again, in some of these races it doesn’t really matter where you qualify, but still you want to show the world and your team that you are the quickest driver.”
Case in point, da Costa (like Saturday winner Nick Cassidy) was victorious despite qualifying 10th, and with two of the remaining three doubleheader events being held on tracks expecting to throw up similar “peloton-style” races, he’s optimistic about the rest of the season although he admits that with Wehlein in a better position in the points, he’ll be the focal point for Porsche.
“We seem to do well in these types of races, but (we’ve) still got Pascal up there and I think at the moment that’s the big push from us,” he said. “If we do get the win back from Misano, maybe — that’s being contested — but I’m not really thinking that. I think you could see these guys, how they raced me and how they raced each other, they were kind of happy to let me go and not get involved in the mix.
“I’ve a little bit less to lose right now — wins are more important to me than finishing fifth or sixth. Let’s see, it’s still a long season but to be fully honest the championship’s not really on my mind.”
“I think if you treat the others well, they treat you well back,” says da Costa, here leading TAG Heuer Porsche teammate Pascal Wehrlein. Dom Romney/Motorsport Images
As he alluded to, da Costa’s removed victory from the first Misano race — when his No. 13 Porsche was disqualified for having an “illegal throttle damper spring” fitted — remains subject to appeal, and while recovering that would change his outlook on his own championship hopes, he says he’s willing to play rear-gunner for Wehrlein should he need to.
“At the moment the goal is I’d really like to win the teams’ championship — it’s a tough battle with Jaguar at the moment. Obviously Pascal is still very much up there in the championship so I think that’s our goal as team.
“I’m happy to help, happy to give up places for Pascal to score a few extra points but I still want to race for myself if the opportunity is there. Today, this happened perfectly and I’m happy with that.”
Antonio Felix da Costa prevailed in a bruising second Berlin E-Prix race as Jaguar’s challenge fell apart in the closing stages. TAG Heuer Porsche’s da Costa led 22 of 41 laps – extended from 38 after two safety car periods – but was in an intense …
Antonio Felix da Costa prevailed in a bruising second Berlin E-Prix race as Jaguar’s challenge fell apart in the closing stages.
TAG Heuer Porsche’s da Costa led 22 of 41 laps — extended from 38 after two safety car periods — but was in an intense lead fight with the Jaguars of Mitch Evans and Nick Cassidy.
In the final 10 laps da Costa and Evans were trading places at the front, but with Evans leaving it late to take his second Attack Mode, he was holding up Cassidy who’d dropped back to save energy after leading early on.
The Jaguars switched positions on lap 39, but while Cassidy then only had da Costa ahead, it looked to be too late to mount a challenge for the lead. Things got worse a lap later when Evans locked up at Turn 6, opening the door for Pascal Wehrlein and then Jake Dennis.
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Da Costa ultimately had a relatively straightforward final two laps, coming home 0.691s ahead of Cassidy, with Oliver Rowland third after being passed by Cassidy in the late going.
It was another well-managed race for Rowland, the Nissan driver having started 16th on the grid. After conserving for the first five laps, he went on a charge and was up to fifth by the first safety car. The safety car periods proved valuable for him, allowing him to conserve again after his push to the front and keep him in the podium fight until the end.
But it wasn’t a clean climb for him — Rowland was shown a driving standards flag for multiple instances of contact, including one with Mahindra’s Edoardo Mortara just before the first safety car — but he wasn’t the only one. Fourth- and fifth-placed Pascal Wehrlein and Jake Dennis traded blows on the first two laps of the second safety car restart — and both of those caution periods came as a direct result of contact.
After being caught up in a Turn 2 concertina on lap 11 where he was tagged by Nato, Maximilian Guenther’s front wing went under his car, sending him into the wall. On lap 25, a disastrous overtake attempt from Nato that was never on sent Sacha Fenestraz into the barrier at Turn 3, resulting in sarcastic applause from the Nissan driver and a 10-second penalty for the Andretti man, who was able to continue.
After his late lock-up, Evans survived to finish sixth ahead of Maserati MSG’s Jehan Daruvala, who took his best-ever Formula E finish with a late pass on NEOM McLaren’s Taylor Barnard.
Joel Eriksson and Jean-Eric Vergne — who dropped to a low of 13th from ninth on the grid early on in a bid to save energy and mirror Cassidy’s winning strategy from Saturday — completed the top 10.
Vergne’s DS Penske teammate finished 20th, one spot behind Nato, with his race being similarly undone by contact.
After both races in Berlin, Cassidy leads the championship with 140 points, 16 ahead of Wehrlein, with Rowland in third a further six points back. Reigning champion Dennis sits fourth on 102 points, five ahead of Evans.
Jake Dennis bounced back from a rotten Saturday at the Berlin E-Prix to take pole position for the second race for the doubleheader weekend. The Andretti driver beat Saturday race winner Nick Cassidy in the qualifying Duels final with a lap of …
Jake Dennis bounced back from a rotten Saturday at the Berlin E-Prix to take pole position for the second race for the doubleheader weekend.
The Andretti driver beat Saturday race winner Nick Cassidy in the qualifying Duels final with a lap of 1m01.819s. Cassidy was 0.231s adrift, having gone quicker in the first sector, only to lose time in the second.
It was a strong morning for Andretti all round with teammate Norman Nato also making it to the Duels after finishing second behind Dennis in the second group in the first part of the session. He then claimed his first Duel win of the season against Stoffel Vandoorne but fell to Dennis in the semifinals.
Cassidy also had to face his teammate in his semifinal Duel, Evans getting through after beating Maximilian Guether in the quarterfinals while Cassidy defeated Saturday polesitter Edoardo Mortara to advance, after topping the first Group earlier on.
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A jubilant Dennis, who last started on pole in Rome last year but has never finished ower than second in a race he’s started from pole, described it as “my most memorable pole” over the radio after crossing the line.
Mirroring the Andretti-Jaguar front row, Nato will lineup third on the grid alongside Evans, with Vandoorne and Guenther fifth and sixth. Pascal Wehrlein will start seventh alongside Mortara, with Vergne and da Costa completing the top 10.
Joel Eriksson will start 11th for Envision Racing, ahead of Lucas di Grasssi, Jehan Daruvala, Jake Hughes, and Sergio Sette Camara. Nissan’s Oliver Rowland and Sacha Fenestraz will line up 16th and 17th, while Dan Ticktum qualified 18th but will start at the back of the grid after getting a penalty for a gearbox and MCU change. It’s a 40-place penalty, so with that not being able to be applied in its entirety on the grid, he will also have to do a 10-second stop/go penalty during the race.
Ahead of him and completing the field then will be Taylor Barnard, Paul Aron, Jordan King, and Kelvin van der Linde.
Pascal Wehrlein was quickest in the final practice session of the Berlin E-Prix, as the second race day of the doubleheader at Tempelhof Airport got underway. The TAG Heuer Porsche driver’s best time of 1m 1.922 was 0.043s quicker than Saturday race …
Pascal Wehrlein was quickest in the final practice session of the Berlin E-Prix, as the second race day of the doubleheader at Tempelhof Airport got underway.
The TAG Heuer Porsche driver’s best time of 1m 1.922 was 0.043s quicker than Saturday race winner Nick Cassidy with DS Penske’s Stoffel Vandoorne third, 0.133s back.
Maserati MSG’s Jehan Daruvala and Maximilian GUenther completed the top five, ahead of Cassidy’s Jaguar TCS Racing teammate Mitch Evans, Andretti’s Jake Dennis, Jean-Eric Vergne in the second DS Penske entry, Porsche’s Antonio Felix da Costa, and Dan Ticktum of ERT.
Envision Racing rookie Paul Aron was 11th quickest, ahead of Saturday polesitter Edoardo Mortara and Lucas di Grassi, with Jordan King and Kelvin van der Linde 14th and 15 respectively.
The Nissan dio of Sacha Fenestraz and Oliver Rowland were next, with NEOM McLaren’s Taylor Barnard 18th, the highest-placed driver to set his best time not using the full compliment of 350 kW.
Joel Eriksson, Jake Hughes, Norman Nato and Sergio Sette Camara completed the field.
Jean-Eric Vergne has “absolutely no regrets” about missing out on victory in the first race of the Berlin E-Prix doubleheader, but was less than happy about how the race itself played out. The DS Penske driver started third on the grid and remained …
Jean-Eric Vergne has “absolutely no regrets” about missing out on victory in the first race of the Berlin E-Prix doubleheader, but was less than happy about how the race itself played out.
The DS Penske driver started third on the grid and remained in victory contention throughout, despite an aggressive 46 laps that had multiple drivers forcing their way to the front. But Nick Cassidy saved energy early on and shot from a low of 21st to win in a drive that surprised everyone — and why Vergne said “I feel as if I won.”
“We had a great qualifying, a great race,” he told RACER. “I’m always angry when I don’t win, but tonight I leave the track very happy with the job we’ve done as a team and I have absolutely no regret not to have won the race today.”
Nevertheless, Vergne is unimpressed by the trend toward “peloton races” where drivers conserve energy early on to ensure they have enough to fight at the end, resulting in tight pack races and multiple passes. And he says he’s not the only driver displeased with the style of races that have proven popular among viewers.
“It’s horrible. Honestly, I really don’t like this kind of racing — I hate it,” he said. “And I think every driver hates it but it’s the way we have to race. We’re here to compete, we’re here to win, so if we have to drive in reverse, we will have to learn to drive in reverse.
“That doesn’t mean that I like this kind of racing — it’s truly horrible from a drivers’ point of view. It’s a mess.”
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Despite the success of Cassidy’s strategy, Vergne doesn’t see himself attempting a similar approach in Sunday’s race, insisting that “it’s going to be key again to have a good qualifying and stay more or less at the front.”
“When you’re leading the race like I was, ‘You cannot take the risk. It’s impossible,’” he said when asked if emulating Cassidy would be an option. “Because then if you imagine you have a safety car, the energy target becomes higher and then you cannot overtake any more.
“It was a calculated bet for him because he was last and had nothing to lose anyway. It was smart, I would have done the same, but all the things played in his favor — the second safety car, the target being lower, and everybody struggling on energy because everybody was fighting. It worked well but if you do 10 races it might not happen again like this.”
Vergne felt like he and the DS Penske team played all their cards correctly but were still sitting ducks for Cassidy and Jaguar the way the race played out. Andrew Ferraro/Motorsport Images
Cassidy’s charge didn’t just catch out Vergne on track, but his team too, although he knew once Cassidy was behind him he wouldn’t be able to hold the Jaguar TCS Racing man off.
“Even my engineer didn’t see him coming and when he told me he had two-and-a-half percent more energy, I knew the race was over,” Vergne admitted. “It made no sense to fight it.
“That’s why I feel this second place is a little bit like a win because if you remove him, we did actually a very good job considering all the guys that were around and all the fighting. At one point I was P7, so to come back, we showed good strength, good strategy as well.”
Nick Cassidy says the split of strategy over luck was “40/60” in his storming drive to first in the first race of the Berlin E-Prix doubleheader this weekend. The Jaguar TCS driver looked very much like an outsider, qualifying ninth and dropping as …
Nick Cassidy says the split of strategy over luck was “40/60” in his storming drive to first in the first race of the Berlin E-Prix doubleheader this weekend.
The Jaguar TCS driver looked very much like an outsider, qualifying ninth and dropping as low as 21st early in the race, but an aggressive top-10-wide fight for the victory, allied with him slipping back and conserving energy allowed him to power through late on and win by an unusually high margin of 4.651 seconds.
“Today I got very lucky, but you need that sometimes in Formula E, so we’ll take it,” he said. “I didn’t actually have a great start, I wasn’t that fast but we played it smart and stayed out of trouble and here we are.”
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While high overtake counts are nothing unusual in Formula E, Cassidy called Saturday’s race “insane,” telling RACER that while races typically have drivers avoiding the lead until late on to save energy, the opposite was the case this time around.
“It just seemed today that everybody was desperate to be leading,” he said. “The race was so aggressive — a lot of crashes, a lot of people pushing forwards, and I think I was one of the few guys that removed myself from that.”
Despite the win, Cassidy still wasn’t entirely satisfied with his day which began by missing out on the qualifying Duels and a shot at pole.
“I’m standing here now, it’s an amazing day and a fantastic moment, but I’m realistic,” he said. “We haven’t really been fast enough this weekend, really. I was the top Jaguar, but I was 10th in qualifying.
“So it’s not really good enough by our own standards — we’ve got a lot of work to do tonight, we need to be quicker so let’s see how tomorrow goes. Things can change very quickly.”
Sunday’s race will be shorter than Saturday’s prescribed 40 laps (it was extended by six laps after two safety car periods) but Cassidy doesn’t expect the overall picture to be radically different, joking that “it’ll change things by two laps, I guess.” Still, he does expect more people to have a go at his winning strategy of saving and staying out of trouble before charging forward, even though the Berlin track’s characteristics ought to lend itself to races where drivers should want to be leading.
“I think more people will be looking at it tomorrow, for sure,” he suggested. “It’s actually not that easy to pass here, even though it looks it. For the lead it might be, but in the pack it’s really difficult to overtake, so I think that’s why everyone was pretty ambitious.”
Nick Cassidy emerged victorious from a thrilling first Berlin E-Prix race, climbing from ninth on the grid to win by 4.651s. But that relatively comfortable victory margin wasn’t a true reflection of the race, which was the most competitive of the …
Nick Cassidy emerged victorious from a thrilling first Berlin E-Prix race, climbing from ninth on the grid to win by 4.651s.
But that relatively comfortable victory margin wasn’t a true reflection of the race, which was the most competitive of the year so far. As with Misano, the Berlin track’s fast nature and resultant high energy consumption led to a race with an abundance of overtaking with nobody comfortable enough to pull away until the late stages.
Cassidy played that game to perfection, dropping as low as 21st early in the race as he saved energy. With power in the bank, he was able to storm into the lead conversation after the race’s allotted 40 laps were up, the contest being extended by six more tours after two safety car periods.
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On the restart from the second safety car period — caused by Maximilian Guether slamming the wall on the exit of Turn 9 — 12 laps from the end, it was Nissan’s Oliver Rowland who emerged from a four-wide battle for the lead at Turn 6, but Evans slipped by at the next corner.
A lap later it was DS Penske’s Jean-Eric Vergne on the point; Cassidy was a lowly 13th then, but continued to hack away at the pack ahead, thanks to the energy conserved in the thick of the field while those in front squabbled over the prime positions. The Jaguar TCS Racing driver then moved to the fore with four to go, and dropped the hammer to gap those behind him.
Vergne was the winner of the lottery for second, ahead of Rowland who completed another impressive climb — from 15th on the grid — to complete the podium, with Evans fourth. The DS Penske man was an early leader along with teammate Stoffel Vandoorne, polesitter Edoardo Mortara and the TAG Heuer Porsche duo of Pascal Wehrlein and Antonio Felix da Costa.
Such was the frequency of passing throughout the field, an early safety car — brought out to clear the stricken Envision Racing car of Joel Eriksson after he came to a stop on the exit of Turn 4 — was extended to re-rack the field, with Vandoorne having swept by Wehrlein for second into Turn 1 as the yellows came out.
When the race restarted on lap 17, Vergne was able to hold on out in front with Wehrlein behind him, but a dip into the Attack Mode activation zone dropped Vandoorne back, and he’d be out of the win fight entirely after being slowed by a collision between Dan Ticktum and Lucas di Grassi ahead of him that help up multiple drivers. He eventually recovered to seventh behind the two factory Porsches after initially falling further back as the race progressed.
Mortara finished eighth having fallen away from the leaders relatively early on. Sacha Fenestraz and Taylor Barnard — scoring his first points — finished ninth and 10th, staying out of trouble to come from 16th and 13th on the grid respectively.
Joining Guenther and Eriksson in failing to finish were Jake Dennis and di Grassi. Dennis put in a stellar performance to climb from the back of the grid into the top three, but a lock-up at Turn 3 ruined his day and a subsequent puncture ending it entirely. His Andretti teammate Norman Nato also suffered a puncture, but was able to finish the race in 18th and with the fastest lap.
The FIA has reduced the amount of Attack Mode available for the Berlin E-Prix amid concerns over batteries. The typical eight minutes of Attack Mode – effectively a power boost activated by taking a longer, wider line at one point on the track – …
The FIA has reduced the amount of Attack Mode available for the Berlin E-Prix amid concerns over batteries.
The typical eight minutes of Attack Mode — effectively a power boost activated by taking a longer, wider line at one point on the track — will be reduced to six minutes for Saturday’s race and four for Sunday’s.
While Berlin is currently enjoying clear, warm weather, the battery concerns this time around aren’t thought to be temperature-related — unlike at the Sao Paulo E-Prix earlier this year, when high temperatures led to many drivers finishing with an excess of energy as they were unable to push too hard. Instead, much like upcoming races on permanent tracks in Shanghai and Portland, the circuit at Berlin’s Tempelhof Airport features a number of high-speed sections that put increased strain on the WAE-supplied battery.
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“The duration of Attack Mode for the Berlin E-Prix has been reduced as part of the normal and continuous process of cars life cycle monitoring,” the FIA said in a statement. “The Sporting Regulations have been specifically designed to allow for this flexibility in format.”
NEOM McLaren team principal Ian James downplayed the significance of the change, explaining that there’s always been room for such adjustments, and that it could even benefit the sporting side of things.
“When the new Attack Mode format was developed, it was done so with degrees of flexibility to enable us to make sure that the Attack Mode profiles could be suited to the various circuit characteristics,” he told RACER. “And I think we’re seeing that here in Berlin, where we’ve got not the full eight minutes that we’ve seen in the past but a shortened time for both Saturday and Sunday’s races. This obviously is an advantage if it means that the sporting format of the race benefits from that.
“Where we’ve got to be careful is that we’re not doing that because of any technical constraints. I know that the FIA, together with their suppliers, will be looking at how we can make sure that we’re always doing it for the right reasons in future.”
Edoardo Mortara capped off his and Mahindra’s first qualifying Duel final appearance of the Formula E season by taking pole for the first race of the Berlin E-Prix. Mortara’s lap of 1m1.741s in the final head-to-head was 0.267s quicker than the …
Edoardo Mortara capped off his and Mahindra’s first qualifying Duel final appearance of the Formula E season by taking pole for the first race of the Berlin E-Prix.
Mortara’s lap of 1m1.741s in the final head-to-head was 0.267s quicker than the much-fancied DS Penske driver Stoffel Vandoorne.
Ahead of the final, Mortara also defeated Vandoorne’s teammate Jean-Eric Vergne in the semifinal, and Jehan Daruvala in the quarterfinals, although the Maserati MSG driver will be taking a 20-place grid penalty anyway due to a front gearbox change.
Vandoorne, meanwhile, beat the other Maserati driver, Maximilian Guenther, in his opening Duel, before beating ERT’s Sergio Sette Camara in the semis – Sette Camara advancing that far after a surprise defeat over FP2 pacesetter Lucas di Grassi after their quarterfinal tussle.
A number of big names fell ahead of the Duels, with TAG Heuer Porsche’s Antonio Felix da Costa and Jaguar TCS Racing’s Mitch Evans among those that didn’t advance from the first group session, and Nick Cassidy in the other Jaguar and Nissan driver Oliver Rowland in the gaggle of drivers that didn’t advance from the second group.
Jake Dennis and Norman Nato finished in last place in each group session after a torrid session where neither could find any pace. In locking out the bottom two places, they hold the unenviable record of Andretti’s worst-ever qualifying result in a decade in the series.
Mortara’s pole was not just his first of the season, but his first since 2022 (also at Berlin) too. Vergne will start third, a spot behind teammate Vandoorne, with Sette Camara matching his best qualifying result of the season in fourth.
Guenther will line up fifth alongside compatriot Pascal Wehrlein of Porsche, who was defeated in the first round of the Duels by Vergne. di Grassi, da Costa, Cassidy, and Evans complete the top 10, ahead of Abt Cupra stand-in Kelvin van der Linde – the highest-placed of those filling in for drivers that have a schedule clash with the 6 Hours of Spa – and Dan Ticktum.
Taylor Barnard was a fine 13th in his second-ever qualifying appearance for NEOM McLaren, outqualifying teammate Jake Hughes who was down in 17th, Mahindra’s Jordan King and the Nissans of Oliver Rowland and Sacha Fenestraz splitting the pair.
Envision Racing’s substitutes Joel Eriksson and Paul Aron will start the race 18th and 19th, with the Andretti drivers saved from a back-row lockout by Daruvala’s gearbox penalty.
