Avalanche Andretti’s Jake Dennis had a number of his obstacles in the path to his first ABB FIA Formula E World Championship in London. Among the challenges the British driver had to navigate were two red-flag periods, failed Attack Mode power boost activations and a tense interlude with a Porsche factory driver, who failed to give him the space the Porsche-powered Andretti driver thought he’d get.
“It’s a huge relief,” Dennis said after finishing second to secure the title. “I didn’t expect it coming into today with Nick Cassidy on pole and Sebastien Buemi (both of Envision Racing) in third. By lap 8 I was like, ‘Yeah this is gonna be hard.’ Nick had taken both Attack Modes and Sebastien was the best wingman for Nick possible. But then it all fell apart for them and we managed to keep out of trouble.”
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In the late stages Dennis radioed his team that he was surprised at TAG Heuer Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein declining to move out of the way for him despite pre-race conversations having given him the impression the works Porsche cars wouldn’t hinder him. Porsche supplies the Andretti team with its powertrains.
“That was a private conversation but ultimately, I felt like we had a bit of an agreement going into the race and it just obviously didn’t quite pan out the way I expected it,” Dennis said. “It was just one of those things.”
Another one of those things was the bizarre end to Cassidy’s title challenge, after starting up front with his Envision teammate Buemi in third. Buemi got a great start to emerge in second and help Cassidy pull a gap to the field, pushing Dennis down into third. However, the two Envision teammates ended up coming together, damaging Cassidy’s front wing and wrecking his championship hopes.
“I don’t know what to feel,” said a despondent Cassidy. “I just can’t believe the series of events. The start was a dream. There’s not too much I can add. Probably just take the moment to say well done to Jake [Dennis]. He had a really solid season and really deserved the championship. I think that we had all the ingredients and a potential to also get the job done, but there’s no would, could, should in motorsport — the results and kudos to him, so well done.”
Cassidy noted that he let Buemi pass later on in the race to help Envision.
“We’re also fighting for the teams’ world championship and I like to think I’m a good team player. Maybe I’m too good a team player,” he mused.
They get another chance in today’s second half of the doubleheader, in which Cassidy will start from the pole after beating Jaguar TCS Racing’s Mitch Evans by just 0.01s. That earned three more points for Envision in its fight with Jaguar for the teams’ championship.
For Dennis, the second London race is an opportunity to get his own back on drivers who he felt took advantage of his need for caution Saturday.
“They can and they’d be stupid not to [exploit it], so they divebomb and take high-risk maneuvers even if they think realistically it’s not on but you’ll probably give space,” said the Andretti driver. “There were some moves which I had to allow to happen because I would have crashed, but I am looking forward to enjoying (Sunday).”