After eight previous races in the United States, including stints on the streets of Long Beach, Calif., Miami, Fla., and the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y., Formula E is trying a different tack — a traditional road course — for this year’s American round of the all-electric open-wheel series. For the first time, the series will race at Portland International Raceway, making the move to Oregon for the inaugural Southwire Portland E-Prix after five prior trips to Brooklyn. Heading to eco-friendly Portland in the Pacific Northwest, the championship aims to introduce a whole new set of potential fans to its electric racing and its drive for clean, sustainable EV tech.
The Portland race comes just as Maserati MSG Racing and Maximilian Guenther are hitting their stride. The German driver clicked instantly with the new circuit last time out in Jakarta, Indonesia and dominated the timed sessions on the way to his first pole in Formula E a third place finish in Round 10. He doubled up with a second pole in as many days and converted an historic race win on Sunday, becoming the only driver to win from pole in the past 14 races to seal the first victory for Maserati in a world championship single-seater race since the legendary Juan Manuel Fangio won at the Nurburgring way back in 1957.
Portland International Raceway is one of the longest circuits Formula E will have raced on at 1.98 miles/3.19km, and teams are predicting slipstreaming will play a big part on the 12-turn, fast and flowing course, as it did in Jakarta.
“It has a high number of fast, sweeping corners, but very few braking zones, which will likely make for a highly strategic race with a reliance on slipstreaming,” noted Maserati MSG team principal James Rossiter. A good omen for the Porsche- and Stellantis-powered cars? We’ll see.
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The fight for the season’s world championship honors, meanwhile, is looking to be a five-horse race between three marques, five teams and as many drivers with TAG Heuer Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein heading Jake Dennis in the Avalanche Andretti Porsche 99X Electric GEN3 by just a single point.
Longtime standings leader Wehrlein had lost top spot in the table in Monaco but stamped his authority on proceedings with a controlled Round 10 victory, leading home his closest rival Dennis. That was an important result for the young German. Since his previous win in Diriyah, he’d failed to make the podium while Envision Racing’s Nick Cassidy hit a rich run of form, eventually overcoming Wehrlein in the standings with his win in Monaco.
Driving for the Andretti team ought to give Dennis a boost in America. The British driver and has been going about his business quietly and consistently this season, with four podiums to his credit, and is breathing right down Werhlein’s neck.
Cassidy finds himself third in the standings for Envision Racing, the customer Jaguar team driver ahead of factory Jaguar TCS Racing racer Mitch Evans. The former endured an all-but disastrous weekend in Indonesia after back-to-back wins in the Principality and Berlin just weeks before. He’s still only six points back but a seven-point haul with more than 50 on offer in Jakarta handed the advantage back to his rivals.
Two-time Formula E champion Jean-Eric Vergne (DS Penske) has kept himself in touch and sits fifth, 37 points from the top. The Frenchman was a winner in Hyderabad and will be looking to close the gap to the top as the season heads towards its climax, with only the doubleheader rounds in Rome July 15-16 and the London finale on July 29 remaining after Saturday’s race in Portland.
Action gets underway with Free Practice 1 on Friday from 8:00pm ET, with Free Practice 2 from 1:30pm ET on Saturday. Qualifying follows at 3:40pm ET and Round 12 itself starts at 8:00pm ET. The race airs live on CBS Sports Network, with coverage beginning at 7:30pm ET.
