Damien Smith
Formula E will pitch up in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia for its annual double-header this weekend. The 10th season of the electric single-seater series began earlier this month in Mexico City, where Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein got his campaign off to a perfect start by scoring what looked to be a comfortable win from pole.
The former Formula 1 driver looked on course to claim his first Formula E world championship last year, only for the team to lose its way – most unlike Porsche, in the context of its largely gilt-edged motorsport history.
In its fifth Formula E season, it’s beyond time for the works team to pick up a title – although customer team Andretti achieved the feat in 2023, with impressive Brit Jake Dennis taking the crown.
Dennis, incidentally, began his title defence with a low-key ninth-place finish and will expect much more in Diriyah.
The race in Mexico, on a shortened version of the track used by F1, was processional and dull, but back on one of the series’ trademark street circuits, the action should be far better this weekend.
It’s a shame, then, that Formula E has become harder to watch in the UK (you now need to pay for the TNT Sports channel to tune in). At a time when the series must surely prove people are watching to keep its manufacturers committed for the rest of the decade, this seems a risky move. Formula E is too easy to ignore, especially by racing traditionalists who are turned off by its electric whine. The series, its teams and its excellent cast of drivers all deserve better.
STEINER’S STAR TURN
When news broke that the Haas F1 team had let go of its boss, Guenther Steiner, among my thoughts was one of sympathy for the Autosport International motorsport show held at Birmingham’s NEC. Steiner was due to be the star guest at an event still in recovery mode following the Covid interruption, and I assumed the news would kibosh his visit.
Not so, as it turned out. Steiner still made his appearance for what turned into a much-needed coup. The 58-year-old already had an elevated profile for the person running what was F1’s worst team last year, thanks to his ‘colourful’ additions to Netflix’s hit show Drive to Survive. At the NEC, he gained further credibility for his dignified handling of his on-stage interview, taking the opportunity to say his goodbyes to the staff he has led since industrialist Gene Haas first committed to F1 in 2014.
