Formula E Mexico, Wehrlein: “Not many overtaking? Race too short”

By Carlo Platella
For the second consecutive year, the Mexico City E-Prix was lacking in excitement, with positions frozen unless there were accidents or changes with the Attack Mode. The absence of fights on the track contrasts with the great balance emerged in qualifying, where in both groups the gaps between the top four were less than a tenth of a second. If in 2023 one might have thought that the novelty of the Gen3 had contributed to making the group more disjointed than usual, the repetition of the same scenario a year later pushes us to look for the causes elsewhere.

Energy factor

The winner of the Mexican E-Prix, Pascal Wehrlein, speaks on the topic: “I don't think the track is the problem, because there are some good overtaking points. I simply believe that the race was too short. If it had been extended by 1 or 2 laps we would have had to save more energy and this would have created more overtaking opportunities.” In Mexico City the FIA ​​granted 38.5 kWh for 35 rpm. However, rather than absolute energy, the reference parameter is the energy compared to the race distance. For the 2024 E-Prix, 0.42 kWh/km was made available, while last season it even fell below 0.40 kWh/km, as happened in Monte Carlo and Berlin, even reaching 0.36 kWh/km in London , however, a slower and therefore less expensive track.

The abundant energy granted in Mexico City reduced pace management during the race to a minimum. With little need for regeneration, drivers pushed to the limit almost the entire time, shortening braking distances and making overtaking prohibitive in the absence of other variables. Wehrlein explains: “When we started, the race was already very close to being no saver. Contrary to other categories, we don't have help to overtake, like DRS or something else. The overtaking possibilities for us come from saving energy, which however wasn't enough.”

Lack of overtaking, a non-problem

The lack of battles on the track made for a rather monotonous race for the public, but with the consequence of increasing the emphasis on qualifying. For this reason, Wehrlein doesn't think that one or two races without overtaking are a problem for the category: “I think the variety of the championship is positive. There are races where there is too much overtaking and where qualifying doesn't count, while there are others where you have to be fast on the flying lap and start from the front to have a chance of winning. The mix is ​​quite good. I don't mind that overtaking was difficult in Mexico, in fact it was positive, because most of the time qualifying isn't the most important session.”

It should be noted, however, that the Mexico City E-Prix was the inaugural event, at a time when Formula E enjoys maximum visibility, not suffering from competition with other championships. Choosing to take part in a race without management and with few overtaking at the first E-Prix does not help to retain the curious, in a period in which Formula E aims to expand more and more.