Time running out for Pascal Wehrlein in Formula E title defence

Former F1 driver looking to close the gap on championship leader Oliver Rowland

Formula E world champion and former F1 driver Pascal Wehrlein in Monaco. Getty Images

Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein, reigning Formula E world champion, left Indonesian capital Jakarta last weekend with his hopes of back-to-back crowns in a bad shape following his fifth non-score of the season.

He now has just four races left to overhaul the 69-point gap to season leader Oliver Rowland of Nissan.

It’s a tough ask, with just 116 points left to play for before Season 11’s chequered flag in London next month - a double header on July 26-27. But the German is approaching the end of the season with pragmatism.

“I think it's a good time to reset, and have a bit of a rest,” he said in Jakarta. “Definitely the last couple of weeks have been very busy.

“The focus is, already since Shanghai, to be honest, not on the drivers’ championship anymore. Obviously, we [will] try to do as good as we can, and fight until the end. But, realistically, the gap has always been quite big.

“The focus is on the manufacturers’ and on the teams’ championship, which is just as important to the team than the drivers’ championships. So, yeah, that's where we are, and that's what we will try to do in the last couple of races. Have a good end to the season, try to secure the two championships there.”

Pascal Wehrlein drove for Porsche Penske Motorsport during the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Reuters

Wehrlein came into Jakarta’s ePrix on the back foot, with the event just one week after his Le Mans 24 Hours debut, the world’s most prestigious endurance race. Wehrlein and teammates Felipe Nasr and Nick Tandy drove the Porsche Penske Motorsport hypercar to eighth place overall.

But the German-Mauritian enjoyed racing through the night in France, and then arrived in Indonesia as fresh as could be expected.

“Yeah, was a great experience,” said Wehrlein, who also logged 39 starts between 2016 and 2017 for Manor and Sauber in Formula One.

“It was a great journey because it started already a long time ago, with my first test in Daytona, and then also the race in Daytona for JDC [JDC Miller Motorsports]. The cars are awesome. I really enjoyed it.

“Obviously, since 2018-19, I was only driving in the Formula E series, so I really enjoyed coming back to other cars and you know, having that sound again. Different track. Going to bed in the evening with a small tinnitus in the ears, and just going back to something I really enjoyed in the past like [German series] DTM, for example – so racing a touring car or prototype, so it was great fun.”

But, Jakarta was a step back with Wehrlein finishing 11th, immediately behind the man he has got to catch - Nissan’s Rowland. It was a missed opportunity for a standout result on a day when his title rival faltered.

“It's quite a poor race after the qualifying we had,” Wehrlein said. “We knew it was going to be difficult, that overtaking is almost impossible if you're in the same power mode [as your rival]. Yeah, just a poor qualifying, which resulted into yeah, the poor day we had.

“In the morning, we were very competitive. Yeah, the track conditions were insane. It was so dirty, actually, was it's more difficult to see something than in wet conditions just because of all the dust. Going a bit offline, there's a huge penalty, so it makes overtaking even more tricky, and it caught us in qualifying. I just went with my rear tyre a bit on the dust and lost the car. So yeah, that meant we were poor in qualifying and then after the penalty [for slowing down to create a gap] even worse.”

Wehrlein and his Porsche Formula E teammate Antonio Felix da Costa head home to Berlin next month for the first of two double headers on July 12 and 13 before moving to the London finale just two weeks later.