Porsche 'not completely ready' in 2023 Formula E title fight – Wehrlein

Formula E world champion Pascal Wehrlein has revealed that Porsche was "not completely ready" to fight for the title in 2023, despite the fact it led more of Season 9 than Season 10. 

A phenomenal performance in the recent London season finale was enough for Wehrlein to beat both Nick Cassidy and Mitch Evans to the drivers' championship, marking the factory Porsche team's first title in FE. 

Wehrlein only led the standings for the opening rounds this year and ahead of the final race in London, whilst it is easy to forget he was the championship leader for the vast majority of S9, only for Jake Dennis to secure the crown. 

Some lessons from 2023 were taken by Wehrlein and Porsche into the recently completed season, most notably the importance of qualifying well. 

Porsche had severe qualifying issues last year, which were masked in the opening rounds by the team's supreme race pace and understanding of the Gen3 era. 

Once its rivals understood the new FE cars, Porsche's qualifying problems started to hurt its race results.

"It's hard to say what we learned, because I don't think it was due to the situation that we were in a championship fight then all of a sudden we were not ready or we did things wrong," Wehrlein told RacingNews365 in an exclusive interview.

"Actually, the whole season, we were not so competitive in qualifying. I think in the beginning, we could just make it work in the races, if you think about Diriyah and that weekend, I won both races. 

"But we started one race from P9 and the other race from P5. We had a super efficient package, and I think in the beginning, we understood maybe the races a bit better, and with the slipstream effect and so on. 

"And it was still possible to qualify not that well, but still win the race or finish at the front. Later into the season, everything got a lot closer in the races, but our qualifying still remained as bad as it was in the beginning of the season."

Midfield 'war zone'

The only outlier for Wehrlein in S9 was Jakarta, where he qualified third for the first race of the double-header in the Indonesian capital, before going on to secure an important win. 

He often failed to progress to the duels in 2023 which put him at a greater risk of being involved in an incident. Wehrlein himself refers to being in the midfield as like a "war zone".

"There was one outlier in Jakarta, where we qualified in third position, and we won the race there," added Wehrlein. 

"But in the other races, very often we qualified P15, P11, didn't make it into the duels so not into the top eight.

"There's also a lot more risk to damage to your car or to get a DNF when you're starting in the midfield war zone it feels like, because there's just so much contact with other drivers and other cars.

"And that's to me how we lost the championship in 2023, we were not strong enough in one lap pace. We tried different things but it's also clear that in two practice sessions, there's not a lot of time to really reinvent the package you have."

Porsche 'deserved' title

With Porsche's race pace and efficiency having been strong in S9, the German manufacturer worked tirelessly on understanding its one-lap woes. 

It successfully achieved this ahead of S10, as come the end of the season Wehrlein was the best qualifier on the grid, with an average starting position of 5.38. Evans was the second best qualifier with an average starting position of 5.69.

Ultimately, Wehrlein believes 2024 was the first time Porsche "deserved" to win the title, as it was too soon for them last year.

"I think that's the area we really focused on in the winter time and in the off-season, and during testing and so on," he continued. "We fixed that, and now on average we were the best qualifiers [in S10].

"That also made the races a lot easier. And that's for me why this year also feels like the first time we would have deserved also to win the championship. I think last year, we were not completely ready for it."