Pascal Wehrlein is finding it a "bit annoying" to have left every race so far this Formula E season asking himself "what if", with not a single weekend having gone to plan.
Three races in, and three doses of frustration for the German, who has had something not go his way in each of São Paulo, Mexico City and Miami last weekend.
In the Brazil season-opener at the start of December, Wehrlein had claimed pole but received a three-place grid penalty for wheelspinning in the pit lane, breaching Article 23.18 of the sporting regulations.
He started and finished the race in fourth, before qualifying a shock 11th last month in Mexico City following a rare mistake at a venue where he had been so dominant over one lap.
Wehrlein went on to recover to sixth at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, before being rocked by an issue in Miami from his very first lap in practice. This saw him start from 11th for a second consecutive race; however, impressive work by Porsche saw the cause of the issue discovered.
Once an understanding of the fault was established, the Season 10 world champion managed to fight through the field to claim third, marking his first podium of the season.
Crucially, despite facing his own issues, Wehrlein made significant gains in the title fight and now finds himself just two points adrift of Nick Cassidy, who failed to score a point, as did Oliver Rowland.
Speaking after the race in Miami, Wehrlein told RacingNews365: "It was a good result — it was hard work for us. We found an issue on the car, which put us on the back foot in terms of how we set up the car and everything for the weekend.
"On one side, I’m obviously glad that we found it. On the other side, I also think that if the weekend had gone differently, it could have been a different weekend again. And, yeah, it feels like I haven’t had a clean weekend yet. There are always ‘what ifs’ after the race, after the weekend, which is a bit annoying.
"But, yeah, big congratulations to the team and a big thank you, because basically, since lap one on Friday, I was saying that something felt odd with the car. They put a lot of effort into finding the issue, and it’s nice that we came out of this with a podium.
"And, yeah, we move on from there. It’s still very early in the season, and we’re banking the points, which is important for the championship."
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