With all three championships still possible for the TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E team, Pascal Wehrlein and António Félix da Costa look ahead at an Berlin E-Prix important weekend – not only for the team, but also for themselves.
In regard to the tricky Berlin weekend, Wehrlein addressed the conditions and the critical role qualifying could play when talking to the media, including Pit Debrief.
“It depends on whether it will be wet tomorrow or not. Accordingly, qualifying will be important, or not so important. Normally, in the wet, it is more difficult to overtake and to see something, if you don’t start in front. In the wet, qualifying is very important.
“In the dry, it is not so important, because you can overtake very well here. A lot of energy has to be saved, when it is dry. You still have the pit-boost in the first race tomorrow, not in the second race. That means, again, something that is a bit mixed and unpredictable. But I think that’s the rule of thumb. In the wet, important. In the dry, not so important.”
What does da Costa think?
After a standout victory in Berlin last season, António Félix da Costa returns to the German capital knowing a repeat performance could keep his faint Drivers’ Championship hopes alive. Yet with teammate Pascal Wehrlein also acknowledging the gap to Oliver Rowland may be too large to overcome, Porsche’s focus has clearly pivoted to team glory. Porsche currently leads the Teams’ Championship and sits just four points off the top in the Constructors’ standings, making the Berlin E-Prix a critical battleground.
“Yes, I mean, everything can happen, we’ve seen it formally that it’s never over until it’s over. Having said that, to gain 70 points from someone like Oliver [Rowland] and Nissan is never easy.
“I think our focus has shifted a little bit more into the teams and the constructors. We’re leading the teams, we’re 4 points behind on the constructors, so, yeah, I mean, there’s a lot to fight for. We find the motivation there, and I guess on the drivers one, yeah, it’s a little bit of a long shot, but not over yet. And we’ll look at it at the end of this weekend, we’ll look at it and reevaluate our mindset going into London.”
The Portuguese driver also weighed in on the potential impact of the weather: “I guess with the rain it’s a bit more crucial, because the race will then be flat out. It looks like tomorrow is definitely wet for everything, qualifying and race, so I think Quali will be important.
“We’ve seen in Shanghai that not much happened in the race, so everybody kind of finished where they started, so I think Quali will be important. For Sunday, if it’s dry, it looks like it will be dry; it’s not so important. The race will be very strategic, very energy-based, so not so important.”
The weather will play a role somehow
Asked how the historic Berlin surface might respond to the expected rainfall, da Costa offered a cautious take:
“I’ll tell you tomorrow. I really don’t know, man. I think you can see here, when it rains, the water doesn’t go anywhere, so there will be a lot of standing water. We have to see how the car and the tyre behave, if there’s aquaplaning or not, if it’s drivable or not.”
As for the racing spectacle, often a highlight at Tempelhof:
“With the rain, I think it’ll be less because the race will just be close to flat out, I think. There’s not a lot of energy to save. So, yeah, I think, as I said before, qualifying, if it rains, is way more important. And yeah, in the dry, we will still have the same overtaking party, for sure.”
With four races remaining, Oliver Rowland continues to lead the Drivers’ Championship with 172 points.
