Pascal Wehrlein has defended Porsche’s use of team tactics to aid his victory in Saturday’s London E-Prix and strengthen his bid for the 2025-26 Formula E title.
Wehrlein converted pole position into a dominant win in the penultimate race of the season, jumping from third to first in the drivers’ standings in the process.
While the German was rapid throughout the day, his chances of a clean sweep were boosted by Porsche, which deployed several team orders to ensure he secured the maximum points available in London.
In qualifying, both factory team-mate Nico Muller and Kiro driver Dan Tickum slowed down during the duel phases, enabling Wehrlein to claim pole with limited opposition.
Muller then backed up title rival Mitch Evans and the rest of the field throughout the first stint, allowing Wehrlein to pull an advantage of over two seconds while simultaneously conserving energy.
On Friday, Wehrlein admitted he wasn’t the biggest fan of team tactics, as he expressed some worries about rivals trying to “manipulate” the race to swing the title in their direction.
When asked about those comments after Saturday’s race, Wehrlein pointed to the 2024 Monaco E-Prix, where Nick Cassidy slowed the pace in a similar fashion to allow team-mate Evans to arm both Attack Modes without losing track position.
“It's not the first time that we are seeing that,” the 31-year-old told Motorsport.com. “I remember Jaguar also won a Monaco race like that.
“I think today could have been a 1-2 for the team. Unfortunate with the timing of that pit boost for Nico, but overall we did a good job, and just unlucky for him.”
Asked whether he would have preferred to win the race without any assistance from Muller, he added: “I don't know, it's not my decision.”
Although Muller allowed Wehrlein to build a significant lead early on, his win wasn’t guaranteed with Evans making serious progress after moving forward his pit boost stop. However, a mid-race virtual safety car ultimately decided the outcome of the race in his favour, allowing Wehrlein, title contender Jake Dennis and several other drivers to take a cheap pitstop.
Wehrlein was the only one of the group to complete his pitstop before the caution ended, giving him an additional advantage over those running directly behind him. Asked during the press conference whether Saturday felt like a perfect day for him, he said: “Yeah, except for the fastest lap but no, it was a great day.
“The whole weekend, good performance already in the practice sessions, always in the top two, top three, so qualifying executed perfectly with both cars in the first row and then, yeah, it just went by plan also in the race.”
Wehrlein is aiming to become Formula E’s first double champion since Jean-Eric Vergne, as he goes into Sunday’s finale with a five-point lead over Dennis, while Evans is a further 16 points back in third.
“The plan is to try and win that race again," added the Porsche driver. "First of all, I need to make sure to put it somewhere at the front in qualifying and yeah, for sure the aim is to win.
"If we can't win, obviously we try and make calculations when it's needed, but the first goal is to win."
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