An Antonio Felix da Costa versus Pascal Wehrlein title fight? Goodness, who writes Formula E’s scripts?
If you were to outline a multifaceted fantasy plotline for the final season of Gen3, it would be this: a championship battle played out between two disparate characters who really don’t like each other.
It wasn’t always like that, though. Throughout 2023 and some of 2024, there were no issues apparent. In fact, they actually got along reasonably well. That was until the infamous December 2024 drivers parade fall-out came and caused the antipathy between them to spiral out of control and into an abyss of paranoia.
Now that they are on opposing sides, will the antagonism recede or intensify? There have been a few subtle moments already that point to the second of those outcomes and, with the closeness of this year’s title fight, it feels inevitable that there will be further chapters of discord.
That Da Costa and Wehrlein were two alpha drivers who couldn’t co-exist in the same team and threatened to smash up their own kennel last season also means that, by fate, the final Gen3 title fight this season could be one of Formula E’s best.
That’s because the personal gnarl between them may well offer the such narrative since Lucas di Grassi and Sebastien Buemi’s infamous 2016 title fight in London.
Da Costa and Wehrlein’s on-track corrosiveness has come in flashes, notably in a needless Berlin practice shunt last July that greatly embarrassed Porsche on its home patch. Points were expected to be squandered among the infighting, yet that didn’t quite play out.
Shanghai scrapping and that random Berlin practice session shunt apart, they brought the teams’ title to Porsche through a combination of consistent points scoring, Jaguar’s horrible start to the season, and Nissan faltering in the second half of the season.
Da Costa’s inevitable exit a year early came in September. Since then, the rivalry has simmered rather than boiled. On the opening lap in Mexico, da Costa put a brutal chop on a surging Wehrlein on the first lap. That was noted by Porsche and Wehrlein for future reference.
Altogether though, da Costa played himself into Jaguar quickly but methodically. In his first race for the team in Sao Paulo, he was on for a strong points finish before being one of the ramps that Pepe Marti vaulted off.
Despite a strong position, da Costa wasn’t a real force in Sao Paulo for the win, as he was still finding the specific methods of deploying the Jaguar’s all-wheel-drive system – particularly in the control systems that are said to be vastly different to Porsche’s.
Yet now he looks pretty much completely attuned to the Jaguar way. That unstoppable force is definitely going to meet the immovable object of his old team-mate and team again and again this season, and Formula E will be relishing in it.
Why it’s just Porsche vs Jaguar
Of the six E-Prixs so far this season, Porsche-powered cars have claimed two wins to Jaguar’s three. Only Nick Cassidy’s heroics in Mexico City have interrupted that ‘big two’ dominance.
Nissan and Stellantis may fight back and score the odd win this season, but it really feels like a Jaguar versus Porsche scenario is already playing out. On a variety of track specifications, and at the end of the Gen3 development timeline, the big two are firmly at the top of the performance tree.
Mahindra is having a good season and has a strong car, but it just doesn’t seem capable of consistently big results after scoring just a couple of podiums so far. Add to the juggling of its resources for the Gen4 development – Mahindra is already six months behind the opposition in terms of track testing – and it isn’t viewed as a serious contender for titles this season.
That’s despite an excellent start to the season by Edoardo Mortara, who sits ahead of the Jaguar drivers in the points standings. But having a quick car is only one part of the jigsaw in Formula E, which is why it is set apart from most other racing. The team, its resources and both the drivers’ inherent pace and reading of races are significant other pieces.
That doesn’t mean to say that the likes of Mahindra, Nissan and the Stellantis teams will not win races this season, just that for the bigger picture of the title, the die is already cast.
Berlin is coming up, where Jaguar- and Porsche-powered cars have won the previous four races. Then to Monaco, where Jaguar has mauled its opponents in three of the last four races, while Porsche has ploughed its own reputation as the great underachiever in the Principality. That has to stop soon.
It’s hard to see where a consistent challenge is coming from outside of the Wehrlein, da Costa and Evans axis. Mortara, Jake Dennis, and even reigning champion Oliver Rowland feel like outsiders already because – for a variety of reasons – they just aren’t taking a credible fight to Porsche and Jaguar race in, race out.
The third contender
Allied to the tasty prospect of a da Costa-Wehrlein fight, there is a third driver full of burning motivation and yearning for the title: Mitch Evans.
The trope of Evans deserving to be a world champion by now has worn thin, even with the man himself a fair bit. This year is the time to turn a trope into a truth.
The quality of Evans’s drive from 16th to the brink of the lead in Jarama should be considered one of the really great Formula E drives. But that won’t be enough for Evans, who in his own mind believes that this season is his best chance of finally becoming champion.
The key word here though is ‘should’. Because undoubtedly behind the scenes, there are complex dynamics possible that might yet again curtail or affect a charge for the title. That will play on his mind, but he must surely eschew the noise and focus on repeating performances such as Miami (where he won) and Jarama to banish doubts and make any orchestrations meaningless.
That little dynamic of Jaguar calling off a straight fight on the penultimate lap in Jarama could be seen as the first sign of a narrative, whereby Evans could again be compromised by his own team and his own position, which presently is pointing in only one direction: the exit.
Might he weaponise the situation as the season plays out, either using it positively and leveraging his experience in the team to pull a gap on da Costa, or perhaps not as positively and occasionally go a bit rogue? All options are open to him and, in his own head, he may think that he is ‘owed a few’.
The ExCeL flashpoints for Evans and Jaguar in 2024 and 2025 might start to loom large if, as expected, the title goes down to the wire with Wehrlein as it did in 2024. All the while, Wehrlein and Porsche may patiently survey the complexities of Jaguar again, and rub their hands with glee, as in 2024.
This time feels different, yet oddly the same. Jaguar have two of the very top Formula E performers who also happen to be exceptionally good friends. But one, Evans, is on the cusp of leaving for pastures new. How will that dynamic play out? And, who in that team genuinely wants Evans to quench his decade-long title thirst ahead of its new charismatic force, da Costa?
All this might lead to da Costa essentially facing a twin threat as he pursues a second title, one he covets just as much as Evans covets his first. That’s because he was unable to properly revel in his ‘pandemic’ success in the summer of 2020.
While his title win was entirely worthy, da Costa is a driver highly motivated by enjoying and celebrating his racing and the success that comes with it. He needs the joy.
As do we, and we’ll get it. Because the final title fight of the Gen3 era is shaping up to be a classic, rich with storylines running through it, just as fast and as box-office-worthy as the three principal protagonists themselves.