Dennis accuses Wehrlein after Formula E finale: "He put us into the wall"
Tobias Wirtz
FIA Formula E
Jake Dennis has strongly criticised Pascal Wehrlein and Porsche following the Formula E season finale in London. The Andretti driver holds his title rival responsible for the decisive collision and accused him of taking him out of the race. Speaking to e-Formula.news, Dennis gave his own account of the incident, saying Wehrlein turned right and put both of them into the wall.
Dennis entered the final race of the season five points behind Pascal Wehrlein. During the chaotic finale, Wehrlein dropped out of the points, temporarily putting Dennis on course for the Drivers' title. But in the closing stages, the two championship rivals met directly in the midfield – and Dennis' title hopes ended shortly afterwards in the wall.
Dennis made it very clear after the race who he held responsible. "I mean, he took me clean straight out of the race, so it's as simple as that," the Briton said of Wehrlein. "I think, yeah, from my side, it's quite obvious."
Dennis calls Wehrlein & Porsche's conduct "embarrassing"
Speaking exclusively to e-Formula.news, Dennis described the decisive incident in more detail. "I mean, yeah, we were side-by-side going into a corner and then I had the racing line obviously on the inside and until we didn't," he said. "So yeah, he obviously turned right and put us into the wall, so crashed."
The Andretti driver was even more outspoken when assessing the actions of Wehrlein and Porsche as a whole. "I think it's embarrassing, and what we've seen today from Pascal, Porsche, to be in that position, to beat Pascal clearly ahead, and then he just rams me straight into the wall," Dennis said. "It's quite surprising."
Dennis also had strong words about the way the championship battle ultimately played out. "But ultimately if they wanna win it like that, then they can," he said. "But that's the game. That's what happens when you're behind going into the final race."
From Dennis' perspective, any penalty handed out afterwards would not change the consequences of such an incident. "They can take you straight out and ultimately if they get the penalty it makes no difference because I'm in the wall," he said.
Wehrlein and Dennis eventually both finished outside the points. With Mitch Evans only managing fourth place, Wehrlein's existing advantage was still enough to secure his second Formula E Drivers' World Championship. Dennis finished the season as runner-up.
Dennis: "I can leave London with my head held high"
Despite the disappointment of missing out on the championship, Dennis was positive about his own performance.
"I can leave London with my head held high," said the Season 9 Formula E World Champion. "I'm happy with the way I drove, the risks I took and yeah, I go into the offseason in a pretty good head space."
Dennis now heads into a busy period away from Formula E, with major changes in his personal life alongside his sporting commitments. "I have a lot of things personally going on in my life. With my fiance, you know, giving birth in a few weeks. So it's gonna be a cool period," he said.
The Briton is also already looking ahead to the upcoming Gen4 era. "Yeah, Gen4 is gonna be exciting. And obviously I'm super busy with BMW still. So from my side, it's, yeah, an exciting few months coming up. So yeah, very much looking forward to it."
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2 Comments
Matt ·
I re-watched the end-of-lap 31 T16/T17 carnage a few times at half speed, initially to understand where Da Costa's grid penalty for Gen4 came from, but then to see what really happened with Wehrlein, Dennis, and Eriksson. It's clear as day that Dennis was prevented from continuing down the track in one piece due to Wehrlein's car positioning in T17.
I couldn't say Wehrlein did what he did intentionally with eyes on ruining his rival's race and championship or simply because he was panicking in the moment and trying to preserve his own track position, but either way he was absolutely a bowling ball tagging and spinning Eriksson and then running Dennis out of room, leaving Dennis no time or room to react before he slammed into the barrier and ended his race and championship. I saw some people online trying to label Dennis as a sore loser due to his comments; I think that's ridiculous, to me he's carrying himself with a lot of composure and restraint given what happened.
It's worth noting Dennis's claim that "he was on the inside" is a bit self-biased, he was absolutely on the inside of T16 and setting himself to be on the inside of T18 but was on the outside of T17 where the incident happened, and I wouldn't've begrudged Pascal making it hard for him at that point in a fair-but-firm hip-and-shoulder way, leaving Jake to slot in behind and fight another day. But running Dennis nose-on into the barriers with no time or room to react was not "fair-but-firm", it was bad driving regardless of the underlying intention. If Dennis's strategy, which he executed very well up to that point, had been allowed to play out without other drivers being knobs, it's very likely he would be celebrating his second title instead of Pascal. I wouldn't go so far as to say Pascal deserves to have his title stripped as some might say, but as an FE fan it's a title that I'll never see as a likeable achievement. I'm hugely sympathetic with Jake Dennis who, aside from his Sunday qualifying, did virtually everything correctly and with great class in London to give himself a real chance at the title and had his chance ruined due to Pascal's driving.
Reply by Tobias Wirtz
Thank you very much for your comments on our site, Matt!
Do you think it’s possible that Eriksson caused the collisions behind him by slowing down more than usual to help Jaguar?
Both with Dennis at T16 and with Wehrlein at T17?
Matt ·
Re: Tobias's reply
No I don't think Eriksson slowed down too much and I definitely don't think he was doing anything intentional on behalf of Jaguar, he was firm closing the door on Dennis at T16 but Dennis wasn't anywhere near being alongside so Eriksson clearly earned the corner and had every right to take his apex, and I really don't think he did anything wrong at T17 at all, looked to me like he was just trying to take his line through the corners. Dennis was a little too hopeful starting to stick a nose in at T16 but jammed on the brakes to back out at the last second which caught Da Costa out because Da Costa didn't leave enough margin to account for Dennis slowing an unusual amount, and Wehrlein tagged and spun Eriksson at T17 with a relatively minor touch via the left end of his front wing, to me mostly because he was jockeying rather desperately with Dennis instead of paying full attention to where Joel's car was, and then we saw how that turned out.
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