Facts & Figures: The best statistics on the 2024 Formula E races in Shanghai

After five years away from China, Formula E held its 11th and 12th races of the season in Shanghai last weekend. The two races at the Shanghai International Circuit produced some interesting statistics, milestones and curiosities.

Statistical peculiarities at the Shanghai E-Prix

• Jean-Eric Vergne took his 16th pole position on Saturday. He shares the record with Sebastien Buemi. It was the sixth pole for Penske. The US-Americans thus drew level with ABT and Porsche. Vergne also contested his 125th race in Formula E.
• Nyck de Vries achieved his first lead laps on Saturday since the 2022 Berlin E-Prix (back then with Mercedes). On Sunday, he reached the duel stage of qualifying for the first time since London 2022. Back then, he lost the quarter-final to Antonio Giovinazzi in the Dragon. Fourth place was also by far his best grid position of the year, having previously finished best in 12th in Tokyo.
• Mitch Evans celebrated his twelfth Formula E victory on Saturday. He thus drew level with Sam Bird. Only Sebastien Buemi and Lucas di Grassi (13 each) have won more races. It was also his 28th podium in the electric racing series. Jaguar has now achieved 43 podiums in Formula E - the same number as Techeetah. With 16 race wins, they also caught up with Envision. Only Nissan and its predecessor team e.dams have won more races (18).
• Pascal Wehrlein stood on the Formula E podium for the tenth time on Saturday. This makes him the most successful German driver in the racing series, on a par with Daniel Abt and Max Günther.
• At just 116 days, it was the smallest age difference between the youngest and oldest driver on a Formula E podium. Evans, Wehrlein and Cassidy were all born in 1994.
• Pascal Wehrlein was not in the duels for only the second time this season on Sunday. 13th place was his worst grid position this year. This means that there is now no driver who has beaten his team-mate in every qualifying session.
• Max Günther finished fifth in group qualifying on Sunday. At 0.043 seconds off the fastest time, he had the smallest gap of any driver who has ever missed the duel phase.
• Jake Hughes beat Stoffel Vandoorne by 0.001 seconds - the smallest gap ever in a final duel. Vandoorne reached the final duel for the fourth time this season - each time he lost. For Hughes, it was the fourth pole position in Formula E, equalling Lucas di Grassi.
• Jake Hughes achieved his first podium in Formula E. It was also the third podium for McLaren. This means that each of the three McLaren drivers (Rene Rast, Sam Bird and Jake Hughes) has stood on the podium exactly once.
• Antonio Felix da Costa celebrated his tenth Formula E race win. This was the eleventh time in a row that the pole-setter did not win the race. This season, only Wehrlein managed this at the season opener in Mexico.
• Norman Nato took his first podium for Andretti in Shanghai. The last (BMW) Andretti podium not achieved by Jake Dennis was Max Günther's victory in New York City in 2021. Neither Oliver Askew nor Andre Lotterer achieved a top-three result for the team.
• On Sunday, for only the third time in 2024, no Jaguar driver stood on the podium. This has only happened in Tokyo and on Misano Saturday.
• Sunday's race was the second shortest in Formula E history at 36:04.600 minutes. Only the 2022 New York City E-Prix, which was cancelled due to torrential rain, was around a minute shorter.
• Porsche is the first team in the history of the racing series to have completed lead laps in seven consecutive races. Wehrlein led six of them in succession - more than anyone ever before in Formula E. However, this streak was broken on Sunday.
• Jaguar and Porsche both celebrated their fourth win of the season in Shanghai. Each of the four drivers from the two top Formula E teams has won exactly two races.
• ERT was the only team not to score any points in Shanghai.

Average qualifying position (season)

The best driver in qualifying this season is still Pascal Wehrlein, who made it into the duel phase of qualifying ten times in the first twelve races of the season. However, Jean-Eric Vergne, Mitch Evans, Nick Cassidy, Stoffel Vandoorne and Max Günther are also doing very well on average. The weakest regular driver is Dan Ticktum, who was also the only one who did not even make it into the duels.

Average race result (season)

With his tyre failure on Sunday, Pascal Wehrlein has fallen far behind in this classification. Cassidy is in the lead, followed by Evans and Vergne.

Position changes (Shanghai E-Prix)

The clear winner in this classification is Sebastien Buemi: The Envision driver worked his way up the most positions. After four places on Saturday, he improved by a whole ten positions on Sunday. He was followed by Jake Dennis and Sacha Fenestraz (+9 each), ahead of Nick Cassidy and Robin Frijns (+8 each). Jake Hughes (-12) lost the most positions despite his second place on Sunday. Antonio Felix da Costa (-10) and Sam Bird (-9) also lost a lot of places in one of the two races.

Race laps completed (season)

By now, three drivers have completed all 408 race laps so far this season: Evans, Vergne and Wehrlein. Rowland is only missing the last lap from Sunday's race in Misano, when he rolled out without power.

Lead laps (season)

In Shanghai, two drivers - Nyck de Vries and Norman Nato - completed their first lead laps of the season. Eight drivers divided the 57 laps in China between them. Pascal Wehrlein took the lead in this classification again on Saturday. Behind him, Cassidy and Felix da Costa are on a par.

Included under "other" are: Sam Bird (21), Stoffel Vandoorne (15), Max Günther (12), Norman Nato (11), Sebastien Buemi (10), Robin Frijns (5), Nico Müller (4 each), Jake Hughes, Edoardo Mortara (3 each) and Nyck de Vries (2).

Performance analysis of the drivers & teams (Shanghai E-Prix)

The winner of our performance analysis for the Shanghai E-Prix is Mitch Evans. The Jaguar driver set the fastest lap of the weekend in the first free practice session on Friday (1:13.215 minutes). He was followed by Norman Nato, Jean-Eric Vergne, Jake Hughes and Oliver Rowland, who were all within a tenth of a second. At the back of the field are Sebastien Buemi (1:13.696), Jehan Daruvala (1:13.754) and Sergio Sette Camara (1:13.806).

The Shanghai International Circuit was not as demanding as the usual city circuits: Only 0.591 seconds separated all 22 drivers. Strikingly, with the exception of Stoffel Vandoorne, Sacha Fenestraz and Buemi, all the drivers set their fastest time in the first free practice session, the other three in the second free practice session.

The fastest team on one lap was Jaguar ahead of Andretti. They were followed by DS Penske, McLaren and Nissan. The slowest team was Mahindra. For the manufacturer ranking, this means adjusted: Jaguar >>> Porsche >>> Stellantis >>> Nissan >>> ERT >>> Mahindra

Lap time analysis

Saturday

On Saturday, it was noticeable how slow the pace was in the first half of the race despite a short intermediate sprint around lap 5. The lap times only became significantly faster from lap 15 onwards.

Nyck de Vries was one of the slowest and presumably most economical drivers before the increase in pace, as was Oliver Rowland. While de Vries stormed to the front on lap 16 and even took the lead of the race, Rowland held back longer and only just missed out on the podium in 4th place in the end.

You can also see Robin Frijns' spin after a slight contact with Max Günther.

Sunday

On Sunday, in contrast, the difference between the start and end of the race is much less pronounced. Nyck de Vries' spin after the collision with Sam Bird is clearly recognisable. Pascal Wehrlein's energy-saving tactics after the tyre damage, when he was hoping for a safety car, are also clearly visible. In the end, the Porsche driver was the fastest driver in the field thanks to the energy saved in this way.

However, you can also see that many drivers did not save enough energy at the start of the race and instead used it to fight for position. In the last two laps, they paid the price for this and in some cases drove two seconds slower than the competitors at the front.