Facts, figures, data: Statistics on the 2023 Formula E season opener in Mexico

The Mexico City E-Prix was Formula E's 101st race on Saturday, ushering in the new Gen3 era. We have analyzed all the sessions at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in detail and summarize for you in this article all the statistical anomalies at the first race of the 2023 Formula E World Championship.

Statistical peculiarities at the Mexico City E-Prix

• For the first time, the opening race of a Formula E season did not take place on the Asian continent. Previously, the first championship race was always held in Beijing, Hong Kong or Diriyya.
• Sacha Fenestraz reached the duel stage of qualifying for the first time in his second Formula E race.
• Pole-sitter Jake Dennis is now even at five consecutive duel stage participations.
• Dennis versus di Grassi: The qualifying final was a rematch of the duel at the second race of the 2022 London E-Prix. Back then, Dennis secured pole position.
• Lucas di Grassi celebrated the fourth pole position in his Formula E career in Mexico.
• All other poles had been taken by the Brazilian in season 3: his last pole position actually dates from the 2017 Montreal E-Prix, where he became champion. Di Grassi thus had to wait 2,026 days for another pole position!
• It was also the tenth pole position for Mahindra. Remarkably, only Felix Rosenqvist has so far taken more than one pole for the team.
• Dan Ticktum secured the best grid position of his Formula E career with 5th place. He had previously finished seventh at the 2022 season finale in Seoul.
• The Mexico City E-Prix was the longest race in Formula E history at 107.63 kilometers. Previously, this record was held by the 2018 Berlin E-Prix, where Gen1 cars had driven 106.79 kilometers at Tempelhof.
• Jake Dennis won his fourth Formula E race in Mexico. He thereby drew level with Nyck de Vries.
• It was also the ninth Formula E victory for Andretti. Dennis is the most successful Andretti driver with four wins.
• Andretti now won the first race with the Gen3 cars after the inaugural race of the Gen2 era. Antonio Felix da Costa had won the 2018 Diriyya E-Prix for the then BMW factory team.
• With 38 points, Andretti scored the second-best result in Formula E in Mexico. Only at the first race of the 2022 London E-Prix had the team scored a higher points haul with 41.
• This was the second victory for a Porsche powertrain in Formula E. Both Porsche race wins occurred in Mexico City, and both times a Porsche driver also scored a second-place finish in the process.
• Pascal Wehrlein stood on the podium for the fourth time in his Formula E career.
• There's no comparison with Lucas di Grassi: The Mahindra driver stood on the podium ten times as often - for the 40th time in total.
• At the same time, di Grassi finished in the top 10 for the 75th time in a Formula E race - both figures represent a record.
• Andre Lotterer was the only driver in Mexico to finish in the position in which he started. Incidentally, it was the first time in 68 races for Lotterer that his starting position was not different from his finish.
• Fifth place for Jake Hughes is the best result by a Formula E rookie since Scott Speed. The US American even scored second place at the Miami E-Prix in 2015.
• Jake Hughes is also the 15th British driver to compete in a Formula E race. That's more than from any other nation.
• For Robin Frijns, it was the first retirement since the 2020 season finale. Before the Mexico City E-Prix, the Dutchman had seen the checkered flag in 31 consecutive races.

Qualifying comparison of Formula E teammates (season)

Team	Driver 1	Stand	Driver 2
Neom McLaren	Hughes	1 : 0	Rast
Maserati MSG Racing	Günther	0 : 1	Mortara
Jaguar TCS Racing	Evans	1 : 0	Bird
Envision Racing	Buemi	1 : 0	Cassidy
Avalanche Andretti	Dennis	1 : 0	Lotterer
TAG Heuer Porsche	Felix da Costa	0 : 1	Wehrlein
Mahindra Racing	di Grassi	1 : 0	Rowland
Nissan	Nato	0 : 1	Fenestraz
Nio 333 Racing	Sette Camara	0 : 1	Ticktum
DS Penske	Vandoorne	0 : 1	Vergne
ABT Cupra	Frijns	0 : 1	Müller

 

Changes of position (Mexico City E-Prix)

With nine positions gained, Oliver Rowland was the one to move up the most in Mexico: The Mahindra driver had started from last place on the grid and moved up to 13th position in the race. Behind him is Max Günther with six places won. He is followed by Nico Müller, Stoffel Vandoorne and Pascal Wehrlein with four position gains each. At the bottom of the statistics is Daniel Ticktum with twelve lost positions due to his various penalties. Sacha Fenestraz (-7) has also lost out significantly.

When analyzing the places gained and lost in the race, those drivers who had a weak qualifying session and were able to work their way forward in the race usually perform best. Particularly weak scores are usually achieved by drivers who have fallen far behind or dropped out after a good qualifying session.

Race laps completed (season)

In the opening race, 17 of the total 22 drivers completed all 41 race laps. Only Robin Frijns, Norman Nato, Sam Bird, Edo Mortara and Rene Rast retired.

Leading Laps (Season)

In Mexico City, there was only one change in the lead: Lucas di Grassi, who had been in first place since the start, had to let Jake Dennis pass on the twelfth lap, who subsequently took a commanding victory. Accordingly, the Andretti driver also leads the classification of the leading laps in the still young season.

Driver & Team Performance Analysis (Mexico City E-Prix)

The winner of our performance analysis for the Mexico City E-Prix is Jake Dennis. In the semi-final duel, the Brit set the fastest time of the weekend (1:12.595 minutes). He is followed by Jake Hughes, who was only 0.126 seconds slower in his semi-final duel. Apart from these two drivers, only Dan Ticktum (1:12.922 minutes) stayed under 1:13 minutes. Pole-sitter Lucas di Grassi is fourth ahead of Pascal Wehrlein, Sebastien Buemi, Andre Lotterer and Sacha Fenestraz. Jean-Eric Vergne and Mitch Evans round out the top 10.

At the back of the field are Oliver Rowland, Robin Frijns and Sam Bird, who all stayed above 1:14 minutes. The fastest eight drivers achieved their best time in the duel phase of qualifying. Of the remaining drivers, only Jean-Eric Vergne and Sergio Sette Camara set their fastest lap time in free practice. All the other drivers improved their times in qualifying, even though the group stage was only run with 300 kW of power! The maximum power of 350 kW will not be available again until the duel phase.

For the teams, that means the fastest car on a lap was Andretti's customer Porsche ahead of McLaren's customer Nissan and the Nio 333, followed by the factory Mahindra ahead of the factory Porsche, Envision's customer Jaguar, the factory Nissan and the DS. Then follow the factory team's Jaguar and the Maserati. The slowest car in Mexico was ABT Cupra's customer Mahindra.

For the manufacturers, this means adjusted: Porsche >>> Nissan >> Nio 333 >>> Mahindra >>> Jaguar >> DS/Maserati.

Get behind the leader (Mexico City E-Prix)

In this section, we have mapped out for you how the gaps between the top 5 drivers and the leaders have evolved over the course of the race. We have not taken into account penalties imposed afterwards.

Hovering over one of the data points on the graphs will show you the exact gap of the driver in the selected lap.

New: Lap Time Analysis (Mexico City E-Prix)

How was the performance of the drivers during the race? Which drivers had to slow down in the closing stages to save energy?

In this new section, we've mapped out for you how each driver's lap times performed during the race. To compensate for individual outliers, we always calculate the average value over three laps. Since the laps behind the safety car distort the picture very strongly and also have no significance, we have only taken into account the second half of the race in Mexico City.

Note: If you hover over one of the data points on the graphs, you will be shown the driver's name and the averaged lap time of the driver on the selected lap. Also, the driver's entire turn will then be highlighted.