Facts & Figures: The best statistics on the 2024 Formula E race in Sao Paulo

Formula E held the fourth round of its 2024 world championship season in Sao Paulo on Saturday. The first race after the long break since the end of January produced some interesting statistics, milestones and curiosities.

Statistical peculiarities at the Sao Paulo E-Prix

• Pascal Wehrlein achieved his fifth pole position in Formula E. It was the first for him outside of Mexico. Previously, he was first on the grid three times in Mexico City and once in Puebla.
• His lead of 0.002 seconds in the final duel was the second-smallest gap ever achieved for pole position. At the 2017 Berlin E-Prix, Lucas di Grassi had a lead of just 0.001 seconds over Jose Maria Lopez.
• Sam Bird achieved his 12th race win in Formula E. He last won in New York City in season 7. The Brit drove 35 races, or 979 days, without winning a race. He had never had to wait that long for another race win in Formula E.
• It was the first McLaren victory in Formula E. McLaren became the 14th team to win a race in the electric series. It was only the second podium for the team, after Rene Rast finished third at the 2023 Diriyah E-Prix more than a year ago.
• Oliver Rowland finished third for the second time in a row on the podium. The Nissan driver had never achieved this before in his 68-race Formula E career.
• With sixth place, Antonio Felix da Costa scored his first points since the 2023 Portland E-Prix.
• Max Günther also scored points: The Maserati driver thus became the first driver since Sergio Sette Camara at the 2023 Rome E-Prix to finish in the top 10 from 22nd on the grid. Small but significant difference: Günther also had to serve a stop-and-go penalty in the race.

Average qualifying position (season)

The best driver in qualifying so far this season is Pascal Wehrlein, who has secured pole position twice in the first four races. The comparatively poor performance of his team-mate Antonio Felix da Costa, who has qualified an average of 11.5 places lower in the first four races, is particularly striking. While Wehrlein leads the standings, the Portuguese is only in 19th place.

Average race result (season)

Wehrlein is also in the lead in this statistic, but only just ahead of Mitch Evans and Jean-Eric Vergne. Jaguar works driver Nick Cassidy, the leader in this classification before the race in Sao Paulo, is now only fifth after his retirement on Saturday.

Position changes (Sao Paulo E-Prix)

With a total of 13 positions gained, Max Günther was the driver who advanced the most in Sao Paulo. Coming from 22nd on the grid, the German even scored two championship points in ninth place. Behind him in this statistic are Sebastien Buemi and Oliver Rowland with eight positions gained each. At the bottom of the list are the retired drivers Jake Hughes (-7), Nick Cassidy (-12) and Nico Müller (-13).

Race laps completed (season)

Ten drivers have completed all 144 race laps so far this season. Nick Cassidy, Jake Hughes and Nico Müller are no longer among them following their retirements in Brazil.

Lead laps (season)

Sao Paulo has seen the most lead changes of the season so far. Five drivers were able to clock up kilometres in the lead, which had previously only been achieved by three drivers at most. With Jake Dennis, Mitch Evans and Pascal Wehrlein, three drivers have now also led two races each.

Summarised under "other" are: Robin Frijns (4), Antonio Felix da Costa (3) and Jean-Eric Vergne (3).

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

The winner of our performance analysis for the Sao Paulo E-Prix is Mitch Evans. The Jaguar driver set the fastest time of the weekend in the first free practice session on Friday evening (1:12.555 minutes). He was followed by Stoffel Vandoorne, just 0.011 seconds behind, and Pascal Wehrlein. 20 drivers were within one second of each other in Brazil. At the back of the field were the two ABT Cupra cars of Nico Müller (1:13.532) and Lucas di Grassi (1:13.617), with Envision driver Robin Frijns (1:13.567), who also drove for ABT last year, in between.

Strikingly, eight of the 22 drivers set their best lap time of the weekend in the first free practice session. A clear indication that the track did not improve as much over the course of the event as is usually the case on Formula E circuits.

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

Lap time analysis

When analysing the lap times, it is particularly noticeable that all drivers lost performance towards the end of the race: the batteries of the cars overheated, resulting in derating. Not a single driver managed to set the same lap times in the final phase as on lap 26. Sam Bird and Mitch Evans, who battled for victory right up to the last corner, were by far the best at managing the problem.

However, this may have little to do with their powertrains: Robin Frijns in the Envision customer Jaguar as well as Sacha Fenestraz in the works Nissan and Jake Hughes in the McLaren customer Nissan struggled much more with the problem than most of the other drivers.

Only ERT's performance deteriorated even more: Sergio Sette Camara and Dan Ticktum lost a lot of ground in the last two to three laps.