Porsche disappointed after 4th and 5th place in Sao Paulo: "That's tough luck and how Formula E is"

Porsche confirmed that it is the team to beat at the 2025/26 Formula E World Championship season opener. Pascal Wehrlein secured his third consecutive pole position in Sao Paulo, but was unlucky in the race, finishing fourth. Nico Müller finished fifth in his debut race for Porsche. In the team standings, Porsche is level on points with the leading customer team Andretti in second place.

For the first time in Formula E, Porsche cars took the top three positions in qualifying. As in the last two Sao Paulo races, Wehrlein won all three of his duels to secure pole position. However, due to a grid penalty - his wheels had spun when leaving the pit lane during the duels - he started the race from fourth place, while his team-mate Nico Müller started from 12th.

Wehrlein was then consistently in the top 5. Müller saved energy and drove in midfield until the middle of the race, when he used his first Attack Mode to move up to P1. On lap 23, both Porsche drivers activated their second Attack Mode at the same time, but were unlucky shortly afterwards: After the collision between Lucas di Grassi and Edoardo Mortara, race control sent the safety car out onto the track.

Safety car costs both drivers 3 minutes each in attack mode

More than three minutes with the additional power was thus wasted. The race was then restarted, but it was no longer possible for the two Porsche drivers to improve their positions. Müller had a stroke of luck: like Antonio Felix da Costa, the Swiss driver was hit by Pepe Marti's Cupra Kiro. Unlike the Jaguar, however, no repairs were necessary, so Porsche finished the race in 4th and 5th place.

"A bit of a frustrating day to be honest," said Wehrlein after the race. "We were so quick and had a shot at the win but the safety car interventions took away our Attack Mode when we still had three minutes to go. It would have put us from P4 easily into P1."

"ut that’s tough luck and how Formula E is," he continued. "The good thing is we were strong in practice and qualifying where we were P1 and we just had a bit of bad luck in the race. Was a good start to the season, much better than last year!"

Nico Müller: "A solid start"

"Really good to get the season rolling and get the first race out of the way," explained Nico Müller. "Today we had to be on it straight away. The performance is there and the car is performing very well, which Pascal proved very impressively in qualifying – he is the master of this place!"

"We had a good race, even though it was challenging and maybe we were not in the best positions at the beginning," added the Swiss driver. "but we made our way forward and had a really strong Attack Mode phase. Got into the lead and it looked very likely for a podium finish but in the end with the safety car interventions it took away most of our second Attack Mode, which cost us a lot. We still got a good result and it’s a solid start to the year."

Modlinger: "A race with a lot of excitement"

"A very exciting first race day of Season 12 and a very strong qualifying result for the Porsche-powered cars with three of them in the top three," described Florian Modlinger, Team Principal and Director Factory Motorsport Formula E at Porsche. "Pascal put in an extraordinary performance with his third pole position on this track in the last three seasons."

"A race with a lot of excitement," continued Modlinger. "Pascal and Nico finished fourth and fifth, both were good for a podium and Pascal for sure a victory, but an unfortunate safety car meant that was not possible. It is a good start to the season, we scored well with 25 points for the teams' classification and, thanks to Andretti, 37 in the manufacturers' classification, which Porsche now leads. A successful start and already looking forward to race again in Mexico City after Christmas."

The Mexico City E-Prix will take place on 10 January. Porsche also secured pole position here last season and had both drivers on the podium.