Software problem in qualifying prevents better result for Porsche driver Pascal Wehrlein in Jeddah

After a good start to the season, Formula E world champion Pascal Wehrlein experienced a sobering weekend in Jeddah - although the pace was initially there. In Friday's race, the German started from the front row and could have been in contention for victory, until he was crashed out by Mitch Evans. On Saturday, a technical problem prevented a good result early on.

For the first time this season, Wehrlein failed to qualify in the group stage. "Unfortunately, we had a problem with the car's software in qualifying today, which cost us performance and a good result. That's why we only finished 13th in qualifying", explains Wehrlein.

So he first had to work his way forwards in the race, which he managed to do in the early stages. "The race felt quite good at first, but unfortunately the feeling waned towards the end. It is difficult for me to understand why we lost so many places. We moved up to 8th place, but we made life difficult for ourselves."

His weekend résumé is meagre with just four championship points: "Yesterday (Friday) everything was ready for a very good day, on which our race was ruined through no fault of our own by Evans on lap 1. Luck was not on our side, but rather bad luck. We simply didn't manage a clean race day."

"Nissan & DS had a very, very strong package on this track"

In addition, Porsche's rivals on the new circuit in Saudi Arabia were simply very strong. "We saw that Nissan and DS had a very, very strong package on this track", says Wehrlein. The two manufacturers scored a total of 76 and 58 points respectively in Jeddah, Porsche only 25. As a result, the German sports car manufacturer dropped back to third place in the constructors' championship.

Porsche team principal Florian Modlinger also draws a sobering conclusion: "That was another disappointing race day in Jeddah. We scored important points, but we could have done better. Pascal (...) was able to steadily improve during the race, finishing in 8th place in the end."

Antonio Felix da Costa also experienced an unfortunate E-Prix, in which he was taken out by rivals twice. "Antonio started the race from P4 and was then taken out of the race by a competitor through no fault of his own. That was extremely unfortunate. He could have achieved a top position. Now we have to sort ourselves out, analyse everything and come back even stronger in Miami (12 April)", says Modlinger.