Written by Vyas Ponnuri and Jake O’Callaghan
The Formula E grid welcomed 2025 with an exciting Mexico City E-Prix, one that saw a smash-and-grab victory, amidst several others impressing, while some big names had a weekend to forget. Read on as Vyas and Jake dissect the winners and losers from the second weekend of the 2024-25 Formula E season…..
Winners: Oliver Rowland
It’s not just P1 on the track, but Oliver Rowland finds the top spot in our winners list too. Such was the nature of his performance on the day, it made up for his miss at São Paulo one month prior.
Having run in the top four all race, the Briton capitalised on a huge opportunity posed by a late-race safety car, and just over a minute of attack mode left as the field went back to green flag racing.
In the span of about half a lap, Rowland surged past Jake Dennis’ Andretti, before diving to the inside of Pascal Wehrlein’s Porsche into turns five and six to take second.
In only a few corners, the Nissan man dived to the inside of turn 12, snatching the lead from Antonio Felix da Costa to take the lead as the grid headed into the stadium section.
The Barnsley native then kept his cool in the closing stages, fending off the chasing da Costa to cross the line with just a smidgeon of energy left. A masterclass in keeping it cool and snatching the opportunities opening up in front of him.
While Rowland did believe his victory wasn’t entirely down to the timing of the safety car, his victory was certainly redemptive in nature after the overpower saga at the season opener in São Paulo, and marks him out as a firm championship contender for season 11.
Winners: DS Penske
While the spotlight was firmly on the Porsche duo and Rowland’s successful smash-and-grab victory, another team leaving Mexico City delighted with their efforts was DS Penske.
Jean-Éric Vergne spearheaded the charge for the team in gold, finishing fifth after starting a stellar third, while Max Günther maintained his sixth position from start to finish.
With both cars finishing in the top six, DS Penske notched up 18 points, reaffirming their status as consistent points finishers.
Both drivers ensured they made it into the duels in Mexico City, with Günther topping the timings in group B qualifying, while Vergne received a reprieve after Nick Cassidy was eliminated due to a technical infraction in group A.
They faced off against each other in the duels, with Vergne making it through, before he was ousted in the semi finals by da Costa, netting third on the grid for the race.
While both drivers may have set their sights on victory, particularly with both drivers utilising upto six minutes of attack mode allocations, the late race safety cars hurt their prospects.
Even still, fifth and sixth sits as a strong effort, instilling belief in the French-American outfit being another consistent force heading into the cream of the season.
Losers: Jaguar
Despite Mitch Evans claiming victory from last on the grid in São Paulo, Jaguar came into the second weekend of the year with lower expectations.
While Nick Cassidy expressed how the team were “a little bit behind where we want to be with this car”, even he wouldn’t have been prepared for the weekend to follow.
Despite showing pace in free practice, with Evans finishing fifth in FP1 and Cassidy ending up second on the timesheets in FP2 on Saturday morning, the rest of the weekend didn’t pan out as expected.
While Evans progressed to the duels, Cassidy was unfortunate to miss out on the duels, due to a technical infraction. This meant he would start the race at the rear of the field.
It would be a second non-score in the race for Cassidy, who, despite ascending ten spots, fell short of the points.
Evans, on the other hand, started fifth, and was running on the fringes of the points, before an incident with Nico Müller’s Andretti at turn 11 saw the Kiwi out with a sheared right front, and triggered the second safety car of the race.
Ultimately, with both drivers failing to score, Jaguar recorded their first non-scoring round since the Jakarta E-Prix back in season nine.
Winner: Pascal Wehrlein
If you ask Pascal Wehrlein about his Mexico City E-Prix, he may be quite disappointed about it, considering he and teammate Antonio Felix Da Costa were in prime position to take a dominant 1-2, before Nissan’s Oliver Rowland snatched it from them with mere laps left to run.
However, his pace was exceptional and this weekend bears some positive signs for the future.
Wehrlein took a historic fourth consecutive pole at Mexico, beating teammate Da Costa in the qualifying final by two tenths to take Porsche’s first-ever front-row lockout.
The Porsches then both dominated throughout much of the race, always clinging on to the top spots.
Unfortunately, due to perfect Attack Mode timing by Nissan, paired with a fortunate series of safety cars, meant Rowland bested Da Costa in second and Wehrlein in third.
Despite losing out on top podium honours, the pace shown by the two Porsche cars, and especially Wehrlein, was particularly encouraging.
It echoed the previous round in São Paulo, where Wehrlein had good race pace, but bad luck meant his race ended with his car upside-down in a horrific accident.
Wehrlein is aiming to be the first driver since 2019, as the second ever, to defend a Formula E title. If his fortunes turn around, the pace is certainly there to achieve it.
Losers: Cupra Kiro
Cupra Kiro entered Formula E at the start of this season with the mission statement to “disrupt the status quo.”
Unfortunately, the only disruption they exhibited in Mexico City was the failure of their powertrain, when Beckmann ground to a halt in the latter half of the race, triggering the first safety car.
Beckmann’s teammate Dan Ticktum did not fare much better. Although he actually finished the race, 14th meant he was unable to follow up his respectable eighth in São Paulo, and meant that Mexico City was an ultimately fruitless endeavour for points.
The team previously-known as NIO-333 and most recently as ERT has experienced struggles for pace before, but with Porsche factory support now behind them they will hope that this is merely a blip in an otherwise-successful season for the American team.
Winner: Stoffel Vandoorne
Stoffel Vandoorne had a very quiet Mexico City E-Prix, and with multiple drivers crashing out of the race, his Maserati team will have taken that as a blessing.
Vandoorne is competing in his first season with the iconic Italian marque since leaving DS Penske after a disappointing Season 10, where he finished 78 points behind teammate Jean-Eric Vergne.
A new team means new expectations, and for a relatively-new team like Maserati, they will look for a driver who can deliver consistent points finishes. Vandoorne has been achieving that so far in Season 11, with a 10th in São Paulo and now, a respectable 7th in Mexico City.
The Formula E champion and veteran channeled all his expertise and energy-management skills, paired with fortunate safety cars, to bring home a decent haul of points for the team in blue.
Losers: Sam Bird
McLaren had a supremely successful opening round in São Paulo, with third and fourth for drivers Taylor Barnard and Sam Bird respectively.
However, they were unable to continue that form into Mexico City. The team had potential, evidenced by their pace in FP1.
Despite optimism, the overnight rain caught out the team in papaya going into Saturday race day. They were unable to properly adapt their car setup for the damp conditions in qualifying, and continued to struggle for pace with the green track during the race.
Sam Bird had a particularly dismal race, where he fell from 10th to 18th. On his race, he stated: “Clearly a very disappointing weekend, and not what I wanted or expected when qualifying in tenth.”
McLaren Team Principal Ian James added: “We really struggled to capitalise on the pace that we inherently have. The weather overnight caught us out, and to be honest, we didn’t react in the right way to the changing track conditions.”
After the highs of São Paulo, Mexico City was certainly a leveller for the Woking-based squad, who will be looking for points as the paddock reaches Jeddah in February.
Winner: Nyck de Vries
Mahindra is a team that has particularly struggled for pace in recent seasons. Among their issues have been underpowered and unreliable powertrains, intra-team reshuffling / power struggles, and inconsistent driver lineups.
Most of those struggles have abated, and the team has looked much stronger in Season 11. Particularly, they enter the season with the same driver lineup they ended the last for the first time in six years, with the experienced hands of Formula E champion Nyck de Vries and teammate Edoardo Mortara.
Nyck de Vries in particular had a strong Mexico City E-Prix with an eighth place finish, continuing on his great run of form after a brilliant sixth place in São Paulo. For a team like Mahindra, used to scrapping for the little points weekend-in, weekend out, Season 11 has started incredibly well.
De Vries is currently ninth in the Drivers’ Championship, with Mortara in tow in 10th. The Indian team also sits a very impressive fifth in the Teams’ Championship.
Losers: Edoardo Mortara
While one Mahindra driver managed to bring home points, the other found himself on the wrong side of luck, finishing outside the points on race day.
Edoardo Mortara came into Mexico City with renewed confidence, on the back of a lofty fifth position finish at São Paulo. Mahindra held a strong record at Mexico City, with three poles at the venue.
Mortara certainly backed up the team’s form at the venue, making it into the duels once again, fetching himself a top ten start for the second race in succession, starting eighth on the grid.
However, his race didn’t go as planned. A lunge from teammate de Vries into the turn 5 hairpin on Sam Bird caused the latter to take avoiding action, and into the rear of Mortara’s Mahindra.
The Swiss racer then radioed to the team about a potential puncture, as he eventually dropped out of the points, before finishing 19th after a ten-second penalty for not using his full quota of attack mode.
Mortara will want to put behind his Mexico City weekend, and look forward to scoring opportunities across the season.
Winner: Taylor Barnard
You might wonder why McLaren’s Taylor Barnard makes it to this list, despite finishing outside the points after a record-breaking podium finish at São Paulo, when Barnard became Formula E’s youngest rostrum finisher.
Yet, the nature of the weekend meant he leaves as a winner, after putting in a measured drive, something expected from a racer well beyond someone in their rookie season.
It’s to be noted how last weekend’s Mexico City E-Prix also marked Barnard’s first visit to the venue, which makes the nature of his comeback drive worthy of yet more praise.
Naturally, Barnard found it difficult to set the pace in practice, while McLaren’s inability to react to improving track conditions restricted Barnard to second last in qualifying. Technical infractions for Cassidy and Sebastien Buemi pushed Barnard up to a 19th position grid start.
The man from Norwich then drove a measured race, playing second fiddle to teammate Sam Bird initially, before keeping out of trouble to climb up to tenth by the flag, although he dropped down to 14th after penalties were applied for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.
Yet, it was a drive worthy of being in our winners’ section, considering it was Barnard’s first experience around the track, and the circumstances surrounding his weekend.
Losers: Zane Maloney
Much like his fellow rookie Taylor Barnard, this was Zane Maloney’s first visit to the
Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez. The boy from Barbados finished a respectable 12th on Formula E debut in the season opener.
While this was expected to be a difficult weekend for the F2 graduate, Maloney surprised many with his qualifying performance, his time of 1:15.436 good enough for ninth on the grid.
While qualifying brought all the plaudits, the Lola ABT racer experienced a steep learning curve in the race.
Clambering over the kerbs at turn 15 on the opening lap, Maloney went into the path of Jake Hughes, sending the Maserati into Dan Ticktum, spinning the latter’s Cupra Kiro around.
Maloney’s attempted lunge on the sister Cupra Kiro of David Beckmann at turn 12 in the race, sending the German into the barriers, and out of the race, bringing out the first of two safety cars.
All in all, it only summed up the Barbadian racer’s steep learning curve in the all-electric racing series, and there’s no doubt Maloney will certainly draw valuable lessons to take forward in his rookie Formula E campaign.
Commentaires