Formula E, Jake Dennis: "Formula 1 fans undervalue this category"

Formula E Season 10 is about to start, with new challenges for everyone on the grid. The goal of 21 drivers is only one: steal the title of World Champion from Jake Dennis, winner of 2023.

LWOS had the opportunity to talk with the Avalanche Andretti driver about winning the championships and the upcoming season.

Hi, Jake! We are almost ready to start a new season in Mexico. Last year, on this track, debuted the Gen3 cars and your winner Andretti. At the beginning of Season 9, did you expect to be crowned World Champion? 

Last year, when we arrived in Mexico and finished P1 and P2, I was surprised by our performance. Only after the races in Saudi Arabia, when we finished second in both races, I understood we had a competitive package and the car could win. I think I started to realize it by the end of January, but of course, we still had a lot of work to do. The qualifying performance was bad, but I left Saudi Arabia thinking: ‘I could win this’.

In the middle of the season, you had a difficult moment. During those races, when you ended up scoring no points for months, did you fear for the championship or did you keep yourself positive through it? 

It was tough, we didn’t score points for three months. I stopped thinking about the championship, I just trying to get out of the situation. I wasn’t focusing on the ranking, but I was trying to do a better race than the previous one. A lot of unfortunate events and bad luck made it difficult for us, and it was a massive relief when we made the podium in Berlin.

All of this is narrowed in the first episode of Unplugged 2023. During the episode, there is a voice telling ‘Jake Dennis is the most underrated driver in the world right now’. Starting from this sentence, do you think Formula E and you as a World Champion are considered as valid as the other categories and drivers in the motorsport world? 

Formula E has the title of World Championship, but it has only nine years and in terms of the motorsport world it’s nothing. I think there is a tendency from the outside public to underrate you and the championship. Inside the Formula E paddock and in general in the motorsport world you are highly regarded and you get a lot of interest. For example, Red Bull gave me the possibility to run the car in Abu Dhabi. I think that maybe the fans, especially Formula 1 ones, undervalue Formula E and jump to the conclusion that this is not at the level. In the end, this is the only category without paying drivers. Formula 1 still has seven or eight drivers at the back paying to be there for sponsorships or country money.

Let’s move to the new season. Do you think the top drivers and teams will be the same as last year or there is the possibility of seeing an underdog? 

I think we will have Andretti, Jaguar, Porsche, and Envision completely at the front. I am interested in seeing how the Maserati powertrain gets on. The Maserati package is extremely good in the right window. If they find that spot more often, they have maybe the best powertrain on the grid. Also, I am a good friend of Oliver Rowland, and he seems quietly confident that Nissan should be competitive, especially in qualifying. I wish to have a head-to-head fight with Jaguar again, but I think it will be harder to make consistent podiums this year.

Talking about the Attack Charge, that should debut this season, do you think it will change the dynamics of the races? 

It will change the dynamics of racing, for sure. We will see the slower cars will probably go longer into the race and hope for a Safety Car and do the charge during the window. Hopefully, it will not change the races too much. The best thing about Formula E is the racing, everyone loves it for the amount of opportunities to win the races and overtakes. We have to wait and see, but I am positive and understand why we need it. Maybe we could extend the races to one hour because 45 minutes go by quickly. It will be a difficult challenge, but it should be welcomed.

If you had to convince someone to get into Formula E, what would you say to this person?

Prepare to put in a lot of hard work and a lot of traveling. You have to be great with the software. It is a side I enjoy as much as data engineers do. It is like one big family, we are traveling around together. Everyone coming into Formula E will enjoy it.