Ahead of Porsche’s third full season entry in Formula E, the team has announced that it will continue with the same driver lineup of Andre Lotterer and Pascal Wehrlein. The team has achieved moderate success across the series’ seventh season, and looks to only improve from season eight onward. On a number of occasions both drivers have been within a shout of an E-Prix victory, and if luck had been slightly different it would have happened. In fact, if Porsche hadn’t missed out on a procedural technicality infringement, Wehrlein would have walked away victorious earlier this season in Mexico.
Lotterer has been with the Porsche Formula E squad since the beginning in late 2019. The 39-year-old driver has proved himself as a stellar racer over the last decade, having won the FIA World Endurance championship in 2012, as well as three Le Mans 24 victories. While he has yet to find victory lane in Formula E, Lotterer has scored four podiums with Techeetah, his former team, and three additional podiums since joining Porsche. He goes into the final round of season seven 17th in the points standings after a long run of bad luck and aggressive moves that didn’t pay off.
Wehrlein, 13 years Lotterer’s junior, still has a lot of learning to do to catch up to the pace of the Formula E grid, but has certainly proven himself with a stellar race record of his own. He won the DTM championship in 2015 at the youthful age of 20, the youngest champion in that series’ history. From there he was hired away to the Formula One grid, where he was already moonlighting as Mercedes’ reserve driver before racing a season with Manor and a season with Sauber, where he scored a total of five FIA world championship points. Wehrlein has two podium finishes in Formula E, once with his former team Mahindra and once since joining Porsche. He currently sits 11th in the points standings, though his disqualification from a victory really hurt his points haul.
“Despite some notable successes this season, we are yet to achieve all of our goals. That makes me all the more pleased that Porsche is giving me the chance to contribute to the further development of the team beyond the current season,” says André Lotterer.
Pascal Wehrlein says: “As a newcomer to the team, I felt very welcome and comfortable from the get-go. We achieved a lot in our first season together and have firmly established ourselves in Formula E. I’m very happy that I can be a part of this great team in the future.”
The season finale of the 2020/21 season of Formula E is this weekend with a doubleheader from Berlin. Porsche has nothing to lose, and will be seeking its first victory of its short tenure in the sport to round out the year.