Britain's first Formula E champ? Jake Dennis on London ePrix title decider

“I’m very confident going into London,” says Dennis, who drives for Michael Andretti’s Porsche-powered team and is twice a previous winner at the track that weaves in and out of the ExCel. “We’ve generally performed well there over the years. I’m quietly confident we can have a clean, successful weekend. It’s going to be difficult to beat the Jaguar powertrains, the London layout definitely plays to their strengths. To win races like I did last year and the year before will be extremely difficult, but if we can be best of the rest and finish just behind them that’s a very good weekend. Hopefully it will be enough.”

But he’s all too aware how quickly motor sport ambitions can unravel, especially in a series as unpredictable as Formula E. Take Rome. When Jaguar works driver Evans lost control under braking, he almost took out both race leader Dennis and Envision’s Cassidy who were side by side ahead of him. Instead, he only just snagged Dennis’s red Andretti racer, but rode over the top of fellow Kiwi Cassidy, destroying both of their races. From near-calamity, Dennis went on to take a well-crafted and controlled victory. He’d been five points down on Cassidy in the title race heading into the second of Rome’s two races – now suddenly he’d been gifted a massive advantage with just London to play.

“I was more in shock, I couldn’t believe it,” says Jake of his initial reaction when the accident happened. “I looked in my mirror and just saw Mitch on top of Cassidy. I was more surprised that I didn’t pick up any damage. I had a rear diffuser light issue, but it was ultimately fine to continue. I had some luck that had turned around after so much bad luck in the middle part of the season. It was a case of refocusing because my chances of winning increased significantly after those two guys were out of the race.”

Fortunes can never be predicted in motor sport, but particularly in Formula E, it seems. Back in January, Dennis cantered to a relatively easy win in Mexico City as the new Gen3 era began for a breed of electric racing car that has got smaller, lighter, faster and more efficient. But thereafter it was works Porsche driver Wehrlein who stamped his authority on the championship. After finishing second twice to the ex-Formula 1 driver in Saudi Arabia, Dennis toiled through a four-race points drought – then scored five successive podiums to haul himself slowly back into contention. Then in Rome an energy miscalculation by his team left him a frustrated fourth in race one, before Evans delivered his gift in race two for what was only the Nuneaton-born driver’s second victory of the season.

So how will he play it? Standard preparations are naturally wise – including two days this week on Porsche’s simulator in Stuttgart – but he can’t just pile into the race weekend as if it’s just a normal Formula E event.

“It would be stupid now to try and take a risk, try and go for an extra position here or there,” he says. “The first day I have to keep out of trouble and try not to lose too many points to my opposition. Nick will be extremely quick, and Evans will most likely qualify high up as well. I feel we’ve got the measure of Mitch. He’s got a five-place grid penalty in race one [for the Rome accident], so hopefully we can qualify in the top half of the duels and then keep him behind in the race, so that he’s taken care of. Nick is obviously going to be going full risk, full attack. I think we just need to be clever.

“But if it comes to Sunday and I need to take risk to win the championship then yes, 100% I will be doing that. But Saturday will be about trying to pick up valuable points.”

In a repeat of previous years, Porsche’s works team has again faded badly when a title seems to have been there to be grabbed. The manufacturer has recommitted to the series this week until the end of 2026 and used the Gen3 reset to produce what was the early-season pace-setting powertrain. Then Jaguar clawed its way back, like Porsche and Andretti primarily through its customer team Envision. The factory Porsche squad still has a chance of winning the teams’ title, lying 14 points behind Envision coming into London – but as always the drivers’ crown means much more. So will Dennis be expecting any help from Wehrlein and António Félix da Costa? It doesn’t seem so.

“Their main goal is to try and win the championship, the constructors will be their number one priority and if I win the drivers’ it’s the best case scenario for them,” says Dennis. “We don’t plan to bring any updates for London, what we have is what we have now, so from their side there is not too much they can help with. We just have to focus on our job, that inside our team everything is correct and working as it should.”

In other words, Dennis knows it’s all in his own hands.

“You don’t end up in this position by fluke,” he says. “We’ve made some mistakes along the way and were unlucky at times, but lucky in others. There were mixed emotions around April time when we were not scoring any points and were dropping drastically in the championship. We were P5 at one point. But we hit a reset in Berlin and got the podiums after that and we’ve been on a really good run of form lately.

“I look back at the season and think there were certain things we could do better but ultimately I wouldn’t change anything. I became a better driver from my mistakes, from the team’s mistakes. The podiums I’m getting now are a factor from the mistakes we made at the start of the year. You don’t learn from winning every race, you learn from your mistakes. We’re in a great position right now.”

In all honesty, London isn’t the best Formula E venue for racing. It’s too tight and keeping it clean when going wheel to wheel is hard. Dennis can do himself a massive favour by qualifying well, and admits then “70% of the job is done”.

He reckons he’s philosophical about his fate. “If we are not quick enough, that’s that. But if we make mistakes and throw it away that will be more difficult to live with. If London doesn’t go smoothly and I don’t win it on pure pace, I can still leave in a pretty good mood.”

We’ll see about that. He knows the truth and just what it means, because he’s the one that made all the sacrifices to get here. It’s the biggest weekend of his life so far.