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The TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team has completed the first half of Season 8. Time to take a breath and look back.

6/22/2022

Read for Speed: Your half-season summary

Time flies… when you’re having the time of your life! For racing fans and teams it’s been a non-stop rush, in every sense of the word. Halfway through the 2022 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, it’s time to take a breath, look back on the up’s and down’s of this season so far. Let’s gather all learnings – together with Director Factory Motorsport TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E, Florian Modlinger.

The 2022 season started off with everyone excited about the changes: the new qualifying format ultimately ensuring the fastest driver would start from pole position – and with an extra 20kW of power in race mode, the cars would be faster than ever. These novelties came alongside a boost of motivation for the whole Team, with Florian Modlinger joining at the start of the season and quickly setting the tone with one firm goal in mind: To win races and compete for the World Championship crown.

 

No sooner said than done. After leaving the opener in Diriyah with mixed results (and feelings), the big compensation followed hot on the heels of the Mexico E-Prix: the historic double win – with Pascal coming in first, narrowly ahead of André. After crossing the finish line, the Team’s greatest success to date was safely in the bag, Modlinger could really sense the relief in the pits: “The pressure fell away and everyone around me was simply ecstatic. This can happen when a team gets all little details together – for us it was Mexico and in 7.5 years of Formula E, it only happened five times in total until now.” A moment, that will surely go down in Porsche history. 

 

After the one-two knockout punch ultimately put the Team into third place in the team standings, a number of incidents put a spanner in the works for further wins – as they did in Monaco. What started well ended with a technical defect on Pascal's car and an accident for André. A bitter day for the team, as Modlinger wraps up the single-header. “We put in a strong qualifying performance and a promising start to the race, but unfortunately weren’t rewarded in the end.” 

 

But even though the streak of bad luck seemed to continue on home turf, the crew remained composed and focused. The Director Factory Motorsport TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E, checked-off the Berlin E-Prix, concluding: “We left too many points on the road until now, but proved to be quick on different racetracks and that there is no room for mistakes and failures.”

 

With Moldlinger’s spirit of learning and improvement in mind, the Team once again proved that even premieres won’t throw them off course. At the first-ever E-Prix in Indonesia, the drivers had to fight tooth and nail in the extreme heat and humidity, but ultimately and in spite of incurring penalties, both held their own and scored valuable points. To Modlinger, this race showed that “in warm climate conditions, we have some homework to do to meet the expectations we have.” With the height of summer and a hot race in Marrakesh just around the corner, this might the most crucial point on the agenda to work on…

 

If one thing was clear right from the beginning, it’s that there is nothing for free in this World Championship. The competition is up and even after a few setbacks, the Team around Florian Modlinger is working hard to optimise the details and keep up in all upcoming races this season.

 

After all, and as fans have learned from previous seasons, the tide can turn quickly. In addition to strong qualifying perfomances, especially by André Lotterer, the TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team managed to fight for a podium in Diriyah, Rome, Monaco and Berlin. “At times we even led the races in Rome and Monaco”, as Modlinger points out. “In the second half of the season, we not only need to get ourselves into a position to fight for podium places but to actually achieve them with the necessary degree of consistency.”

 

And there are still a few opportunities to do so, thanks to the spectacular racing calendar this season, with one of the biggest highlights for Florian Modlinger still coming up: The grand finale in Seoul.Really looking forward to it – what I heard until now the event could become really exciting.”

 

In the drivers’ classification, André Lotterer currently ranks seventh, after nine of 16 races with 59 points. Pascal Wehrlein is eighth with 55 points. In the team classification, the TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team lies in fifth place with 114 points. Still on the cards, the second half of the 2022 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship includes highly anticipated fixtures in Marrakech, New York, London and Seoul.

 

Anything can happen – so, don’t miss a millisecond.



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