By Alan Baldwin
LONDON (Reuters) – Jake Dennis is hoping for a clean fight on home soil this weekend as he bids to become Britain’s first world champion in the all-electric Formula E series.
It will be the first time since French great Alain Prost won the 1985 Formula One title at Brands Hatch that Britain has hosted the deciding race of an FIA-sanctioned single-seater world championship.
Avalanche Andretti driver Dennis told Reuters on Wednesday he was not expecting any special consideration in Saturday and Sunday’s races from those in the field not chasing the season nine title.
“It’s going to be a free-for-all for sure,” said the 28-year-old of the races at London’s ExCel centre. “If anything, it’s going to be worse (than usual).
“The final race of the year, the final round, there’s drivers who always want to try and prove a point — especially guys who’ve had a difficult season when they probably shouldn’t have.
“Hopefully we can all keep it clean. Nobody wants to see the title decided by someone in the wall. That’s not great for the sport.”
What would be great for the British-based series in a country where Formula One dominates the motorsport landscape, would be to have a home winner.
“If it’s a British champion, crowned in London in a racing finale, I think that probably will spike a lot more interest across the UK media,” Formula E’s new CEO Jeff Dodds told reporters.
“But I don’t think its a foregone conclusion for him, although he does tend to race well in London on that track.”
Dennis has three rivals, all also from countries yet to win the championship — New Zealanders Nick Cassidy and Mitch Evans and Germany’s Pascal Wehrlein.
Envision Racing’s Cassidy is the main threat 24 points adrift, with Jaguar’s Evans a slim contender 20 more behind and Porsche’s former F1 driver Wehrlein the far outsider with a gap of 49 points to close.
The season has had seven different winners from six teams, and nothing can be ruled out.
“Whoever comes out on top it’s going to be a first and that’s going to be great to see. I think we’re all deserved champions, we’ve all had a really good season along the way,” said Dennis.
He has won twice previously — in 2021 and 2022 — at ExCel where cars race indoors for part of the lap.
“Obviously then I was in a different car. The Gen2 car was a completely different package to what we have now. We’ve gone from a BMW powertrain to a Porsche powertrain, from Michelin (tyres) to Hankook.
“I think we’ll be alright, I don’t think we’ll be struggling.”
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
