Formula E Race Recap - 2025 São Paulo E-Prix

Formula E is back with the first race of season 12, the final season of the Gen 3 EVO car. Last year's season opener at São Paulo was a chaotic one, so it remains to be seen if this year's race will be calmer or more of the same.

Qualifying

Qualifying in Formula E is performed in two rounds. First, the field is split into two groups for a ten-minute group qualifying round. The top four in each group are then pitted against each other for the one-on-one duel stages to determine the top eight positions on the grid.

Surprisingly, defending champion Oliver Rowland found himself on the outside-in during qualifying, getting knocked out during the group qualifying and not advancing to the duel stages to fight for the pole.

Elsewhere on the grid, Zane Maloney, driving for the Lola Yamaha Abt team, would retire from qualifying with a mechanical issue. Likewise, teammate Lucas di Grassi would also suffer a drivetrain issue. Continuing the theme of issues for Brazilian drivers at their home race, Felipe Drugovich would clip the wall in qualifying and be forced to retire the car.

In the first round of the duels, Edoardo Mortara would outrun Jean-Eric Vergne to advance to the semifinals. Jake Dennis would get the better of Antonio Felix da Costa, Pascal Wehrlein would out-duel Nyck de Vries, and Dan Ticktum would beat out Norman Nato.

In the semifinals, Dennis would beat Mortara, and Wehrlein would get the better of Ticktum. It would be Wehrlein over Dennis in the final round.

However, Wehrlein would pick up a three-spot grid penalty for wheel spin in the pit lane, a rule that has been added to Formula E this season. Personally, I don't think a little wheel spin is at all dangerous, so it seems like a bit of a ridiculous penalty. Still, it meant that while Wehrlein would score three points for the pole position, it would be Dennis starting from the number one spot on the grid.

The Race

While Dennis got a good start from the pole, team Mahindra would have drama as de Vries hit teammate Mortara. Ticktum would also take damage in the incident, being forced to pit with a flat tire. To add insult to injury, Mortara would pick up a five-second time penalty for missing turn one and not stopping before rejoining the track. Ticktum compounded his own issues, receiving penalties for wheel spin in the pit lane, as well as for not putting the car in neutral before his team started working on it. Ever the drama queen, Ticktum would have a tantrum and opt to retire the car.

The Attack Mode strategy, as it did last year, created some very interesting strategies. Attack Mode gives the drivers a boost in power for two-, four-, or six-minute bursts. All drivers must take Attack Mode exactly twice, and they must use eight minutes of Attack Mode time total. This brought drivers toward the mid-pack, like Rowland, into the mix, although front-runners Dennis and Wehrlein would find their way back to the front once the strategies converged.

Nissan teammates Nato and Rowland would continue the trend of teammate-on-teammate violence, as Nato tried to squeeze Rowland into the wall and ended up with a puncture for his trouble. Nato's car would eventually stop on track and be pushed to safety.

The first safety car would mix up the Attack Mode strategy even further. Mortara would be pushed into the wall by di Grassi, leaving Mortara's car unable to continue. The safety car came out shortly after a number of drivers, including Wehrlein, took their final attack mode. This put Dennis in a fantastic position, with four minutes of attack mode remaining for the end of the race.

The race would restart with four laps remaining. Dennis would take his final attack mode on the restart lap, with plenty of battery power remaining to take advantage of it. Sure enough, Dennis would take over the lead. His Andretti teammate, Drugovich, would make it up to fifth before a full-course yellow would pause the race.

Sebastien Buemi would get into the side of Mitch Evans, leaving Evans stranded on the track. Race Control would call for a full-course caution to retrieve the car, although the cars wouldn't be under FCY for long.

Pepe Martí would ignore the full-course yellow calls, driving straight into the back of Nico Mueller and da Costa and flipping the car, creating a red flag. If there was any chance of Drugovich getting any use of his remaining attack mode, the red flag erased it.

Race Control decided to restart the race with two laps remaining. This was bad news for da Costa, who would need to repair the damage to his car, sending him to the back of the field on the restart.

It would be a safety car restart to finish the race, with Dennis leading Rowland and Cassidy to a one-lap shootout. Dennis would take a huge lead on the restart and never look back, easily holding the lead and taking the first win of the season.

Unfortunately, despite his heroic run, Drugovich would receive a five-second penalty post-race for speeding under the full-course yellow, dropping him from fifth back to 12th.

Conclusion

It was certainly a very chaotic race, with plenty of contact. The different Attack Mode strategies were interesting to watch, although Dennis and Wehrlein were certainly the class of the field. The Citroën Racing team also managed to grab a podium in their debut race with Cassidy, which is a good sign for fans of them.

Overall, it was just about everything you could ask for from a Formula E debut, and it will be interesting to see how the season continues.

To put it more plainly, Formula E is back, baby.