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The Formula E season concluded yesterday with Pascal Wehrlein securing his second world title in electric racing, but the victory was overshadowed by a massive scandal surrounding the manner of the German's championship win.
During yesterday's decisive race, Wehrlein collided on track with his title rival Jake Dennis. The entire London weekend was marred by team orders and tactical maneuvers, particularly among the frontrunners.
Dennis declared Wehrlein's title win "shameful," but the controversial actions began as early as Saturday.
In the final qualifying duel, Nico Müller lifted off the throttle to ensure pole position for his teammate Wehrlein, who then dominated Saturday's race from the start. In that same race, Müller successfully held off Mitch Evans, allowing Wehrlein to move ahead of both Evans and Dennis in the title fight with one race remaining.
Yesterday, however, the situation reversed. Evans' teammate, António Félix da Costa, employed the same tactic against Wehrlein, deliberately slowing him down during the race. This dropped Pascal out of the points, which would have meant the title for Dennis. But Jake's hopes evaporated after he collided with Wehrlein on lap 31.
"Today we executed everything perfectly," Dennis commented after yesterday's race. "We got into a position to fight for the title, we were ahead in points, then we fell back. Pascal just took me out of the race, plain and simple. I think what we saw today from Pascal and Porsche is shameful."
"It's surprising that we were in a position to beat Pascal, we were ahead of him, and he just hit me and put me into the wall. If they want to win the title this way, then clearly they can. But this is what happens when you're behind in the final title race. Your rival takes you out, they get penalized, but it doesn't matter because I'm stuck in the wall."
Wehrlein himself predicted on Friday that team orders would play a significant role in the final battle, with teammates of the contenders attempting to "manipulate" the outcome with dirty maneuvers against other drivers.
"The drivers were really racing dirty," Dennis confirmed. "Formula E can't do anything about it; it happens everywhere the stakes are so high. Jaguar had to keep Porsche out of the points, I had to beat Pascal. That would have happened, but he stopped it. Both teams are to blame for manipulating the races."
"Pascal didn't turn left into the left-hand corner, and it was inevitable that we would collide and I would end up in the wall."
Meanwhile, Da Costa explained that Jaguar had replicated Porsche's Saturday tactic of blocking the opposing team's title contender. The Portuguese driver also accused Wehrlein of intentionally hitting Jake Dennis.
"For me, it's clear, that was a super dirty move," Da Costa commented. "Pascal intentionally took Jake out of the race to win the title, that's it."
"This speaks volumes about his actions. Pascal did the same to me two weeks ago in Tokyo, so I'm not surprised."
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