Winners and losers of the first half of the season

The Brit is one of the winners of the first half of the season, just like Nissan itself. After his abrupt separation from Mahindra during the current 2023 season, the 31-year-old is making a big impression in his Formula E comeback and is in the middle of the World Championship fight. Rowland clearly has his teammate Sacha Fenestraz, who was highly praised last season, under control (88:24 points). Only 14 points separate him from Wehrlein. Without a team mistake that caused him to roll out dramatically in the lead on the last lap of the second Misano race, Rowland might even be leading the championship.

Winner #4: Maximilian Günther

Maserati DS driver Maximilian Günther has not yet been able to claim the championship lead this season, but he is having one of his best seasons and is within striking distance in sixth place, 37 points behind Wehrlein. At the premiere of the Electric World Championships in Tokyo, Günther celebrated his fifth ePrix victory and followed up with another podium finish after the (provisional) Felix da Costa disqualification in Misano.

Günther unsurprisingly has his new teammate Jehan Daruvala, the only rookie regular driver in the 2024 season, under control. On average, he qualifies almost nine positions ahead of his Indian stablemate. Günther is particularly impressive this season with his outstanding consistency. In his previous five seasons, the 26-year-old was only able to score points in more than half of the races once. So far in 2024, Günther is one of only three drivers who have been able to collect points in seven of the eight World Championship races.

Winner #5: Nico Müller and Abt-Cupra

It was foreseeable before the start of the season that Abt-Cupra would face another difficult season in Formula E in 2024. The cars remained technically unchanged, meaning the German team will have to contend with the inferior Mahindra drivetrain for another year. Nevertheless, the people of Kempten managed to surprise many times. While the Mahindra factory team is still without a point, Abt was able to collect 19 points and is only four points behind ERT, formerly NIO, in tenth place in the team rankings. At the halfway point of the season, the Äbts are the only customer team in the World Cup ahead of their own drivetrain supplier – and can look to a promising future from 2025 thanks to the completed partnership with newcomer Lola-Yamaha.

Abt-Cupra was particularly convincing with Nico Müller at the wheel. The Swiss drove his car into duels four times, more often than Rowland, Felix da Costa or world champion Dennis. In Misano, the 32-year-old missed a podium sensation by just 0.050 seconds. Müller also clearly has his teammate Lucas Di Grassi, the 2017 Formula E champion, under control. Only in Monaco did he have to admit defeat to the Brazilian in qualifying – and only after a technical problem. Accordingly, it comes as no surprise that Müller is associated with teams like Porsche in the volatile driver market.

Loser #1: Antonio Felix da Costa

After Antonio Felix da Costa was supposed to concentrate entirely on Formula E this year at Porsche’s request and had to forego the WEC, the 2020 Formula E champion was considered a hot title contender. But Felix da Costa is far from that in 2024: Although the Portuguese has stabilized after a catastrophic start to the season and was able to celebrate a victory on the track in Misano, even without the provisional disqualification and the 25 points for the victory, Felix da Costa would be in The Drivers’ World Championship was only eighth – 81 points behind Wehrlein.

Qualifying in particular continues to prove to be the 32-year-old’s Achilles heel. As the only regular driver in the field, Felix da Costa was beaten by his teammate in every qualifying session of the year and starts on average more than ten positions behind Wehrlein. Starting from further back increases the risk of incidents in the often wild Formula E races, such as those that befell Felix da Costa in Misano and Monaco. In addition to the Misano victory, the race in Monaco also showed that the eight-time ePrix winner can still be one of the best drivers under racing conditions, where Felix da Costa fought his way back into the points with strong maneuvers. However, such bright spots have been too rare in 2024 so far.

Loser #2: Envision

While the Jaguar factory team sits at the top of the team rankings after the first half of the season, the in-house customer team Envision – the reigning world champion – is far from these heights. The team from Silverstone collected a meager 41 points over the first six race weekends. Since the double-header in Saudi Arabia at the end of January, Envision has only had four points. That only results in eighth place in the constructors’ championship, 131 points behind the leaders.

Loser #3: Nyck de Vries

It was no surprise that former champion Nyck de Vries would have a difficult Formula E comeback due to the technically unchanged Mahindra powertrain. It was also expected that he would need a lot of warm-up time without experience in the new Gen3 car. The extent of the Dutchman’s difficulties still comes as a bit of a surprise.

As the only one of only three regular drivers, de Vries never managed to make it into the qualifying duels. The 29-year-old also has to take a back seat in the team’s internal duel. He was only able to beat team-mate Edoardo Mortara once in qualifying and qualified an average of four positions behind the Italian-Swiss. With an average qualifying position of 17.5, de Vries is the second weakest qualifier of the year, ahead of only ERT driver Dan Ticktum, and he even started from last place on the grid twice.

Things also went only slightly better in the race. Twelfth place in Monaco remained de Vries’ highlight of the season so far. It is only thanks to team-mate Mortara’s disqualification in Tokyo that the ex-Formula 1 driver is not the only regular driver without a point.

Formula E 2024: The 5 weakest qualifiers of the first half of the season