Formula E Season 11 Round 3 & 4: Jeddah Produces New and Repeat Winners of Season 11

It is safe to say that rounds 3 & 4 of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship was one of a kind with records broken and the debut of attack mode.

Round 3

Round 3 of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship got underwear at the track of Jeddah with Maximilian Guenther leading the pack away from pole with a chaotic lap 1 esculating ehind the German. Nico Mueller and Antonio Felix Da Costa collided with the German being shot up and ultimately having to DNF. Mitch Evans also collided with champion Pascal Wehrlein and ended up causing a puncture for Wehrlein and his own front wing getting stuck on his tyre and having to pit to fix it.

The piece of Da Costa’s rear wing which came off emerged near the activation zone of attack mode and, with the addition to other carbon fibre scattered across the track, brought out a very brief safety car.

We went racing again on lap 9 which saw Guenther lead from Rowland and De Vries. As laps counted down, overtakes went up including Da Costa on Ticktum nd De Vries passing Barnard for P3.

Pit Boost then opened up for many drivers with Hughes, Barnard and Da Costa all being the first drivers to take pit boost. Ticktum and Mortara followed in their wheel marks, however Ticktum suffered an issue which ultimately compromised his race. Guenther dropped 2 places due to the pit boost and staying out longer while Barnard stayed ahead and actually jumped up by 2 places.

After everyone took their pit boost, Rowland had a big lead over Hughes and Barnard with De Vries managing to make his way up to P2. In the background, however, Guenther was flying his way through the field with the DS Penske German driver managing to pass De Vries for P2 and setting his sights on the race win.

As the race drew to a close, there were 2 major battle going on: De Vries vs Barnard for P3 and Rowland vs Guenther for P1. The latter of those 2 battles emerging victorious with Guenther making a 3rd last corner overtake on Rowland for the win.

Maximilian Guenther led Oliver Rowland from Taylor Barnard for the top 3. Season 7 Champion Nyck De Vries finished P4 with Maserati MSG Racing driver Jake Hughes in P5, Two Time champion Jean-Eric Vergne in P6, Edoardo Mortara in P8, Barnard’s teammate Sam Bird in P8, Antonio Felix Da Costa in P9 with Season 8 champion Stoffell Vandoorne in P10.

Round 4

Round 4 begun with a record sitter: the younger ever Formula E pole sitter of Taylor Barnard. He set the record as 20 years and 259 days old. Before we went racing, we had a delayed start due to the Lola Yamaha Abt of Zane Maloney being out of position. After that was dealt with, we went racing with Barnard managing to stay P1 with Hughes moving up to P2 ahead of Rowland. Da Costa got a HUGE hit from the previous round’s winner of Maximilian Guenther and resulted in both of them retiring from the race.

Battles commenced up and down the grid with Hughes very near the rear wing of Barnard and Ticktum going against De Vries while Di Grassi went for an EXTREMELY early attack mode which saw him overtaking driver after driver and ending up leading the race after Rowland took over the lead from the McLaren of Barnard. Buemi ended up pitting which ultimately ruined his race too. Maloney ended up having 5% more energy than everyone but was over 50 seconds behind the leader. Soon, the leader was Frijns due to his attack mode and Bird later received a 5 time penalty for not following the race director’s instructions. A few brief yellow flags appeared during the race due to pieces of debris. The Jaguar of Mitch Evans had to pit during the race which was a disaster for the debut winner of Season 11.

Barnard managed to go for an overtake for P2 on Hughes and make it stick, however, Hughes was putting a battle on Barnard who had a slide. Hughes then goes for an overtake on Barnard for P2 but gets pushed wide and has to go over the turn 1 run off. Positions remained as they were as Rowland won the E-Prix after being denied win the previous day.

Oliver Rowland led Taylor Barnard with Jake Hughes making a jump up to the podium, his first with the Monaco based team. Season 9 champion Jake Dennis finished P4 to make it al all brit 1-2-3-4. Nick Cassidy scored his first points of the season in P5, Stoffel Vandoorne finished P6, Jean-Eric Vergne in P7, reigning champion Pascal Wehrlein in P8, Cupra Kiro’s Dan Ticktum finished in P9 with Edoardo Mortara finishing the points positions of this double header.

Writer’s Predictions

Before the weekend began, I (Kieran) attempted to predict the weekend’s results and….they didn’t exactly go to plan. My pole position predictions were Wehrlein and Evans which…wasn’t ideal. I was close for Wehrlein but I wasn’t so for Evans. 

My winner predictions, however, turned out to be a jinx. I predicted an Andretti driver to win round 3 and they both retired from that race. For round 4, I went with Antonio Felix Da Costa and he retired too.

For the podium in round 3, I went with a Cupra Kiro and a Nissan powered car. There were 2 nissan powered cars on the podium but not a singular one. As for Cupra Kiro….I’m sorry Cupra Kiro fans. Round 4 then went worse as there was only stellantis and nissan powered cars on the podium all weekend. 

What did you think of the 2 rounds? Formula E’s World Championship resumes in April with the Miami E-Prix. Let us know on our social media or on the writer’s social media which is linked below! 

Kieran’s Socials:

X: https://www.x.com/megavsprimus

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kieran.f321/

Threads: https://www.threads.net/@kieran.f321

Blue Sky: Kieran/Mega (@megavsprimus.bsky.social) — Bluesky