Formula E in South Africa, TV times and schedule. Big hunt for Wehrlein and the Porsche

Mario Salvini

@
cheballeblog

February 23rd

For Porsche and, most of all, for Pascal Wehrlein, it could be the dress rehearsal of the escape. For all the other manufacturers and the other drivers, it looks like an appeal judgement. Perhaps even the last chance to avoid it, that forward flight, to keep the standings compact and to continue to hope for some reversal in the face. There Formula E this year is going fast, we are not even at the end of February and the fifth E-Prix of the season is already being celebrated, in a completely new location and country: in South Africa, in Cape Town. While waiting for Formula 1, therefore, the electric category arrives over there.

Well done Wehrlein

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But, as already noted in the previous E-prix in India, Formula E this year is also fast in terms of prospects for the final result. If in the first three E-Prix the Porsches, the official one of Wehrlein and the one with the livery of the Andretti team of Jake Dennis, had dominated, in Hyderabad it was a bit different. Both leading drivers had had problems, Wehrlein in particular had crashed in free practice and was left with the 12th fastest time in qualifying. Yet, avoiding trouble, he recovered in the race to finish fourth. While Dennis, after a contact with René Rast’s McLaren, remained out of the points.

What a detachment

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Result: after 4 races Wehrlein has 80 points, a good 18 more than the second which is always Dennis. The fact is that a year ago after three races, the first in the class, Edo Mortara, had 49 points. In 2021 even Bird needed 43 to be in the lead. In 2020 Evans was in the lead with 47. The highest quota was that of Jerome D’Ambrosio, first in 2019 with 53. None of them won the championship, this must be said, but in the last three years after 4 EPs the future champion has never been detached by more than 11 points from the top: a year ago Stoffel Vandoorne was -3; in 2021 Nick DeVries was at -11, in fact, and in 2020 Antonio Felix Da Costa was at -8. The speech of 2019 is very different: Jean-Eric Vergne was -25 from D’Ambrosio. Only now, apart from Dennis, detached from Wehrlein by 18 points, the others, all the others, are very far away: Vergne himself, winner in Hyderabad, and Sebestien Buemi are 31, -49 behind Wehrlein.

South Africa news

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With these premises, therefore, we race in Cape Town. “Having grown up in South Africa and having attended the last race of the world championship in 1993 in Kyalami – says James Barclay, Jaguar team principal – it is a proud moment for me and the other South African members of the team to be part of the return of the races level in this motorsport-loving country.” All with also a South African driver on the grid, Kelvin van der Linde who will still replace the injured Robin Frijns on the Cupra. The circuit, 2,927 meters long and with 12 turns (8 left and 4 right), is in the Green Point district and winds around the DHL Stadium (where Italy played against Paraguay at the 2010 World Cup), on coast with a view of Robben Island, today a tourist destination, in the past a penal colony where even Nelson Mandela served long years in prison. There are 30 laps of this track which promises to be the fastest on the 2023 calendar, with very bumpy braking zones, a demanding chicane (turns 4, 5 and 6) and a narrow and fast section that will put the 22 riders to the test and their single-seaters.

Program and TV

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The first free practice will be on Friday from 16 to 16.30. Saturday second free from 8.10 to 8.40. Qualifying from 10.40. The match is at 3pm. Qualifying will be live on Sky Sport Arena and streamed on Sportmediaset.it. The race on Canale 20 Mediaset and on Sky Sport Arena.