2024 World Champion Pascal Wehrlein’s defence of his title began in earnest at the Jarama Circuit (Spain) this past week with four days of collective pre-season testing from Tuesday to Friday for the entire Formula E field.

The MIM-contracted German driver, who goes into the upcoming season with the #1 plate on his factory TAG-Heuer Porsche 99X GEN3 Evo machine, was third quickest after six three-hour test sessions around the 3.915 km circuit to the north of the Spanish capital Madrid; the venue having been switched to Jarama from the scheduled Valencia following the recent disastrous floods in the area.

Pascal’s time of 1m27.658s came on the final day of track action, and he was just a couple of tenths off from the benchmark of 1m27.461s set by one of his fiercest rivals this year, Mitch Evans (Jaguar), and a fraction behind second-placed Dan Ticktum (Kiro).

Pascal Wehrlein declared: “Overall, we had a very positive test. There were lots of learnings and also lots of changes to adjust to: the tyres, the bodywork, the balance, and the all-wheel drive. Especially in the beginning, these changes can make quite a big difference. We did a full race simulation and it was good to get an idea of strategy and what the new race dynamics could be. The tyres have quite a lot of degradation, so it’s a bit trickier on the longer run but over one lap it’s good fun. I’m feeling quite happy with the car and the set-up, and looking forward to Round 1 in São Paulo.”

With pre-season testing out of the way, there will now be a four-week break before the opening round of Season 11 of the FIA ABB Formula E World Championship, in São Paulo (Brazil) on 7 December.