After taking time off two weeks ago to put a first endurance racing experience under the belt in the Daytona 24 Hours, Monaco Increase Management’s Pascal Wehrlein returns to his ‘day job’ this weekend in Saudi Arabia, where Rounds 3 and 4 of the all-electric FIA Formula E World Championship are taking place in the kingdom’s second-largest city along the Red Sea coast.

Pascal last drove his factory TAG Heuer Porsche 99X machine one month ago in Mexico City, a race in which he put some good points on the board with pole position and a third place podium finish, but this weekend’s Saudi encounter will see a couple of new developments for the championship. Although Formula E has been present in Saudi Arabia on the calendar since Season 5, this will be the first time it has visited the fast Corniche circuit, having previously only raced at Diriyah. The 19-turn, 3.001 km layout is shorter than the one used previously for Formula 1 and the GT World Challenge but it promises to provide plenty of overtaking action along the fast straights, various chicanes and tight hairpins.

The second exciting new change is the introduction of a mandatory 30-second ultra-fast PIT BOOST stop, with an extra 10% energy recharge to be used during one of the double-header races. Amidst all these changes, the 2024 champion is confident he can keep up his current run of good form in this early part of the season: “I managed to make a strong comeback In Mexico after São Paulo, which was important to me. Pole position was also a highlight,” he declared. “In Jeddah we, as a team, have the opportunity to finish on the podium for the tenth time in a row. We have already set a record with nine successive podiums. We will all be doing our best to keep our good run going.”

The action gets underway on Thursday evening at 19:00 (CET) with Free Practice 1, and then continues with exactly the same schedule on Friday and Saturday with FP2 and FP3 both at 11:00, qualifying at 13:20 and the two races starting at 18:05.

Photos: Courtesy of Porsche