After an enforced absence of five months, Formula E reconvenes at Tempelhof airfield this week, and mathematically each of its 24 drivers will still be competing for championship honours.
With a maximum of 180 points up for grabs anything is possible, so the outlook from the season could yet change dramatically.
But until that happens, let’s revisit the question of who has impressed so far in the truncated and pandemic affected 2019-20 season.
I have collated my driver rankings from all of the pre-Berlin races, although it is worth noting that the first two events at Diryah, Saudi Arabia, were held before The Race’s existence.
A retrospective scoring was conducted and added to those officially given with previous features from Santiago onwards.
Here is the result with the order dictated by the average driver ratings. Those that tie on the same average are given preference by the highest individual result gained during the five races held so far.
21. Felipe Massa
Venturi
Average: 5.0
Standout: 6 – Santiago (6th)
Championship Position: 19th
Massa’s performances have simply not been good enough this season and at times the grand prix winner has looked completely lost.
There has largely been a lack of pace compared to team-mate Mortara and more worryingly several accidents that have curtailed his weekends.
It is not easy to pinpoint quite why Massa has struggled badly but the evidence is increasingly pointing to a desperation not to be completely cut adrift by the pack.
His accident at Mexico City was the nadir of a poor campaign that has showed little window for optimism.
The only hope for Massa is that the enforced break has re-focused him and that he comes to Berlin rejuvenated. In normal circumstances he’d be under massive pressure to perform if he the third year of his deal is to be seen out.
But the impression is that factions in the Venturi team and in Formula E itself will ensure he sees out his contract.
Should that be the case Massa simply has to regroup to avoid any further embarrassment.
20. Neel Jani
Porsche
Average: 5.0
Standout: 5 – Diriyah 2 (13th), Santiago (DNF), Mexico City (14th)
Championship Position: 23rd
Most observers are as baffled as Jani is on why he has fallen so short in the opening races of his first proper Formula E campaign.
There have been flashes of promise, such as in Santiago when he outqualified team-mate Lotterer and then looked racy in opening exchanges before a clash derailed the possibilities.
Had the season not been affected by the pandemic, Jani would have provided some points for sure. He is too good a driver to have sunk without trace.
Unfortunately the fractured nature of the season counted against him and he is set to be replaced by Pascal Wehrlein for the 2020/21 season.
Porsche though would be foolish to discard his talents as a fine development driver and a role in that capacity would surely be another weapon for the team in its sophomore season.
19. Nico Muller
Dragon
Average: 5.0
Standout: 8 – Mexico (6th)
Championship Position: 22nd
Muller’s natural positive demeanour has been tested to its very core with the Penske EV-4, which so far has proved to be a major disappointment for the Dragon team.
Disastrous races in Diriyah and Santiago provided little in the way of optimism for the DTM race winner but at Mexico City the hint of a sweet spot was found with an epic lap that garnered a seventh-placed start.
That Muller’s race ended in the barriers after just a few laps was a bitter pill, and that pace was never repeated at Marrakesh last time out.
It’s hard to see Dragon troubling the scorers in Berlin unless attrition for others intervenes but Muller will try to the very last as he tries to make sense of a volatile team environment.
18. Daniel Abt
Average: 5.8
Standout: 7 – Diriyah 2 (6th)
Championship Position: 17th
Prior to the infamous esports imposter debacle, Abt had actually endured a torrid season with little to evidence he would get another campaign with Audi for 2021.
A decent run to sixth in Diriyah was the highlight in five races where he often disappeared into the ether.
It is hard to say how much of an effect his terrifying practice shunt at Mexico City had on him but the chassis-destroying smash certainly, and understandably, spooked the affable German when he made a brave return to the cockpit for the race.
An unlikely switch to NIO33 provides Abt with a seat in Berlin but on the Chinese team’s early-season form it has to be said that the word ‘opportunity’ has to be used tentatively.
17. James Calado
Jaguar Racing
Average: 6.0
Standout: 7 – Santiago (6th) and Mexico (DSQ)
Championship Position: 16th
Calado got off to a difficult start in Diriyah but at least gained points, albeit mostly due to the misfortune of others.
He picked up somewhat in Santiago and raced well in the heat of battle but has sometimes been compromised by energy management in races.
At Mexico City he had his best race to date, crossing the line a competitive ninth. However, this was cruelly taken away after a power-spike was calculated on the very last lap. It all somehow summed up his first season.
By Marrakesh Calado had also improved his qualifying performance but then dropped away dispiritingly in the race again.
The Brit’s big over-arching issue is not one of his making, however.
It is simply the sheer fact that he has come in to a team and a sporting environment unfamiliar to him, and one that just happens to have one of the best drivers in the paddock on the opposite side of the garage.
Calado’s replaced by sportscar stablemate Sam Bird for next season, and it is difficult to not feel some sympathy for the 2016 World Endurance Championship GTE Pro champion.
He was brought into Jaguar in a surprising move last September and after just five races held over three months he was effectively out of the team.
16. Jerome d’Ambrosio
Mahindra
Average: 6.4
Standout: 8 – Mexico City (10th)
Championship Position: 18th
The experienced Belgian’s season has been severely hamstrung by technical issues and a fair assessment will only be truly possible post-Berlin.
The tone seemed to be set in Riyadh when a promising fourth on the grid was rendered obsolete after a failure on the dummy grid.
That frustration simmered in Santiago, and it all came to a boil in Mexico City when the team was forced into a hefty penalty for changes made to its gearbox.
That boiling point caused d’Ambrosio to truly flip his lid in the final stages of the race when he was told to hold station behind team-mate Wehrlein.
This was despite being on attack mode, and his subsequent highly-committed rant was caught on the radio channel. Despite the team’s diplomacy, the vitriol undeniably dented the entente cordial for some time.
15. Robin Frijns
Envision Virgin Racing
Average: 6.4
Standout: 8 – Diriyah 1 (5th)
Championship Position: 15th
Given he has reflexes from a different realm, the sight of Robin Frijns losing control of a Formula E car was a new experience when it happened in short succession at Diriyah and Santiago. These caused genuine double takes in the press room.
The first race of the season apart, he has had a tragi-comic campaign, and in typical Frijns style there has been more than just an element of misfortune.
In Mexico City, minding his own business and set for a possible crack at the podium, he was swiped off the track by a brakeless Nyck de Vries.
At Marrakesh he was victim of a ludicrous qualifying penalty when contact with a wall created a throttle spike for which he was sanctioned. No, us neither!
If ever there was a need for a fresh start to the season then the genial Dutchman is the perfect candidate.
Perhaps he will revisit his unbeatable form from Paris or New York last season. If he does, the rest may as well go home.
14. Oliver Rowland
Nissan e.dams
Average: 6.4
Standout: 8 – Diriyah 1 (4th) and 2 (5th)
Championship Position: 9th
Rowland should really have a higher average ranking but an absolute stinker in Santiago, where he hit just about everything in sight, including unfathomably Max Guenther in the first free practice session, counts against him.
The truth is that as a whole he has driven just as well as he did in his strong first season during 2018/19. That was when he was thrust into the team at the last minute after Alex Albon’s call up to Formula 1.
Diriyah was a strong and sensible points-gathering start but then the mostly self-inflicted Chilean debacle meant important momentum was lost.
He returned to the points in Mexico City and Marrakesh but was unable to fully match team-mate Buemi.
Still, Rowland remains a potent force with a growing confidence that should led to him challenging for at least a top-six finish in the standings this season.
13. Oliver Turvey
NIO333
Average: 7.2
Standout: 9 – Santiago (15th)
Championship Position: 21st
For a driver who is yet to trouble the scoreboard, Turvey features so highly in this list due to the context in which he and the NIO333 team began the 2019/20 season.
With new majority owners inheriting a biblical disaster of a technical legacy in which money has been tossed like confetti into a dark abyss, Turvey looked like he could have been unfortunate collateral damage.
But Turvey did what Turvey does best. He dug in and let his talent do the talking by finishing in the top 10 at Riyadh (although this was taken away with a post-race penalty) and then an astonishing fifth-place grid start in Santiago.
His qualifying performance in Chile was exceptional, perhaps the best in Formula E history, but in the race, even though he finished the first lap a barely believable fourth, he predictably fell away in a haze of turquoise frustration.
Mexico City and Marrakesh was a stark reality check and while Lisheng Co, the new owner, does have a plan, it remains to be seen if it is enough to keep Turvey and make any impression even on the fraught and over-subscribed midfield pack that has to be a natural aim now.
12. Sebastien Buemi
Nissan e.dams
Average: 7.2
Standout: 8 – Diryah 2 (12th)/Mexico City (3rd), Marrakesh (4th)
Championship Position: 11th
While the qualifying heroics from last season have generally not been replicated this term, Buemi is still a major threat.
What has suppressed the Nissan pace somewhat is the inevitable relearning of its package after it was forced into an FIA-triggered fait accompli in ditching its provocative twin-MGU powertrain last summer.
Privately, Buemi was incensed by this perceived injustice, and yet it appears to have driven him further in his personal performances this season, even if the results haven’t particularly ratified that.
A slightly clumsy Riyadh weekend and then more ill-luck in Chile rendered a nil-points score heading into Mexico City and Marrakesh. But Buemi dug out solid and hard-fought third- and fourth-place finishes to at least give some respectability to his points tally.
No one dare write Buemi off, especially after his stellar end to the previous season, when had it not been for the slightest touch from Frijns in Paris, he would have taken an extraordinary second title.
11. Stoffel Vandoorne
Mercedes
Average: 7.2
Standout: 9 – Diriyah 1 and 2 (3rd)
Championship Position: 6th
Vandoorne started the season in excellent form with a brace of podiums to herald Mercedes’ official baptism in Formula E at Riyadh.
Those splendidly-crafted drives looked to have teed-up a stellar start to the season nicely.
However, a mistake on the cottage-cheese like surface of Mexico City, and then a dispiritingly anonymous race in Marrakesh, put the brakes on the exciting start.
There is no doubt that Vandoorne has taken to all-electric racing well but there is still a hint of doubt that he can find true consistency in races.
We have explained elsewhere why Vandoorne and Mercedes could snatch an unlikely rookie title next month but perhaps a race win or two in its maiden campaign would be a more realistic target.
10. Lucas di Grassi
Audi
Average: 7.2
Standout: 10 – Diriyah 1 (2nd)
Championship Position: 5th
It’s been a flat season so far for di Grassi but ironically one in which he has probably achieved the maximum points for the package beneath him and the circumstances of the races he has run.
A fine second in the second Diriyah race was classic di Grassi, a stealthy and sharp-elbowed run, while his damage limitation races in Santiago, Mexico City and Marrakesh just kept him in title contention.
To achieve a second Formula E title would be approaching somewhere near the outrageous considering that the Audi e-tron FE06 has been a midfield proposition at best in the first tranche of races.
Yet there are signs that di Grassi and the Audi team might just be able to snatch a chance in Berlin, where remarkably he has never finished a race off the podium since 2015.
Word is spreading quickly that Audi has found something to unlock the potential of its package and an air of confidence is, more than usual, swirling around the Brazilian.
Should that be true then there will not be a more dangerous proposition at Tempelhof.
9. Andre Lotterer
Porsche
Average: 7.4
Standout: 10 – Diriyah 1 (2nd)
Championship Position: 12th
Lotterer continues to defy sceptics in Formula E with performances that often go above and beyond what should be achievable.
Ahead of the season talk was that Porsche might be in trouble with its first electric model. Yet its new, old, new boy Lotterer turned up and delivered a second place straight off the bat.
If that was some kind of miracle, then his pole position lap in Mexico a few races later was perhaps the moment of the season to date. An exquisite lap in both his qualifying group and super pole rendered most observers speechless at its perfection.
His skill in ringing the maximum from a car which plainly has at best average race pace can be put into context by his team-mate Jani struggling to get anywhere near the same sphere on most occasions.
8. Jean-Eric Vergne
DS Techeetah
Average: 7.6
Standout: 9 – Marrakesh (3rd)
Championship Position: 8th
Vergne has stood on a Formula E podium just once in the last 12 months, and while this would be concerning for any title protagonist, it would only be a fool who will have discounted the DS Techeetah ace from forming a challenge to take a hat-trick of titles.
There has been the usual mix of risk-taking from Vergne this season and his on-edge performance in Diriyah seemed to set the tone for another subsequent erratic weekend in Santiago.
He was put in the shadows a little in Mexico City by new team-mate da Costa in that convoluted team switcheroo, while in Marrakesh he pulled out a true champion’s drive to banish illness and grab his first podium appearance since winning at Bern in June 2019.
Now 36 points adrift of da Costa, he has to strike immediately in the first two races in Berlin.
In the second qualifying group he’s got a chance but if he goes to the second double-header any worse off, in terms of the points gap, he may have to swallow significant pride and become the ultimate team player to ensure DS Techeetah can hang on and defend its crowns.
7. Sam Bird
Envision Virgin Racing
Average: 7.6
Standout: 10 – Diriyah R1 (1st)
Championship Position: 10th
The changes for Bird coming into the current season are now well-noted. The less muscle-orientated physique and the increase of mental intensity was plain to see in Riyadh.
Thankfully it hasn’t changed his personality, temperament or nose for a win, as was proved at the season opener in Riyadh with a textbook display.
Less positively, his sometimes incredibly poor luck has stayed to some extent and this has been evident in conjunction with the odd mistake that was seen in Mexico City, although he was far from the only one to fall into a ludicrous track-crumbling hell.
More positively, he had made one of the moves of the season with an audacious dive down the inside of Lotterer in the stadium section.
The fact that Bird is finally off to pastures new with Jaguar next season will not change anything for this tenacious racer. In fact, his competitors should be warned that at least one more victory for Envision Virgin will be an absolute minimum for him in Berlin.
6. Alexander Sims
BMW i Andretti Motorsport
Average: 7.6
Standout: 10 – Diriyah R2 (1st)
Championship Position: 3rd
A lack of consistency has hurt Sims in a generally impressive first half of the season.
In a mighty weekend in Diriyah he was unassailable in qualifying and in the final race he won at a relative canter. In Formula E that is almost unheard of and when it happens it demands to be respected.
The potency of his pace on such complex tracks as Diriyah marked him out as a likely title challenger but mistakes in Santiago and Marrakesh quelled that momentum somewhat.
A team player in every fibre of his being, Sims is in many ways the ideal Formula E driver – especially if you consider his technical savvy and strategic clarity of thought in battle.
So it’s a constant wonder and puzzlement why he doesn’t seem to have the unequivocal support of BMW, particularly when it comes to the issue of his future, which has flared up again recently.
Could this spur him on to even greater heights in Berlin races to prove any doubters wrong or might it cast an unwanted seed of doubt into his preparation?
5. Maximilian Guenther
BMW i Andretti Motorsport
Average: 7.6
Standout: 10 – Santiago (1st)
Championship Position: 4th
To describe Guenther as a revelation would be trite because if you looked closely last season, when he was with Dragon, there were signs he had what it took to be a top Formula E performer.
He gave another hint in pre-season testing at Valencia where he topped the times before a strong start in Diriyah paved the way for an excellent maiden win in Chile.
That race was impressive and the way he calmly and patiently waited for the lead to come back to him emphasised an all-round maturity which has got his new team purring.
A slightly worrying AWOL race in Mexico, mostly due to him not saving his tyres adequately, was quickly forgotten after another strong run to second behind da Costa last time out in Marrakesh.
If he gets on a roll at Tempelhof and has a sniff of the title, he will be a hard man to beat but the logical thinking is that this might just be one season too soon for a true title challenge.
4. Edoardo Mortara
Venturi
Average: 7.8
Standout: 8 – Diriyah R2 (6th), Santiago (Ret), Marrakesh (5th)
Championship Position: 7th
Mortara had a major reset in the last off-season and as a result came back leaner, keener but thankfully not meaner than he was in the 2018/19 campaign.
Often bellicose to the point of being reckless, a rather jaded Mortara cut a despondent figure after a disastrous end to the last full Formula E season.
Come Saudi Arabia last November though, the Swiss-Italian looked revitalised and it told immediately with a fine showing in race two at Diriyah and then much promise in Santiago before a crocked car stymied him.
Four points scores from five races is irrefutable evidence that Mortara has tamed an impetuous streak. He has also cultivated a true dark horse quality for a possible crack at a top three position in the final points table, which should it happen would be a major achievement in itself.
3. Nyck de Vries
Mercedes
Average: 8.0
Standout: 9 – Diriyah R1 (6th)
Championship Position: 13th
He may be a grossly disproportionate 13th in the current standings but by rights de Vries should be right in the title fight.
The clear stand-out rookie of the season so far, he has been a mighty proposition in most of the races and is very unfortunate not to have at least two podiums to his name.
He has borne the brunt of team errors and reliability in Santiago and Mexico City, and his performance in Marrakesh, where he fought back from dead last after a regen over-spike beyond his control to the cusp of the points, was impressive.
A crack at the title is probably out of reach but a maiden win is well within his sights.
2. Antonio Felix da Costa
DS Techeetah
Average: 8.0
Standout: 10 – Marrakesh (1st)
Championship Position: 1st
Da Costa has been the most consistent performer so far this season, and when put in the context of him joining a new team, which also houses the double champion in Vergne, that is a seriously impressive feat.
It didn’t come easily though, as a fraught and poorly judged strategy in Santiago denied him a surefire win. A few weeks later, the gelling process was solidified somewhat with a fine second to Evans in Mexico – albeit to the angst of Vergne, who was compromised with elaborate on-track team choreography.
Da Costa’s cakewalk in Marrakech was truly crushing for the opposition, many of whom remain flummoxed by the DS E-TENSE FE20’s outrageous race pace and energy consumption.
Can Da Costa, many people’s favourite for title glory, finally grab the crown that he has coveted for so long? If his serene form from part one of the campaign can be revisited, then he will prove hard to arrest in Berlin.
1. Mitch Evans
Jaguar Racing
Average: 8.4
Standout: 10 – Mexico City (1st)
Championship Position: 2nd
Evans’ immaculate outing in Mexico City apart, the Kiwi’s all-round performances have gone in to another gear entirely this season.
Even when things have gone wrong, such as an energy-related issue in Santiago which probably scuppered a win, and more disastrously at Marrakesh when his team unfathomably played Russian roulette with the available session time, he stayed focused and delivered strong points for a first bona fide crack at the title.
Few doubt he is a champion in waiting, nor his rage (often quite literally) to succeed, so with Jaguar at last having a consistently package for his exploitation, Evans has to be considered among the favourites to successfully execute a title campaign.
Those replaced before Berlin
Pascal Wehrlein, Ma Qing Hua and Brendon Hartley will not be present in Berlin after being replaced by Alex Lynn, Daniel Abt and Sergio Sette Camara respectively.
Wehrlein averaged a respectable 6.8 and as especially strong in Santiago but like team-mate d’Ambroisio was hindered by technical gremlins to some extent. He’d have sat between Turvery and Rowland in the upper midfield of this list.
Ma averaged a score of 3 – the worst of anyone. He is a fine touring car racer, but was clearly adrift amid the sheer quality of drivers in FE this season, while Hartley’s tenure at Dragon was on the whole a depressing episode that the Kiwi is likely to be thankful he is now free of.
For the record the double WEC champion, who outqualified team-mate Muller 4-1, averaged 4.8 in the recalcitrant Penske EV-4 so was only outperforming Ma.
