Nico Mueller is targeting a maiden Formula E victory as he finally gets his chance to move from giant-killing underdog to consistent frontrunner.
In his first interview since being confirmed as a Porsche factory driver and team-mate to Jake Dennis at Andretti for the 2024-25 season, Mueller spoke to The Race about the importance of his 2024 performances, how he will integrate at Andretti, and why he believes he is now in his peak.
Mueller became hot property earlier this season after some heroic performances in a challenging Mahindra Gen3 car run by the Abt Cupra squad that had finished last in the teams' standings one year earlier.
But an eventual 52-point haul in 2024 thrust him onto the radar of Porsche and several rivals as they scrambled to secure his services for part two of the Gen3 era - with the revised Gen3 Evo car - which begins this December.
The Race has discovered that Mueller first had informal talks with Porsche at the end of 2023 before he was asked to attend an in-season test in Spain last March. That preceded a firm offer from Porsche, which he had to evaluate in conjunction with multiple other deals, including ones to stay at Abt and also drive for the Maserati MSG squad.
“I'm at the point of my career where I feel like I'm very close to my peak, let's say,” Mueller told The Race.
“I feel like I can perform very well at the moment with the mix of experience, hunger and youth at 32 years old.”
One of the more laid-back drivers out of the cockpit, Mueller nevertheless has a burning desire to prove himself as a Formula E winner. He’s intent on realising that now, given he will have a competitive car in the series for the very first time after 46 E-Prix starts with Dragon and Abt. A second place in Formula E's bizarre 2021 Valencia E-Prix remains his sole podium.
“I've taken the decision that I have taken and it was an intense period because I want to prove that I can win in Formula E and I want to go out there and get my first victory in the championship, and then hopefully build on that,” added Mueller.
“The earlier it comes the better. But I think we'll also need to give ourselves a bit of time. It will hopefully only be a short amount of time, but still, there will be some time needed to get into grooves with everything.
“I'm confident that we have all the ingredients needed to go in there and do it. I feel like I have a big point to prove in this championship and being a possible race winner and championship contender, and I'm going to go all in for that.”
The basis for Mueller's surge into one of Formula E's top technical packages was his performance in one of its least competitive technical packages: the Mahindra. Despite initial frustrations, he used it as an accelerant to spark a move up the grid.
Mueller said that he “knew going into season 10 [2024], it was going to be an important year. I think we've really gone for it in a very focused way, without any unnecessary distractions”.
“It turned out to give me some good opportunities for the future,” he added.
“Being in a situation where you can actually decide yourself which path you're going to go down for the next few years of your career is a big privilege in this sport, because there's very limited seats.
“When you're in it sometimes it's difficult as well, because you're like, 'Oh s***, now it's up to me to make the right call' and you only find out in a couple of years’ time whether it was the right one or not. but I'm very confident it is, and I’m super, super happy.”
Porsche's plan for Mueller
Thinking a step ahead in this business generally comes naturally to Porsche, and perhaps the same can be said of Mueller too. Let’s call it Swiss career precision.
The way he formed his own future for the next three years was something of a masterpiece in 2024. Multiple offers from both the Formula E and World Endurance Championship paddocks had to be filtered through carefully.
He settled on a Porsche factory deal, which whether or not Mueller and Porsche admit it - and they won’t - will likely mean Mueller partners Pascal Wehrlein in the factory Porsche team in 2026 when Antonio Felix da Costa’s current deal is due to expire.
What could be a seamless transfer would be Mueller contributing to a strong Andretti season where it tails Porsche and vanquishes all-comers in the first Gen3 Evo season. Then da Costa seamlessly exits the stage and Mueller slots in to get stuck in.
Seldom do things work as precisely as first thought out in international motorsport though. What we know is that Mueller is on a long-term deal as a Porsche factory driver and has plentiful sportscar experience. So, if it didn’t quite go to plan in 2025, there will be a home for him elsewhere if needed.
Therefore, maybe the season at Andretti is more essential for his Formula E future than it first appears, rather than it just being a holding pattern for a full Porsche recruitment down the line.
“They [Andretti] have a very important relationship with Porsche since a few years ago clearly,” said Mueller.
“Also, the constellation with having a Porsche factory driver in the team is something known for them [Andre Lotterer drove for Andretti in 2023].
“So, I think it's, to some extent, a plug-in and play situation that hopefully we can all benefit from.”
Can Mueller beat Dennis?
The prior case studies of Jake Dennis’ team-mates in Formula E might make for sober reading for Mueller, should he not know the details.
The closest anyone came to Dennis on points was Maximilian Guenther in the 2020-21 campaign, and that was 91-66 in the then-rookie Dennis’ favour.
Since then, Dennis has had Oliver Askew, Andre Lotterer and Norman Nato well under control in three successive seasons where he has taken four wins to his collective team-mates' none.
That’s a colossal vindication of Andretti’s choice - at first viewed as left-field - to bring in Dennis to replace the departing Alexander Sims at the end of 2020. It’s also a hefty testimony as to how good Dennis has been in Formula E.
With that in mind, Mueller is pitching up on what is firmly Dennis’ turf. But at the same time, Andretti is yearning to have a driver who can push its golden boy and help it capture a teams’ title to add to Dennis’ 2023 drivers’ crown.
Mueller is used to walking into new environments both manufacturer (Peugeot in WEC) and independent (Dragon in Formula E). He’s a savvy operator, knowing when to push and when to absorb.
“I think the human side of things is often underestimated, and I put a lot of focus on that,” he acknowledged.
“Finding out how these people think and work now in the off-season is going to be key in order to be able to react sharply and hopefully correct when it comes to hot situations during the season.
“So, I'm investing some time into that, and then obviously getting to know the systems of the car, which the simulator is the best tool for, and then also building that relationship.”
It will take some time.
Although, in the probable knowledge that he will be in red and white for one season only before decamping to Porsche in 2026, Mueller also needs to do a ‘Nick Cassidy-Jaguar 2024 spec’ and hit the ground running with his new employers.
He and Andretti believe he is more than capable of that whether he’s reached his peak yet or not.
