Lotterer Aiming to Maintain Unbroken Run of Qualifying Duels Appearances in Jakarta

André Lotterer is looking to extend his remarkable record of making it into the Qualifying duels in each of the opening eight races of the 2021-22 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship season this weekend in Indonesia.

The Tag Heuer Porsche FE Team driver says the statistic of being the only one of the twenty-two drivers on the grid to qualify inside the top eight in every race shows he has a strong car and team, and he is eager for another duel appearance in the Jakarta E-Prix this weekend.

“I’m pleased with this statistic,” said Lotterer. “It means that I have a fast car and that my engineers work well together.

“Without them and the team, I couldn’t have achieved something like this. We’re doing everything we can in our preparations to create the conditions for such performances in the simulator.

“So far we’ve managed to take what we’ve learned and implement it in all qualifying sessions. I’m very pleased about that.”

Lotterer says Porsche have shown at times during the season that they can fight at the front of the field, and he hopes the lessons they’ve learned this year can help them across the second half of the campaign, starting this weekend in Indonesia.

“So far, the season has shown me, first and foremost, that we have the potential to regularly score points,” he said.  “If everything comes together on a weekend, as it did in Mexico, we can also win races.

“For the second half of the season, I expect that we’ll learn our lessons well from races like the one in Berlin and grow stronger. We need to keep progressing if we want to be in contention for the title.”

“It’s always fantastic to experience a new racetrack” – Pascal Wehrlein

Team-mate Pascal Wehrlein says the first laps on any new track are always exciting, with the German looking forward to finding out the grip levels around the newest circuit on the calendar in Jakarta.

“It’s always fantastic to experience a new racetrack,” said Wehrlein.  “The first laps are particularly exciting. I find it fascinating to feel the grip on the track and the balance of the car.

“I’m very much looking forward to it.”

Looking back at the first half of the season, Wehrlein has mixed feelings about it.  He has fifty-one points from the first eight races, almost half of which came in winning the Mexico City E-Prix.

Even though he knows the team have made progress this season, Wehrlein believes Porsche have let too many points slip out of their fingers, and as a result, he finds himself down in eighth place in the Drivers’ Championship.

“I look back with mixed feelings,” he admitted.  “We won in Mexico, and we retired in Monaco. We need to be more consistent in tapping into the potential.

“I think we’ve forfeited too many points in the first half of the season. Compared to last year, we’ve made good progress but not yet on all tracks. We have to work on that.”

Pascal Wehrlein says Porsche have given away too many points this season – Credit: Sam Bloxham/FIA Formula E