It's been three years since Pascal Wehrlein looked on incredulously once a likely race-winning position in Formula E's Monaco round slipped through his fingers due to a mechanical issue on his Porsche.
In the two Monaco races since then, he has taken 10th- and fifth-place finishes. Although a pole position was a spike in positivity last April, the reigning world champion's record on the streets of the Principality has been modest at best.
But it was the 2022 race that was the real bitter pill. Wehrlein's head was, momentarily, a bit like the failed inverter in his Porsche 99X Electric. In bits.
The issue occurred just as he had taken the lead of the race and looked to have a strategic advantage. As he rolled down the hill from the hairpin to Portier, he had plenty of time to mull over his ill luck. That incident previewed a descent into a points dearth that arguably took Porsche to its lowest point in Formula E. It never got near a podium again that season and finished seventh in the teams' standings.
That seems a long time ago now. Gen3 has really been Porsche's ruleset: 12 wins, a title for customer team Andretti in 2023 and then Wehrlein's drivers' crown last season finally unveiled the real power of the Stuttgart marque.
That is being solidified this season as Porsche has, across the board, proved to be the strongest team with the quickest overall package. Yet, until there's a Monaco win, will it really all be complete?
The Porsche 99X Electric, in the hands of the factory team, is yet to even make the podium in Monaco. Therefore, this weekend's races feel doubly important, which might be just fine for Porsche, seeing as there are two of them for the first time ever.
Team principal Florian Modlinger is typically direct in saying that "winning in Monaco would be something special", but that he also does "not value it differently to other races because we have 16 races and we are looking for the championship and that's always the target".
"It would be great to win there but the first target is to perform," adds Modlinger.
Alluding to the 2022 disappointment, he says: "We were close then. Pascal was on a very good way there, and this was a really disappointing moment for the whole team, particularly for Pascal."
Quite why Porsche has never got a result to speak of in Monaco is hard to pin down. The pace has been there, but the racecraft and execution has clearly not been at its sharpest. One year ago, Wehrlein started from pole but finished fifth, vanquished by the more strategically adept Jaguar and DS.
That is a pain that needs to be soothed sooner rather than later for Modlinger and co this time around. With a double header for the first time, the odds on either Wehrlein or team-mate Antonio Felix da Costa achieving that seem good. But Monaco has a very nasty habit of unleashing nasty surprises, like 2022.
"We have done only five races and there are 11 to go and that means a lot can happen," says Modlinger.
A lot has already happened this season for Porsche. The pace has been there, so have the points. But with Wehrlein ending the season opener on his head, da Costa getting assaulted by Mitch Evans and Maximilian Guenther in Jeddah, and then getting slapped in the face with unused attack mode via the red flag at Homestead, what should have been guaranteed points have been lost.
So, for Porsche to have two drivers in the top three, and to sit 25 points clear at the top of the teams' standings, it actually feels like its direct opposition has been done a favour by being allowed to at least be in reasonable touch.
The fact that Porsche has been so consistently at the sharp end and able to control the controllable has given Modlinger "goosebumps" because "it's impressive as we showed the performance on all three tracks before Miami".
He adds: "The whole motivation for the team to really value the hard work they do is also important and now it's an additional motivation to go in this tough month of May, where we have three double-headers, six races in one month, and where everybody needs to deliver.
"We will have full focus; we want no mistakes and we are asking for sure that the package works on the different characteristics and is being spot on.
"This will be key for these intense moments of the season."
With Monaco FE, the Spa World Endurance Championship round, Tokyo Formula E, Le Mans test day, Le Mans 24 Hours race week and Jakarta Formula E all ahead of Wehrlein in the coming seven weeks, it feels like his championship will be defined within that time.
Whether his team-mate da Costa's will be is less clear. He has a similar schedule bar Spa WEC, yet his Le Mans is in a less-intensive environment with an AF Corse LMP2 entry compared to Wehrlein's role in Porsche's factory hypercar squad. Da Costa knows what's to come at Le Mans and how to pace himself, Wehrlein doesn't yet.
This is an even more important facet of Monaco this week. Whoever comes out on top will have a pliable springboard for the maelstrom of races to come.
For Porsche, there's never been a more important weekend in its six-and-a-bit season Formula E history.
