Shanghai Formula E winners and losers

Formula E's second Shanghai visit brought a beautifully/bruisingly executed 1-2 for a surprise team in a dry and complicated race one, and a crushing victory for a driver who's just split with their team in a sodden race two.

Sam Smith picks through it all to select his winners and losers.

Winner: DS Penske

Sealing a first ever 1-2 finish and executing a tactical masterclass on Saturday ascends DS Penske firmly into the 'winners' category for the first time since Jeddah in February.

The team did a decisive job throughout the weekend with the only blot coming with another reliability issue for Maximilian Guenther on Sunday. While that is being investigated, like Jeddah, Guenther will have very mixed feelings about a weekend that could have put him on the podium twice, as he was in a strong position when he was forced to stop on track.

Talking to The Race about leaving Guenther's last race one attack mode later than others - the decision that sealed the win - DS Penske's Phil Charles admitted he "wished I could say it [the strategy] is that locked-in before the start of the race" because "life would be a bit easier if it was, but unfortunately it isn't and that definitely keeps us on our toes".

"The attack modes and energy usage best-approach constantly changes depending on what position you are in. If you are out of position you tend to have to try something different to keep you into the box seats. That often involves using energy or attacks earlier.

"It's a really knife-edge, decision-making scenario because if you don't get up there it becomes increasingly difficult as the races go on to progress and if you use that energy or attack, that can cause you pain later when others, that were already well-placed have those 'natural resources' still in their pockets," concluded Charles.

Jean-Eric Vergne's spectacular sixth to second surge on the last lap was a highlight of the entire weekend, and his solid fifth on Sunday netted him his biggest double-header points haul since Portland last June.

DS Penske is in delicate position right now both in terms of DS's Formula E future and its collaboration with Penske, which won't continue into Gen4. But you wouldn't have known that on Saturday as Jay Penske joyously celebrated his team's best result in 11 seasons of racing and elevation to third place in the teams' standings.

Loser: Nissan

It was a poor weekend all round for Nissan and the fact it came after such a stellar season so far stands out painfully in the sense it has lost its teams' standings lead to its only real rival for the silverware, Porsche.

True, a double-points score on Saturday was decent, but it was also confusing. Oliver Rowland overcooked his energy a little during the race and there was confusion in the intra-team strategy with Norman Nato, who felt he was compromised too, especially on the run to the finish line when he was shoved off the road by Rowland momentarily.

What was also notable was the lack of choreography with Taylor Barnard and McLaren, Nissan's customer team. They have a very different outlook on playing together than Porsche has with its customers, particularly with Kiro, and at Shanghai that showed again.

While the post-race debrief was - The Race understands - a little sparky, there appeared to be a resolution and understanding of lessons learned. With Porsche having its poor Saturday there was no real damage, in fact quite the opposite, so no big deal.

But Sunday brought more flashpoints, notably in the qualifying session when Nato and Rowland appeared to compromise each other on track positioning, leading to more internal friction.

As a consequence, the race was always going to be difficult and 13th for Rowland and an abject 21st for Nato was Nissan's worst overall result of the season to date.

Team principal Tommaso Volpe attempted to dilute the fractious nature of some of the happenings by telling The Race on Sunday that "we had the feeling that our package was not adapting that much to this track" and "on top of that, today was wet, which also doesn't help in our case".

But Volpe was, as ever, also honest in his assessment, stating: "Also, I must admit that we made some operational mistakes both yesterday and today in the race management, which, considering that May was a very intense month and the team was very tired, I think can happen."

May was always going to be a crucial month in the title stakes with three double-header race weekends in quick succession, and the end of it Volpe rationalised as "a turning point, in the same way we entered it, because we were leading the drivers' championship and the manufacturers' championship before May, after the race in Miami, and we still lead them".

"We were behind Porsche before going to Monaco, and we still are second, but only one point shy from Porsche.

"So, in a way, we consolidate our position in the three rankings and we are definitely determined to push and to keep on fighting for the three championships until the end."

Winners: Nick Cassidy/Jaguar

Nick Cassidy has been quietly performing brilliantly in recent races but has come unstuck on a number of occasions with a variety of issues that have meant those performances haven't been rewarded as much as they should have.

Actually, it's been longer than that. Because Cassidy should have won much more than three E-Prixs for Jaguar. There was obviously his Portland faux pas last year and then London where got inadvertently take out by Antonio Felix da Costa's Porsche. So, the frustration ran deep.

His Shanghai weekend started strongly with fourth in Saturday qualifying, his best grid spot of the season, but it appeared to be the same old story in the race from a luck perspective as he was the innocent victim of another's accident (see Decision 13 below).

What might have been possible for Cassidy on Saturday is now lost to time and injustice, but there was a feeling he would have at least been in that mad last lap mix for a podium.

A day later he was imperious in his lights-to-flag victory, mirroring his dominant London 2023 display in conditions that demanded maximum concentration.

Special mention should also be made of Cassidy drowning out the noise - admittedly created by The Race breaking the story ahead of Shanghai - regarding his future. He will be leaving the team in July but his praise and team ethic were as unequivocal as they were professional throughout the week.

"I’ve got such a good group of people around me," he said.

"Such a good group of people, and on the other car and management level as well, it's nice being in that environment and I'm sure we're going to enjoy the rest of the year. A huge team effort."

While Jaguar celebrated its second win of the season, Mitch Evans - hamstrung by a ludicrous amount of grid drop positions for his Tokyo misadventures - again came away with no points, a wretched streak that has now lasted for 10 races.

Winner: Porsche

Porsche had a messy Saturday (more on that in a moment) but after it came a seriously strong Sunday.

It struggled a bit in wet conditions overall but finally seemed to have nailed things a bit more on Sunday. Pascal Wehrlein had an excursion but felt that overall Sunday "was the first time this season where I felt comfortable in the car when it was wet. It feels quite different this season than last couple of years".

"Therefore, I'm happy that we reached the right conclusions after Tokyo and Monaco and that we found our way in wet conditions," he added.

Team-mate Da Costa didn't seem quite as comfortable but still maximised his track position to good effect and claimed his fourth podium of the season to stay in the hunt for what is now likely to be a runner-up position in the drivers' standings.

Full credit should be given to Porsche's immediate response to its Saturday low, as the Sunday 2-3 netted the team 34 points which was enough to overthrow Nissan by a point in the teams' title race.

That was a significant and positive twist because Porsche has viewed winning this and the manufacturers' title this season as major objectives.

Porsche Formula E chief Florian Modlinger described Sunday's performance as "really important points there, because yesterday the gap opened up quite a bit, so the main target was to close them today and we achieved this".

"We even went one point ahead in the teams'. But there is a long way to go, five races upcoming, and we have to work really hard to be in the title fight until the last race."

But also a Loser: Porsche

While the 'winner' element of Porsche's weekend is clear, in the sense that it has retaken the points lead in the teams' title stakes, Saturday was a huge, missed opportunity for it.

The opportunity was there to at least stabilise the gap to Rowland and also nibble into Nissan's teams' lead. But through the disorder of Saturday's race, those opportunities were squandered.

There is also the lingering and fascinating question of Wehrlein and Da Costa's relationship at the team too. It's much cooler than it was last season and the jibes ran free over the radios on Saturday afternoon.

The bigger picture of course is whether Porsche holds Da Costa to another season in 2025-26 or whether the 2019-20 champion accepts other offers in the paddock, including one believed to be from Jaguar. While that had no bearing on the weekend just gone it could complicate things heading into the final stretches of the season.

Winner: Taylor Barnard

Taylor Barnard is hot property in Formula E just now and like the lively, dying embers of the McLaren FE team in its present name, he is only getting hotter.

A pair of typically tenacious drives over the weekend yielded a third (and fastest lap) and a 10th, and each had merit in their own right. Together they ensured that he held a brief second place in the drivers’ standings on Saturday night and has garnered five podiums, two poles and 86 points so far this season.

As impressive as his racing was on Saturday, Barnard's single point on Sunday was also born from a strong strategy with his attack modes and using them intelligently to vanquish Nyck de Vries and Zane Maloney in the latter stages as he left his attacks late.

Ever self-effacing, on the weekend he turned 21, Barnard heaped praise on his team, saying that "the steps they've made from last year as a team have been incredible and my first season I couldn't ask for much more than what we're having right now".

"Saturday was a great test to the strengths of everyone in the team because we dropped back right to the back of the field at the beginning of the race.

"The strategy and everything that the team has done was incredible to get me back on to the podium so it's a big thanks to them."

Loser: Formula E's wet races

Why are fully wet races in Formula E usually very dull? For Shanghai 2025, see London 2023; yawn!

The answer is largely down to the fact that the tyres beneath the Gen3 Evo cars are just not fully suitable for racing in such wet conditions. That’s not pointing the finger directly at Hankook, as it makes rubber to specific specs, but the fact remains that with such limited grip the optics are short-term quite spectacular, but long-term not beneficial to great wheel-to-wheel racing.

"Today's race conditions expose the compromise of an all-weather solution," McLaren's Ian James told The Race on Sunday.

"While this isn't a surprise, it does impact the ability to race as effectively as we would like to. However, this isn't a criticism - the choice for an all-weather specification was made as part of the Gen3 package."

What definitely also needs to be mentioned is the exceptional skill shown by the field on Sunday. A few spins apart there was no contact and no big shunts. In the context of the grip levels and the amount of water on track, like Monaco and Tokyo, it showcased the supreme level of driving talent in Formula E right now.

Winner: Jake Hughes

Jake Hughes needed a major result after a disappointing few events, and he got it on Sunday with fourth after an excellent drive in the wet.

There is a case for him being a loser too because unbelievably for the second event in succession he was the victim of a Pit Boost operational error via his team on Saturday. That scuppered a probable points score and put Hughes into a trough but he quickly pulled himself out of it with his Sunday performance.

"Other than Nick and Pascal, I felt like I was probably the next quickest, especially on two-wheel drive," Hughes told The Race.

"On four-wheel drive, we were definitely lacking in both cars and we need to have a look at the data and then analyse as we didn't have the jump on attack mode that we expected we would have.

"When we get to qualifying well, like we did today [Sunday], we can fight at the front, wet or dry. And we could have easily had two top fives this weekend without an issue in the pitstop yesterday. So, it's been a good weekend in that sense."

Loser: Decision #13

"The stewards reviewed the video evidence and concluded that no driver was wholly or predominately to blame" - so stated Decision #13 from Saturday's race.

Just a regular sentence on a regular incident, one that featured three cars, the most damaged of which (Cassidy's Jaguar) was a completely innocent bystander. He was ahead of eventual second-place finisher Vergne at the time.

The DS Penske driver became engaged with Edoardo Mortara's Mahindra at the Turn 10-11-12 complex and the pair touched before Vergne attempted to claim the inside line into the final part of it. With Cassidy on the outside but ahead of the pair, Mortara attempted to squeeze into the middle. The resulting contact, initially between Vergne and Mortara, meant both tagged Cassidy who was spun around, resulting in a right rear puncture.

The whole incident also took place under a red and yellow striped flag status at the complex. This flag indicates that a driver needs to reduce speed and be aware that the tyre's grip could change. It also warns drivers to be careful in the section it is deployed in to avoid the risk of losing control.

The incident was investigated and decreed that no one was to blame. A racing incident. This is known to have angered Jaguar and Cassidy significantly, and it's not too difficult to see why.

"I feel sorry for Nick because I guess Edo and I were just fighting for that position in that corner and I mean when you have a car just on your neck you don't really see that there is a third car," was Vergne's view of it.

"It was an unfortunate event for Nick. But I mean it's what happens in those low-speed corners and it's difficult to go three wide and that's what happened. I need to look at the onboards, but quite often when I come close to Mortara, he thinks that I'm going to back off. I guess not today."

A penalty would have done nothing for Cassidy, but sometimes the principle of the matter is what counts, and many in the paddock were absolutely baffled by the stewards' decision.