The Biggest Talking Points from the 2026 Shanghai E-Prix Weekend

With high risks of torrential rain on both Saturday and Sunday, Formula E made the decision to move both Shanghai E-Prix’s forward, creating a ton of in-Race chaos!

Credit: Formula E

Pascal Wehrlein Regains Control

Credit: TNT Sports

For the first half of Season 12, Pascal Wehrlein looked like the class of the field, consistently scoring good points as he led the Championship throughout! However, 3 pointless rounds in Monaco (x2) and Sanya meant Pascal dropped a good amount of points behind Mitch Evans in the fight for the Title, with Wehrlein’s positive momentum completely gone! However, when he needed to most, Pascal bounced back perfectly, taking Pole Position on Saturday before he converted it into victory! Then, on Sunday, when his rivals were nowhere, Wehrlein was able to bring the car home in P4, earning 12 crucial points to take the lead in the Championship! Just 4 Rounds and 2 Weekends stand in Pascal Wehrlein’s way of becoming a 2-time Formula E World Champion; a feat that no driver has managed to achieve (JEV won 2 before FE became a World Championship)!

Edoardo Mortara’s Momentum has Gone!

Edoardo Mortara had been one of the drivers of the season for a lot of this year, scoring points in 8 of the first 10 Races! However, a retirement in Sanya hurt Edo Mortara, whilst his two rounds in Shanghai weren’t a lot better! Mortara lacked pace on Saturday, finishing just 15th, whilst Qualifying on Sunday was at least better, with the Swiss driver making it into the Duels! However, in the Race itself, Edo Mortara completely dropped off, finishing all the way down in P16, signalling his worst weekend in quite a while! Whilst not out of it, a torrid triple-header in China has left Edoardo Mortara down in 6th in the Drivers’ Standings, 38 points off the Championship lead! It’s a tall order for Mortara and Mahindra to turn things around now!

It’s Happening Again?!

Credit: RacingNews365

Since I started watching Formula E at the start of 2021 (for Season 7), it feels like almost every season has had Mitch Evans fighting for the World Title! On top of that, however, it feels like almost every season has had Mitch Evans losing the Championship in some way or another, with the Kiwi almost feeling cursed! I didn’t really want to go into this after Sanya; one DNF isn’t a complete disaster, especially when the Top 4 in the Championship (at the time) all failed to score, too! However, Mitch could only manage P8 in the first Shanghai E-Prix, losing 24 points to Pascal Wehrlein! Then, as I woke up to watch the Race this morning (5am UK time), Evans was already out, with his Jaguar TCS Racing car suffering a technical failure! Now, due to Wehrlein’s P4, Mitch Evans finds himself second in the Drivers’ Standings, 9 points off the lead, and I think it’s fair to say that we’ve seen all of this before! Of course, there’s still 4 Rounds to go, and given that it’s Formula E, there’s still an awful lot of drama yet to unfold! However, alarm bells will definitely be ringing for fans of Mitch Evans!

The Tyre Gamble Paid Off!

In Sunday’s E-Prix, the Race started wet, with the weather radars indicating that there shouldn’t be any more rain! Of course, weather radars are anything but reliable, but in theory, this indicated that the track would continue to get both quicker and drier! So, for the guys at the back, it was less of a risk to run tyre pressures more suited for the dry, even though Jean-Eric Vergne, in particular, couldn’t even keep up with the pack that was running behind the Safety Car! Incredibly, the strategy paid off, with the two Envisions of Joel Eriksson and Sebastien Buemi, the Citroen of Vergne, and the Lola Yamaha ABT of Lucas di Grassi climbing through the field to fight for the win! We’ll get to the winner in a second, but a massive congrats to JEV on scoring his first Citroen Podium, whilst I do actually feel for Joel Eriksson as I believe he would’ve taken his maiden win here had it not been for the Full Course Yellow!

Lucas Di Grassi’s History-Making Win

Credit: Lola Yamaha ABT

I never expected to write about a Lucas di Grassi win in 2026, but it actually happened! We’ve already spoken about how it happened, but I really need to put over just how big of a deal this is! Lucas di Grassi has been in Formula E since day 1; he sort of feels like the perfect ambassador for the series, and in the early days, Lucas was the face of Formula E, becoming Champion in Season 3! However, besides the 2 Podium finishes, the Gen3 Era has been a complete disaster for di Grassi, with his Championship finish being just P15 in 2023! Di Grassi then moved over to ABT Cupra, where he only managed to score 4 points all season, as the team would then rebrand to Lola Yamaha ABT! In Season 11, Lola would finish last in the Teams’ Championship, with their highlight being a second-place finish in Miami! Guess what? Lola are once again last in the Teams’ Standings, and yet, they won a Race today! Absolutely insane; a historic moment for the entire team, whilst this actually serves as Lucas di Grassi’s first Formula E victory since London 2022! I haven’t even mentioned the fact that di Grassi is retiring at the end of the season, so this is a pretty special moment for the 41-year-old Brazilian!

Overall Race Results (Round 12)

1. Pascal Wehrlein (P)

2. Antonio Felix da Costa (FL)

3. Jake Dennis

4. Felipe Drugovich

5. Nyck de Vries

6. Jean-Eric Vergne

7. Joel Eriksson

8. Mitch Evans

9. Maximilian Gunther

10. Nico Muller

11. Zane Maloney

12. Dan Ticktum

13. Oliver Rowland

14. Pepe Marti

15. Edoardo Mortara

16. Taylor Barnard

17. Sebastien Buemi

18. Lucas di Grassi

19. Nick Cassidy

20. Norman Nato

Overall Race Results (Round 13)

1. Lucas di Grassi

2. Jean-Eric Vergne

3. Joel Eriksson

4. Pascal Wehrlein

5. Sebastien Buemi

6. Felipe Drugovich (P)

7. Nico Muller

8. Oliver Rowland (FL)

9. Taylor Barnard

10. Maximilian Gunther

11. Dan Ticktum

12. Pepe Marti

13. Jake Dennis

14. Antonio Felix da Costa

15. Nick Cassidy

16. Edoardo Mortara

17. Norman Nato

18. Nyck de Vries

19. Zane Maloney (DNF)

20. Mitch Evans (DNS)

Drivers’ Standings

1. Pascal Wehrlein: 141pts

2. Mitch Evans: 132pts

3. Oliver Rowland: 114pts

4. Antonio Felix da Costa: 111pts

5. Jake Dennis: 109pts

Teams’ Standings

1. Jaguar TCS Racing: 243pts

2. Porsche Formula E Team: 237pts

3. Andretti Formula E: 174pts

4. Mahindra Racing: 172pts

5. Envision Racing: 130pts