London Formula E doubleheader to settle manufacturers' and teams' titles

Formula E’s drivers’ championship may be already wrapped up, but there’s still plenty to play for this weekend in London, with both the teams’ and manufacturers’ titles on the line.

As was the case with the drivers’ championship – which came down to a duel between Oliver Rowland and outgoing champion Pascal Wehrlein – Porsche and Nissan are at odds for the other two titles.

However, unlike the drivers’, it’s Nissan that’s on the back foot this time. The TAG Heuer Porsche team holds a 23-point advantage over Nissan’s own works team, while in the manufacturers’ race, the gap is just seven points, with Porsche – encompassing Andretti and Cupra Kiro as well as the factory team – heading Nissan, which also has NEOM McLaren in its corner.

Nissan has only had three double-points finishes this season, while TAG Heuer Porsche has only managed two more, those two were double podiums, so getting both drivers to score will be key to Nissan’s hopes.

“It's going to be crucial,” Nissan team principal Tommaso Volpe said ahead of this weekend’s doubleheader at the Excel Centre in London. “So hopefully we can reduce or even invert the gap and finish the weekend with at least another world championship.”

With one championship in the bag, adding the other two on the table will give Nissan an unprecedented hat-trick, something Porsche missed out on last year – the first season the manufacturers’ title was awarded – with Jaguar taking the other two honors as Wehrlein overhauled the British brand’s drivers Mitch Evans and Nick Cassidy at the final round.

“Definitely, if we were to win the three championships it would be a historical result, also, because it's the first time you have three championships,” said Volpe. “But it’s going to be tough especially in the team championship, the gap is very big.

“The last two races are all about these two championships, is all about Nissan and Porsche. So obviously we have to look at each other during the race, and adapting, possibly during the race, to what the other competitor is doing.”

While Volpe is seeing something of an uphill battle, his Porsche counterpart Florian Modlinger is wary of the threat Nissan can pose, despite his own team’s advantageous position. But despite the heightened pressure of another championship fight, Modlinger and Porsche aren’t approaching the weekend any differently.

“The gaps are quite small – in the manufacturers’ it's really small, and the team's a little bit more,” he said. “We have to focus on the first race day to have a clean race to maximize the points.

“We are focusing on ourselves, and then we see where we are after the first day and head into the second one. I think there's no different approach than the rest of the season.”

Nissan has the added benefit of having McLaren in its corner which, currently ranked fifth, is the highest customer team in the teams’ championship. But like the Porsche camp, there will be no different approach this weekend – and no cross-team planning despite the potential rewards on offer.

“Well, of course, we talk and we try to maximize the result for both,” Volpe said of the Nissan-McLaren dynamic. “But I think there is no special strategy here. They’ll still fight to improve their ranking in the teams’ championship. Of course, they want to maximize their points, and this would benefit us as well.

“I wouldn't say there is a different approach than other races before. We try not to get too much in trouble between us, and other than this, we could beat [them] because we also have the team championship. It's pretty much similar to the races.”

Saturday's first race of the Formula E championship finale airs live on the Roku Channel at 12pm ET, while Sunday's race airs live on CBS and Paramount+ at 12pm ET.