Porsche anniversary makes first E-Prix win even sweeter for Mueller

Nico Mueller acknowledged it was a relief to finally get his first Formula E win after 69 attempts following his triumph in the first race of the Berlin E-Prix. But special circumstances made it even better than that.

Mueller moved to the factory Porsche team at the start of the season following a relatively unsuccessful spell with customer outfit Andretti last year, which yielded just three top-five finishes. There were doubts about the move, with him replacing serial race winner and past champion Antonio Felix da Costa, but not only did he prove those doubts wrong, he rewarded Porsche’s faith in him by giving the marque a win on home turf where it was also celebrating the 75th anniversary of its involvement in motorsport.

"I still haven't really realized what we did,” Mueller said. “It's a special weekend. You come here, obviously knowing that it's a lot of important people coming, and you want to make them proud. You want to make your fans proud.

“I’m grateful for the opportunity. When you get to represent Porsche, it is already a big step in your career, and to finally make it happen in the 69th attempt and to win for them in Berlin on the 75th anniversary of Porsche motorsport, it's pretty sick. I love it.”

Promise fulfilled. Simon Galloway/Getty Images

As well as senior executives from Porsche, Mueller's win was also witnessed by his family, who haven't always been able to attend his races.

“They don't often come to the track; this is one of the few exceptions,” he said, adding that his son was inspired to appear on the podium after seeing Oliver Rowland take his daughter up in the past.

“He was like, ‘When do you take me?' And I'm like, ‘Look, a podium? No. I win? OK,’ and, I was very, very proud to keep my promise today when they were here for the first time this year.

“And our little daughter was here at her first race of her young life. She's eight months old. My wife was here again and she always makes sure that I can focus on my job and make sure at home, everything's running smoothly, and she's doing so great at that. I’m very thankful to her as well for giving me that support, for making sure our family is doing as well as they do.”

This weekend the two Porsche factory cars have been wrapped with the famous “Pink Pig” livery, first seen on the Porsche 917/20 at Le Mans in 1971, and later appeared on GTE class winner at the same race in 2018. Mueller said he wanted to “add to its history a little bit” and that he was very proud to win with the livery, but he’s not superstitious enough to demand it remains now he’s won with it.

“It’s super cool but I think they have some other cool stuff up their sleeve,” he said. “So I think this overall, I'm going to hang up somewhere in my gym at home, and it's going to be a good reminder to grind hard on days where you may be less motivated. But the car itself, I think, is gonna go back to the normal livery pretty soon.”

Mueller also paid tribute to the late Alex Zanardi, with whom he raced in DTM at Misano back in 2018.

“I've had the honor to race on the same track with him in the same cars in DTM when he did his starts in Misano,” Mueller recalled. “And I remember that, already being very emotional. You have these images in your head of the Lausitzring and how he fought back, not only into a race car, but into life.

“I think he's an inspiration for all of us. That passion that drove him to do what he did, and to do it at the level he managed is absolutely incredible. The [Paralympics] is obviously a huge achievement, and when I read the message this morning, there was a shiver going through my spine and a part of this win is definitely dedicated to him as well.”