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Andretti’s Jake Dennis had an incredible Season 9. Not only did he win the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, but he did so in style with a new record of 11 podiums over 16 races. Last week was a busy one for the Brit, who announced his contract extension with the Andretti squad in Formula E, before being officially crowned World Champion at the FIA Prize-Giving ceremony.
Speaking in an FIA press conference in Baku, Dennis looked back at his achievements over the last year and ahead to Season 10 where he’ll be fighting for back-to-back drivers’ titles.
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“It's been a long time since July, since I won it,” Dennis stated when discussing securing the title in a tense finale in London. “That's one of the nice things about Formula E. You still get the whole summer to celebrate and take it all in! I'm very eager to get Season 10 going already.”
Although Dennis didn’t win the most races in Season 9, with a tally of two compared to the four that both Mitch Evans and Nick Cassidy (Jaguar TCS Racing) picked up respectively, he did keep finding himself on the podium.
“The consistency was obviously what won us the championship in the end. To have 11 podiums in Formula E is not easy but we ended up breaking our own record at each race! So it was a pretty special year.
“I have a great team around me, we've got some really good people inside of Andretti and then the Porsche powertrain was extremely efficient, especially in the racing. The way the races were playing out with this whole slipstream room effect was quite complex. But nevertheless, we had a good understanding of how the races would work.
READ: CHAMPION DENNIS PREDICTS ANDRETTI'S TOUGHEST COMPETITION THIS SEASON
“If you're driving a natural combustion engine, then you just want to lead from the front the whole time. But with electric batteries, it is important to be efficient at the same time. So really calculating when to go to the front of the race was the hardest part. It's just a calculation process and a bit of a driver feel, everyone's trying to make the jump at the same time. I got it right quite a lot of the time, but there were a few times where I got it wrong and it punished us. I felt like Andretti and I had a pretty good understanding of that.”
As mentioned, earlier in the week Dennis confirmed he’d be staying with the Andretti team until the end of the GEN3 era of Formula E. The long-term commitment shows the World Champ is not only loyal to the series, but also the American team too.
“I’m very happy with Andretti,” the 28-year-old continued. “I've been with them since I first joined Formula E when it was BMW as well. Michael Andretti (Andretti’s Team Principal) and I have a really good relationship together and I think it just makes sense. Extremely happy to see what the future holds.
“We've got a lot of investment behind the team, a new workshop being built over in Indianapolis. The team being based in the UK is very easy for me, living in the UK. So it makes my life a little bit easier on the simulator side. There are a lot of positives and no real negatives. Excited to extend the contract until the end of GEN3.”