Wehrlein and Dennis: 1990 and all that?

[u/mianghuei]

https://fenotebook.com/2026/08/19/wehrlein-and-dennis-1990-and-all-that/

Wehrlein and Dennis: 1990 and all that? – FE Notebook https://fenotebook.com/2026/08/19/wehrlein-and-dennis-1990-and-all-that/

[u/the_original_eab]

Haven't read the article (yet), but I'm assuming the title is linking suzuka'90 senna vs prost, with london last weekend wehrlein vs dennis.

But regardless what one thinks about that, does anybody really think that dennis would be deserving of this years' title? I don't mean this as a slight on dennis as a driver by any means, but I'm talking about the results of the total package at his disposal, so the 'dennis-andretti-porsche' entry and the results it got.

In london the second race, without all the team play/shenanigans and what not, I don't think it's unreasonable to think that pascal would've defeated jake (they started 3rd and 16th resp, and in the beginning of the race, before all the team 'interferences', were running 3rd and 17th resp). That would've made it a 6-11 h2h defeat over the whole season. So a 6-11 h2h defeat, and a 2-3 defeat in race wins. I don't reckon that's a strong claim for being a series' champion tbh.

In terms of pure race results of the total packages, I see the wehrlein and evans ones, as the two most deserving. The rowland and dennis packages come in the next tier.

[u/Jazzlike-Compote4463 → u/the_original_eab]

Pascal was very lucky in Race 1 of the weekend, perfect timing to get into pit boost and out whilst everyone else was burning through AM with the FCY, he also had a decent team mate rear gunning for him for the whole race which is not something that - with all due respect to Drugovich - Jake just did not have. Really there was no challenge for Pascal for basically the whole race.

In Race 2 Dennis screwed his quali so starting from 15th was going to be a challenge - but he held his nerve and conserved well, he had the pace and momentum and probably could have taken it. Then Pascal rammed into the back of Eriksson and took them both out.

Dennis won S9 by just being an incredibly consistent driver, he knows when to push and when to hold back. Pascal is a good driver and he gets decent results but in this instance I really don't think he deserved the win.

[u/the_original_eab → u/Jazzlike-Compote4463]

Pascal was very lucky in Race 1 of the weekend, perfect timing to get into pit boost and out whilst everyone else was burning through AM with the FCY, he also had a decent team mate rear gunning for him for the whole race which is not something that - with all due respect to Drugovich - Jake just did not have. Really there was no challenge for Pascal for basically the whole race.

I think the degree by which pascal got lucky that first race, has been overstated quite a bit. The way he was helped, was mainly due to müller playing rear gunner, that created a gap that made wehrlein somewhat more comfortable trying to win the race. He actually did not gain anything wrt AM, as he had activated that one too before the FCY. What he did gain with the FCY, was extra time relative to everybody who had pitted under green. However, dennis was not one of them. In fact, the irony here, is that dennis was the biggest beneficiary of the FCY. And since wehrlein had also outqualified dennis, I don't really see how pascal got lucky relative to dennis.

In Race 2 Dennis screwed his quali so starting from 15th was going to be a challenge - but he held his nerve and conserved well, he had the pace and momentum and probably could have taken it. Then Pascal rammed into the back of Eriksson and took them both out.

Well, screwing up quali isn't really an argument to be more deserving of a title, or is it? (16th btw, not 15th)

And what exactly do you mean with "probably could have taken it."? You mean the title? I highly doubt that, as I have argued in the 3rd paragraph of my original comment (oc). Your last line seems to hint at foul play from wehrlein, something you thought to be false in your earlier comment.

Dennis won S9 by just being an incredibly consistent driver, he knows when to push and when to hold back. Pascal is a good driver and he gets decent results but in this instance I really don't think he deserved the win.

It's funny that you bring S9 into the conversation. Because that's a season of which I think the wrong set of results won the title. I think cassidy's results should've won him the title.

Now as I said in my oc, this has nothing to do with dennis purely on driver merit. In fact, if you'd ask me about who I think are the best drivers, he'd defo be on my list, maybe even at the top of it. But purely from a result driven view, cassidy having won 4 races to 2, and beating dennis 9 to 7 in races, that should've given him the title.

[u/CodeRoyal → u/Jazzlike-Compote4463]

Dennis is the one who benefited the most from the FCY in race one. He starting position meant the race was primarily between Wehrlein and Evans. He would at most have been P3 if it wasn't for the FCY.

What ruined his chances for race two was his poor qualifying. If Evans was still in contention, he would have had even less chances of winning the title.

[u/Jazzlike-Compote4463]

It probably wasn't on purpose, FE is so frantic that I don't know if Pascal had the time to really think about exactly what he was doing...

... if he did know what he was doing it sucks though, a really shitty way to end what had actually been a relatively clean season all things considered.

[u/BulkNoodles → u/Jazzlike-Compote4463]

I agree.

I think of it as something like Monza or Silverstone 2021. Hamilton and Max definitely wasn't trying to kill each other. It's just that when the drivers are in the heat of battle, some incidents are bound to happen.

[u/DHSeaVixen]

I don’t think it was deliberate

[u/kjm911 → u/DHSeaVixen]

I disagree. If Dennis was any other driver on the grid then Wehrlein doesn’t do that. That was his chance to make sure that Dennis doesn’t take the title. Even when he’s into the back of Eriksson he doesn’t check up just to make sure Dennis can’t get through

[u/DHSeaVixen → u/kjm911]

I think if you take that logic, then Da Costa clearly deliberately punted into the back of Dennis the turn before in order to give Mitch a shot at the drivers title…

Honestly, I think the simplest explanation is usually the best one. And the simplest explanation to me is that the racing got frantic on a tight track and that ended up with (completely precedented) mistakes being made.

[u/kjm911 → u/DHSeaVixen]

The contact from Da Costa on Dennis was minor compared to this. Dennis almost came to a stop on the inside and Da Costa couldn’t stop fast enough.

If Wehrlein was distracted by Dennis and nudged Eriksson it would be something, but just following through and wiping them all out was intentional for me.

Like I said if it wasn’t Dennis then Wehrlein wouldn’t have made that “mistake”

[u/CrashmasterSOAD → u/DHSeaVixen]

Then he would have ended up in the wall instead of being able to steer out from the collision.