DIRIYAH: Pascal Wehrlein of TAG Heuer Porsche has described his successes in Riyadh last season as “special,” but insists there are no guarantees for this year’s events in the ABB FIA World Formula E World Championship.

The 29-year-old German driver made the perfect start to season 10 of the all-electric racing competition with a win at Mexico’s Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez two weeks ago.

Having led for 30 of the 37 laps, the fifth victory of his Formula E career propels Wehrlein — who finished fourth overall last campaign — into a good position for this year’s doubleheader in Riyadh on Friday and Saturday.

Aiming for a repeat of last season’s double triumph, Wehrlein said: “Last year was pretty special, especially the first day. I was starting the race from P9 (position nine) and you’re always hoping for a win and you always try your best, but I think it was pretty special to win the race from P9.

Wehrlein admitted that the wins were unexpected as the team had not looked strong during the winter training, and were not in the top 10 over three days of testing in Valencia.

“Winning the races in Riyadh was great,” he said. “I would say the second day win was a bit more expected because we started from P5, and I knew from the day before that if I could win from P9 then I could do the same in the second race from P5 if everything went well. And it did, so that was a nice feeling.

“But coming into this season and the next races in Riyadh, nothing is guaranteed. Just because we won Riyadh last year or we won the last race in Mexico doesn’t mean Riyadh will be easy for us. There’s still a lot we need to make sure we are on top of, and hopefully we have a strong weekend again. But for me, it’s so tight that small differences can make a big difference in the result. It will be pretty hard again, I’m sure.”