Dennis heads into the new Formula E season and the Hankook Mexico City E-Prix Round 1 off the back of his first world title, and a series record 13 podiums in Season 9.
Is Jake Dennis the favourite for the Formula E title?
He's undoubtedly the man to beat, and after an off-season enjoying the spoils of his win back on home soil in London, Dennis is laser focussed on repeating the feat as he attempts to become only the second driver in Formula E history - after Jean-Eric Vergne - to win two titles, consecutively.
PREVIEW: The Hankook Mexico City E-Prix Round 1
"It’s been a long time since July now and I had a very busy summer, celebrating with friends and family and enjoying our success," said the 28-year-old. "I’m eager to get back to it now and I’m more focussed than ever to just try and replicate what we did."
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The team were nowhere to be seen in the early GEN3 running after the Valencia test, but this time around they're well aware of the car they've got to work with - ominous given the level of dominance Dennis displayed last time out here in the Season 9 opener, as he strode to one of the all-time winning margins.
"Last year, we were one of the slowest in testing, so we’re in a lot better position now heading into the season than we were last year. It all depends on what progress everyone around us has made.
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"We’re confident that we’ve made some decent steps, obviously everyone else has. Ultimately, it comes down to who’s made the most ground. I’m looking forward to seeing where we land and hopefully, we’re on the right side of it and we’re still competitive. I’m not saying we’ll be the fastest car or anything like that, but if we’re top two or three then we should have a solid start to the year."
Season 10 to be closer than GEN3's first outing last year
With the first season of GEN3 down, teams have been working all off-season to fine tune what they have and get the most of their package - with hardware changes homologated and not allowed until GEN3.5 arrives.
There's limits to what can be done in software and systems engineering as well as setup, but Dennis has no doubts the pace will be upped from the off in Season 10 and it will be ever closer on-track and that DS have shown they can fight with the Porsche-powered Andrettis and TAG Heuer Porsche squad, as well as the Jaguar-powered title winners Envision Racing and the factory Jaguar TCS Racing squad.
"The gaps will be smaller than what they were last year. It’s going to be tight and everyone’s going to have closed up. I think it’ll be the Jaguar and Porsche cars with maybe DS-powered cars here ant there fighting for race wins.
"DS always say it’s really bad but the amount of times the Stellantis-powered cars topped practice and won races – they dominated in Jakarta – I think they’re as fast as anything on the grid when they’re in the window. It obviously looks like it’s just a bit harder for them to hit the sweet spot. They’ve had the off-season to try and work on that and if they can do it more, they’ll be competitive."
Formula E's strength in depth
The relationship between factory and privateer is strong between the Porsche-powered outfits, but the achievement of outdoing their factory sibling, for both Andretti and Envision, can't be underestimated.
"It was a small victory as we had all eyes on the Drivers’ World Championship. Envision obviously did the same with Jaguar and it’s a great thing for the privateer teams.
"From our side, Porsche were fully in harmony with us and we’re very excited to work together and keep collaborating as much as we possibly can. Hopefully, we can have both teams at the front of the field as that would ultimately make my life easier!"