The Andretti Autosport driver sits second in the standings – 24 points behind championship leader Pascal Wehrlein – but has not finished in the points since January when he took two second-place finishes in Diriyah.
The Brit failed to score in both Hyderabad and Sao Paulo following collisions, branding Dan Ticktum “a plonker” for the contact in the latter, while serving a penalty for a tyre pressure violation in Cape Town left him down the order.
Ahead of the Berlin E-Prix double-header this weekend at the Tempelhof Street Circuit, Dennis is under no illusions about the minimum goal that he needs to achieve to keep his title challenge alive.
“Score points. I think that’s probably the biggest aim for us right now: to try and get back on the scoring board,” said Dennis, who took victory in the opening round of the season in Mexico City.
“We had a really consistent running block from the end of Gen2 to then the start of Gen 3 of just consistently [being] in the points and that’s what we need to try and get back into now.”
Despite a clean sweep of the podium for Jaguar-powered cars in Sao Paulo, Dennis is confident that the Porsche powertrain remains the pacesetter in the championship.
However, he concedes the German manufacturer’s rivals have caught up in the new-for-2023 Gen3 era.
“I think the performance is still there,” he said. “Obviously everyone has closed up so the deficit is much, much less now.”
“We’re still lacking a bit of qualifying performance. There’s no two ways about that and we need to try and close the gap with that aspect, but I think the race car we have is still one of the best.”
Team principal Roger Griffiths believes there’s no reason Dennis and Andretti can’t challenge for the title, and agrees that better performance in qualifying is needed to aid their chances.
“He [Dennis] hasn’t scored a point since the end of January. We’re now in the middle of April so it’s been a long time since we scored some points,” he said.
“If we can get him back firing on all cylinders, avoid the 'carbon zones' - that's how we refer to qualifying in the middle of the pack - and start a bit further forward, then I think the opportunity to get back on track with this championship is there to be had.”
